Week 2: Monday, 16/10/2023
I did the Photography workshop on Monday , and was given an introduction to Studio lighting and set up, and did a few portrait shots as a exercise using different lighting and "filters" to gain different affects and experiment with different out comes.
We started off using the automatic features on our phones and took some normal portraits before experimenting and disrupting these portraits with different poses and coloured lights. We used a red light and pointed it from different angles gaining different interesting results, we also tried putting a piece of red plastic over the camera lense created a red filter.
Using different phone cameras resulted in different quality photos, some of my photos were taken with my own phone and the photos me with red light were taken on A.J's phone. These photos of A.J were taken with their phone (which is brand new with a high quality camera) , and the quality was way better than my phone as you can see. With A.J, we also started with a basic portrait and then experimented with some slightly different poses, and then by reflecting light onto a golden reflective material from their side and then from behind them.
These were also taken with A.J's phone, and we tried using a large translucent sheet of plastic and shined a bright light behind it while one of us posed. We used different coloured pieces of clear plastic in front of the camera, and interestingly enough the orange plastic would turn into a light warm grey (top left picture), we had to reposition and refocus the camera many times before it settled on orange, we had similar problems with the red plastics at times.
After being shown how to use the DSLR camera we continued the to take a variety of different portraits using different methods once more but with the DSLR. I had a bit of difficulty adjusting to using it but managed to somewhat grasp it in the end. Here we experimented with the light projector and placed coloured plastic over it, and projected it onto the wall. I'm realising now that we used mainly red in this exercise and I think it suits the theme of disruption. I feel like red is a very disruptive colour, maybe its because red is often used as a warning colour, both in everyday life and in the wild.
For our Project : Disrupt, an idea I had for my security camera concept was that while the p.o.v was switching cameras, in between switches a "normal" portrait in the background would change and become disrupted, distorted even, and switch back. But shown long enough to have the viewer second guessing themselves. As a reference for this I posed with this baby I found lying around and shot a impromptu Madonna and child. ( left image normal, right image disrupted)
"Baby in a frame, I know, I know it's serious~" - The smiths (probably)
It's a framed baby, in a frame, with a lizard. If I had another frame I would've tripple framed it. This was completely self indulgent.
Overall, I now know that I just about know how to navigate the studio and light work from other workshops. I feel that I may need to revisit this workshop in the future or do my own research to gain a clearer understanding, but I just about have a grasp on it.
