Found Object

For this brief, we had to take images of still-life. This was narrowed down to objects that we had found in a specific area that our tutor gave us and we had to then bring these objects back with you and take photographs of them. We were given an area near a junk yard, where there was a lot of objects lying around, mainly rocks and bits of wrapping, plastic or cardboard. I found it quite tricky to take interesting images of objects that we don’t usually find visually pleasing. Due to this, I researched photographers who have taken a piece of what we call ‘rubbish’ and then turned it around to make it interesting. I looked into photographer Keith Arnatt as he completed a series called ‘Pictures from a rubbish tip’ which I thought would be useful to look at. Looking at these images gave me the idea to take a piece of rubbish and then contrast it with something else, something cleaner to give the image more depth. Although the majority of these pictures have been taken outside of a studio in natural light, I was still interested in the composition of the images.

 

Miss Grace's Lane, by Keith Arnatt
Miss Grace’s Lane, by Keith Arnatt

As we were to be taking our images with artificial lighting, and inside a ‘studio’, I researched Stephen Collins series ‘Out in the dark’. I really like these images, and I felt inspired by the way that he uses the light to bring the objects out of the black background and make them look interesting. I want to use a black background for my images, and I hope to be able to use my light to make my objects look appealing and colourful. I think that using a plain black background aids with bringing your attention solely to the object, and this is something that I want to achieve.

Stephen Collins ' Out of the dark'
Stephen Collins ‘ Out of the dark’

Practice images

Before I had collected objects from the desired location, I used objects that I had with me at the time to practice using lighting with. I did not have a lamp at the time, and I think that this would have aided my greatly as I do not really like the lighting in the images. Also I think I would have benefited from using black card behind the objects like I had seen in my research. However, I have learnt from taking these photographs, and I now know ways in which I can improve my final images.glasses w borderMockingjay Necklace w border

Final Triptych

triptych

For my final images I wanted there to be an obvious link between all three of them. At first I thought about the link of colour, as I had previously taken pictures of blue glasses and I had a blue feather. When taking these images though, I did not think that they looked like a triptych. I found a plastic container and then had the idea of finding smaller objects and placing them into the container. This way they would link immediately and the images would flow much better than my previous idea. From my research I knew that I wanted the images to be taken on a black background and for the lighting to be quite moody as opposed to being bright. I think that the lack of light makes the objects appear more intriguing and there is just enough light to separate the objects from the background. These images took me a while to get correct, as I struggled with the placement of the light – I didn’t want direct light, and the light was a bit bright even when faced away – and I had to be careful when using the ISO as I didn’t want the photos to be too grainy. I am pleased with how they have turned out and although I would have liked more colour on the first one, they are how I wanted them to look.

References

Tate (2015) Keith Arnatt: Pictures from a Rubbish Tip. Available from http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/arnatt-pictures-from-a-rubbish-tip-t13171. [accessed 27 March 2016]

Unfinished Business at Wallington (2011) Stephen Collins. Available from http://unfinishedbusinessatwallington.weebly.com/stephen-collins.html. [accessed 27 March 2016]

Portraiture

For this brief, I needed to research the work and practices of several portrait photographers and then use this as a basis for my final photographs. During the lectures and seminars we were showed some work by Rineke Dijkstra, who is a Dutch photographer. She photographed a series entitled Beaches in which she photographed young adults in their swimming costumes on beaches.

I don’t really like the photographs, as the subjects look very awkward which makes me feel uncomfortable when looking at them. I prefer the subjects of photographs to look more at ease and comfortable. Other than this, I do like the framing of the images as they adhere to the rule of thirds. I also like the use of backgrounds in the images, as they bring other elements such as colour to the photographs. The people in the images appear to be very harshly lit and this contrasts them with the background. This does make a few of the images to appear unnatural which I do not particularly like as it adds to the feeling of unease when looking at the images.

Looking at this photographer inspired me to shoot some of my photos in portrait instead of landscape, so that I could fit more into the image such as the body language of the subject.

