#photoimaging

[ianmcarthurphotography]

Photo Imaging - Ten Portraits

I have shot my new portraits for this project, the images all consist of the people and players of Plains A.F.C,

Im quite happy with how the images turned out, while they're not all perfectly uniform they have enough stylistic choices such as crop, camera settings and editing to tie them together quite cohesively as a set and I think they'll work well in a zine format. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get all of the players and staff in today as its quite a big squad and some where absent but they have another fixture before the deadline that I should hopefully be able to make it to to catch the rest of them and complete the set.

[ianmcarthurphotography]

Photo Imaging - Moving Portrait

I have edited together my video for moving portrait "TRICKING". I didn't manage to get a voice over portion to play overtop of the video however I believe that the video works well with only the use of music. The video is much faster paced than originally intended due to the music I chose to use and I think that amplifies the feeling of energy that the sport and person in focus portrays.

[ianmcarthurphotography]

Photo Imaging - Ten Portraits

After discussions with my lecturer and issues with getting models for the original idea for this project I have decided to switch to a different subject matter and shoot my portraits with a football team I have shot for previously, this will guarantee that I have enough models to fulfil the requirements for the brief. I have access to shoot all of their home games and some of their away ones as my older brother is the social media manager for the team and I have a standing relationship with them as a photographer.

the style I want to take these images in would be more similar to a documentary portrait, with the subject standing centre frame in their normal environment. I will use a wide aperture to create some separation between the subject and the background and I will stand far back from the subject to get their whole body in frame similar to these images by Sophie Gerrard

and this image by Alec Soth

[ianmcarthurphotography]

Photo Imaging - Ten Portraits

Shoot 2

I shot my second attempt at this project this week and I think it was much more successful, I bought a new strobe for the project and I'm glad I did as it made all the difference when trying to freeze my subjects. I think they need a little more refinement but the idea is there and the style was going for is much more obvious. I tried to use a black backdrop to cut out the distracting elements from the background but the athletes move so far across the space that it wasn't big enough to fill the frame. I think with the editing I done to selectively mask and darken certain areas of the images it helped alleviate the distractions enough.

[ianmcarthurphotography]

Photo Imaging - Ten Portraits

Shoot 1

I shot my first images for my ten portraits project this past weekend with my brother and a few of his friends at their gym in Maryhill, I shot the images using two off camera speed lights which were a little underpowered and a couple RGB LED panels. The images are okay and they are pretty close to what I was expecting from this first shoot however I know they could be much more refined. I also had a mix up with my settings that went unnoticed until editing them afterwards, I had set up my flash settings to rear curtain sync before going to the shoot and hadn't noticed that they reverted back when I got there so the motion blur is on the tail end of the motion rather than the start. I am shooting again this weekend with some studio strobes which will help with freezing the motion and with the auto focus (which I was struggling with) as well as using a large black backdrop to remove s a lot of the distracting elements of the gym. here are the images from this first shoot.

bellow I've attached some images that I found online that better represent how I want my images to look.

the marked up one was made by the original photographer so my equipment will differ slightly but It shows the basic set up of lighting elements.

[ianmcarthurphotography]

Photo imaging - Moving Portrait Research/Planning

Moving portrait

My moving portrait project will focus on my brother Andrew and his passion for the sport of tricking, how he went from having fun to the best in the country.

The style I want to shoot is a documentary style glimpse into his feelings on the sport and why he chooses to do it, it will be a mix of newly shot footage and archive that I have of him from when he was younger with some interspersed narration from him over top of the visuals. This will link my ten portraits project to the moving portrait one and hopefully they should work together as a set.

Inspo:

storyboard:

[ianmcarthurphotography]

Photo Imaging Project 3 - Moving Portrait

[ianmcarthurphotography]

Photo Imaging - 10 Portraits Research

Ten portraits research

For my ten portraits I will be shooting a sport called Tricking, it’s a very athletic sport of flips and tricks that looks like a mix of gymnastics tumbling and martial arts. I will be shooting this at Hadouken Tricking academy in the north of Glasgow, the only dedicated gym in Scotland for this niche sport. 

Due to the indoor nature of this sport and the limited lighting at the location I will be using a location kit of studio strobes to function as my light source. 

Idea:

I want the images to reflect the dynamic movement of the sport and so I have found some images and styles of shooting that I think would add a visual representation of the movement I want.

Images by: Zach Ancell 

Zach created his images with a mix of light painting, long exposure and flash. This leaves a high detail still of his athlete but a trail of motion behind to show the movement, this would be a good option for me as it has all the core elements I want my images to have.

Method tutorial: https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/tutorials/sports-portraits-with-a-twist-use-slow-sync-flash-for-streaky-special-effects

Images by: Ted Kinsman

Kinsman created these images using a stroboscopic flash which matches the burst from his camera to get a series of freeze frames within his subject’s path of movement. These are then stitched together to create the final image. This methods is used a lot to study biomechanics and it would be good at demonstrating the different steps taken by my subject for their tricks.

Method tutorial: https://www.smugmug.com/development-lab/posts/strobe-light-photography-a-how-to-guide-and-tips#:~:text=This%20unique%20photography%20style%20uses%20strobe%20lighting%20combined,a%20single%20long%20exposure%20while%20your%20subject%20moves.

Images by: Kevin Winzeler

Kevin Winzeler takes a more traditional approach to his images, capturing the feeling of movement with dynamic poses and using dramatic strobe lighting to help give the image more punch, he also uses Photoshop to add in effects to these images which adds another element of interest to what would otherwise be a rather standard studio shot. This would be the easiest kind of image to pull off within the timeframe I have to shoot it but is not as interesting as the first two options.