2 independent shoots (portraiture)

Selected and Edited Images

My intention with this shoot was to achieve the portraiture style achieved with Alec Soth’s work. I wanted the low depth of field which blurred the background and allowed for full focus on the subject. I also wanted to make sure that I got the dead pan look that was in most of Soth’s work.

I used my cannon 5D and manual mode. I made sure that I got a high aperture to achieve the low depth of field, this meant I had the blurred background and in focus subject. The shutter speed was kept high to make sure that the all movement was paused.

My research into Alec Soth was vital in my process of recording portraiture. Seeing Alec Soth’s inspired my own shoots to shoot on a location with a low depth of field to achieve the style he had created. The dead pan look which set the tone of the photo was also important to me and inspired by Soth’s work.

Over all i think that my photos resembled the style of Alec Soth and was a good portrayal of

portraiture. I managed to get the low depth of field that made Alec Soth’s work so good and I also

managed in some of my photos to achieve the dead pan look that set the tone of the photo.

Shoot 2

For my second shoot I wanted to focus on my own style and focusing on more of a commentary of teens but still relating to the style of Alec Soth with the blurred background. 

Overall from these photos I chose these five.

A lot of these photos are over slightly too over exposed and required some editing to create a style I was happy with. 

Overall with these edits they create a much more visual interesting photo, they have a higher contrast and better range of colour. The photos use Alec Soths style by using his blurred background style and the use of props, body expressions and location to create character. With my shoot I was focusing on teen life and the series has links to that. 

final evaluation

Many of the artists I researched helped influence my work especially when researching Pete Eckert as he influenced my independent shoots for formal elements and Alec Soth for my independent shoots for photo-genres. Pete Eckert's style of using elements of the real world in combination with the light streaks highly influenced my first and second shoot and then allowed me to create my own style with my third shoot. Alec Soth gave me a style to replicate and apply to my portraiture photography. The whole use of long exposure was a new technical skill for me and over the course of the component I have devolved it and researched into it more and more. The use of studio lightening was key in some of my work linking to portraiture and long exposure. Using low and high apertures to create different depths of fields was also new work to me. Developing composite edits was a skill I already had some experience in but I developed it more and more. All of my long exposure photography involved high amounts of experimentation to create final images I was happy with. This can be seen with the progression and eventual final images. I would say that my work is abstract as it is not exactly an actual subject but the light streaks are more a creation. I was most successful with my Long exposure work and least successful with my work with colour.

Portfolio Documentary

Portfolio photo-genres

Documentary

Documentary 

"refers to a popular form of photography used to chronicle events or environments both significant and relevant to history and historical events as well as everyday life"

Image Bank

Henri Cartier-Besson 

French photojournalist Henri Cartier-Besson came up with the idea of the Decisive Moment. "The decisive moment refers to capturing an event that is ephemeral and spontaneous, where the image represents the essence of the event itself." Basically the decisive moment is a moment in an event that represents the entire event. So instead of the Photographer taking a burst shot of a moving bicycle the photographer would take one well timed shot of the bike in the perfect spot. This requires a lot of timing and framing with some planning to get the correct photo. Henri Cartier-Besson has many photos that document the lifestyle in France at the time of each photo. His use of the Decisive Moment is evident throughout many of his photos and his most known work is photos featuring his use of Decisive Moment. 

This photo is a key demonstration of Henri Cartier-Besson's use of the Decisive Moment as the single image shows the event in its entirety as we can see that the woman is attempting to jump the puddle without seeing her start and land. It is also well framed so that we can that we can see the reflection of her jumping in the puddle beneath. We also get a good view of the landscape that she is in which comments on the lifestyle and area she is in. 

This photo is another Decisive Moment shot as the entire event is a man cycling past a staircase but Besson has timed the shot to get the exact moment that displays the entire event in a way that he likes. It is timed so that the bike is in the gap of the stairs perfectly so that we can see the bike in full without the bars getting in the way. We get a sense of movement as their is motion blur on the cyclist. 

This photo also follows the idea of the Decisive Moment as it is a highly planned and thought out shot. The photo has been framed specifically so that we get the birds and the woman taking up the centre and the top left of the frame but we also get the downwards staircase. The light coming down shoes that it is an exit or roof as there is an additional, brighter source of light coming down. The Decisive Moment used is the moment of when the birds move out of the woman's way which displays the entire event in one single photo. The preparation for this shot would have involved waiting for someone to come and set the birds off.


Dorothea Lange
Dorothea Lange was an American photographer and photojournalist, she is best known for her work on the Depression-era. Her work humanised the effects of the Great Depression. Her work caused for governments to help out certain camps of people who had been harshly effected by the Great Depression. She is most known for her photo "Migrant Mother" which depicted the harsh effects of the great depression. 

Shoots

Chosen 20 Photos

AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.

My idea with the street shoot in Paris which took up the entirety of my finale 20 images. I wanted to take photos that portrayed the entire event. The entire trip was visiting the Musée d'Orsay but I didn't want to include any pictures of the actual art but rather focus on the actual event of going there. The first part of the event was walking to the Musée d'Orsay and seeing street life in paris and I managed to take good amount of photos that resemble the people and street landscape. Then I only chose a few pictures from the actual Musée d'Orsay itself as alot of it didn't really fit the style of the decisive moment but two or three really did give the impression of summing up the art and the people there. The next part of the event was leaving in the rain, this allowed for showing the idea of people reacting to the rain.

AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.

My photos were all shot an a Cannon 5D, most photos were shot with a low aperture around f4 but certain shots required a change in settings but most photos used similar settings. All photos were put into photoshop and edited. I wanted to keep photos undersaturated in most places as most photos were in the rain, the exception to the undersaturation was the photos actually shot in the Musée d'Orsay as they were indoors and had a high key lightening compared to the over cast outside. 

A01: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.


My research into Henri Cartier Besson was key in my deveolpment of my photos as I wanted to make my photos show the entire event rather than one moment. my research into documentary also helped as some of my photos do not follow the decisive moment but instead follow other documentary codes.