IMG_5889

Although this image is landscape, I tried to incorporate Dijkstra’s style of shooting a subject in front of an interesting background. I regret not having the background in this image in focus as I feel that this would have better represented her work but I like the colour in the image and the background is still visible. I feel that the subject could have perhaps adorned a more serious facial expression, but I like the emotion that this picture has. Also, as this is my friend, she was more comfortable in this situation as opposed to a stranger would be, so the body language would never have been similar to that of the Beach series by Rineke Dijkstra.

'Beaches' series by Rineke Dijkstra
‘Beaches’ series by Rineke Dijkstra

charlotte standing upWhilst the top image is more of the style of Rineke Dijkstra, with the subject of the image looking slightly uncomfortable, I attempted to change the subject of the second image so that the photograph was easier to look at. As the subject in the second photo was smiling, and a friend of mine, she appears a lot more comfortable with me taking the photo, but I still shot the image in portrait as I was interested in the framing of the image. Both of the images deviate from the style of Dijkstra’s, as neither of the backgrounds are in focus, but this is what I had intended to do. I think that the background for both of these images was not vital to be shown, and I wanted the people in the images to be the center point of focus.

Other than learning of photographers in the lectures and seminars, I conducted my own personal research and came across the photographer Jane Bown. I found her images to be very interesting and they appealed greatly to me as her portraiture shots are almost always in black and white and naturally posed. I like this approach to portrait photography as I feel a lot more comfortable when looking at her images – as the subjects of the photograph look so at ease in them. She also only used natural available light for her images, which I think brings about a different vibe when looking at the images, as you feel like you understand the persons’ emotions. She concentrates on the subjects eyes, and this makes the images more personal.

Mick Jagger, taken by Jane Bown
Mick Jagger, taken by Jane Bown

charlotte janebown styleAlthough Jane Bown likes to get closer to her subjects, I liked the framing of this image. I took this photograph of a friend during a conversation that we were having. I was trying to put her more at ease, and shot this image in the middle of her laughing at something that we were talking about. I like the spontaneity of the photograph and as this is an unscripted I feel like this image is more personal and you can really see the emotion that she is feeling. I prefer working with available light, as I like the natural beauty of an image – this is also why I prefer this image over the previous images, as I feel as though there is nothing more beautiful than raw emotion.

The images below are my experiments before I took my final photographs. I could not decide whether I wanted my photographs to be in colour, or black and white and whether I wanted the subjects to look at the camera or not. I knew that I wanted my final images to be shot in landscape, as I wanted to concentrate the focus on the facial expressions of the people in the images.

IMG_2458
IMG_2484

From taking these images I learned to focus on the eyes of the subject more than anything, and then from that point focus on the composition of the image. I kept my aperture as low as I could for my portrait images so that the only a select part of the image would be in focus – this being the eyes for all of my images.

 

Final images

 

Portrait of a friend
Portrait of a friend

 

 

Portrait of a stranger
Portrait of a stranger

 

Both of these photos were shot in the same area, as the subject in the bottom image is friends with my friend and I took both of these images at the same time. I used a similar technique to capture both of these images, which involved conversing with the people in the images and getting them to think of something that made them happy and emotional. Whilst the first image is more spontaneous, I got the person in the second to think of an object or person that they loved and directed them to look upwards towards the natural light. I wanted both of them to look towards the light as I knew that I wanted the eyes to be the primary focus of the photographs. The way that the light reflects off of their eyes almost brings out more emotion into the photograph which I like a lot. In editing, I tried to make as few changes as possible so that the images looked natural and untouched. I simply reduced the saturation and then altered the brightness and contrast of the images using curves on Photoshop.

For my self portrait I wanted it in the same style as the other photographs, so I took it with me facing the window to get the natural light. I again wanted a light reflection in my eyes, and I did not look at the camera as I wanted the image to appear more natural.

Self portrait
Self portrait

 


References

 

Tate (2016) Rineke Dijkstra born 1959. Available from: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/rineke-dijkstra-2666. [accessed 26 March 2016]

National Portrait Gallery (2016) Jane Bown (1925-2014) Photographer. Available from: http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp07814/jane-bown. [accessed 26 March 2016]