Photography Research

Professional Portraits

As we are in an era where digital images are used online, more than ever. You want to make a good first impression to the client or company you could possibly work for. Putting a face to the name also gives a more human connection between yourself and the others. The image you put as your profile picture should reflect the industry that you are interested in but also reflect yourself. The picture that you use should be an up to date professional photograph as these will stand out over the pictures taken years ago or on a smartphone. The picture that you use as your profile photo should present yourself well.

Process

To take the images we started by setting up the lighting and taking test shots. We used Box lights with a diffuser over the bulb to make the lighting softer and not as harsh. We pinned the black fabric to the green screen backdrop to give a solid black background to the images as black is a more professional background to the images. We then sat the model for the image on the stool in the image, the stool was too high so we changed to having the model sat on a chair instead as the backdrop is in the whole image then.

Body of Work

The phrase body of work refers to the production of a single artist, writer or composer, in this case photographer. A body of work is a collection of images that work with each other to show a story or theme. It demonstrates a deeper understanding and consistency of work. A body of work will vary from photographer to photographer, it will be unique to them. Different bodies of work will be defined by different things such as size, colour, media or subject matter. The most concerning part of the photographers body of work is the recognisable style and the public being able to distinguish what is their work. This means the emerging photographers are looking for quantity as well as quality. A few pieces of work are not considered a body of work, a body of work is multiple images with continuity. Body’s of work will often be showcased on a photographers website, there is also no way to define when the photographer has completed a body of work. These can take years, it all depends on how confident the photographer feels with the quality of their work.

Afghan Girl

Steve McCurry

Steve McCurry was born on 24th February 1950 in Pennsylvania, he attended Penn State University. Steve McCurry is an American photojournalist best known for his photograph “Afghan Girl” that originally appeared in National Geographic magazine. He originally planned to study cinematography and filmmaking, but ended up getting a degree in theatre arts and graduation in 1974. He became interested in photography when he started taking pictures for the Penn State newspaper The Daily Collegian. After working at Today’s Post in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania for two years he left for India to freelance. It was here that McCurry learned to watch and wait on life.

Timothy Hogan

Timothy Hogan is an award winning luxury goods and still life photographer and director working in New York, Los Angeles and London. Timothy Hogan’s driven self motivation keeps him on his own two feet. As a photographer, director, cinematographer and avid surfer, he can do anything from still life, to film, to fashion. He recently produced a collection of photos entitled, “The FIN Project” that merges his love for still life and an obsession with surfing with the goal of exposing “the shape of the wave… and the way a quarter of an inch can make a dog into a ‘magic’ board.” Few photographers have chronicled surfboard fins, and Hogan breached the topic with a mix of modern and old architecture - some wood, some colour, each one with its own distinct aura.

Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams was born 20th February 1902 and passed away 22nd April 1984, he was a photographer and environmentalist. Ansel Adams first published photographs and writings appeared in the Sierra Club's 1922 Bulletin and he had his first one man exhibition in 1928 at the club's San Francisco headquarters. 1927 was the pivotal year in Ansel's life, he made his first fully visualised photograph called Monolith, the Face of Half Dome. Ansel then shortly after became a commercial photographer and worked for clients such as Yosemite concessionaire, the National Park Service, Kodak, Zeiss, IBM, AT&T and many more. This contained anything from Portraits to catalogues to Coloramas. He published eight portfolios of original photographic prints from 1927 - 1076.

David Hockney

David Hockney was born 9th July 1937, he is a painter, graphic artist, stage designer and writer. David Hockney is a self taught artist, he is best known for his captivating photographs and individual art shows that display his work. In the early 1980s, Hockney began to produce photo collages he referred to these as "joiners". He first used Polaroid prints and subsequently 35mm, commercially pressed prints. Hockney arranged a patchwork of images of the same subject to create a composite image. Because most of the images are taken from different perspectives and at slightly different times, the result of the work reflects that of cubism. Some well known pieces of his work are landscapes such as 'Pearblossom Highway #2'.

Joiners

Joiners are a style of editing of one or more images into one image. This is done by collaging different perspectives of the same subject to create some abstract art. Some of the images used in the collage can also be taken at a different time to the rest of the images, they can also be taken from different angles. The work that this produces reflects that of cubism. The image of the lady has been created by using multiple individual images of the woman's face at all different angles covering every point of the woman's face, getting some from the side and some from the front.

Joiners

To create the Joiner effect, I took a single image of a dog. Then using the selection tool, I selected small areas of the image (mainly the areas where there is detail or main parts of the dogs face so that you can see that the image has been edited) and cut them out of the image making a new layer with each cut out. Then using the arrow keys, I moved the new layers around a little so they are still in the same general areas but they are not in the correct position, this creates a version of a joiner, similar to the work of David Hockney.

Multiplicity

Multiplicity is a photography technique in which the same person is photographed from different angles, directions and perspectives. The photographs are then digitally re-mastered in Photoshop showing clones of the same person doing different things in the same photograph.

Multiplicity

To create the multiplicity effect, I first set the camera up on a tripod at the top of the flight of stairs looking down over the ledge. I then placed myself into the shot and took the photo, moving around the shot while making sure that I am not overlapping myself at any point as overlapping images would make the editing process much harder. Then I added the three images into photoshops on different layers. I then created a mask on the first image, then I inverted the mask the make the mask black so that I could paint white over it and reveal the image from below. I then did the same but for the third image. This time however I didn’t invert the mask and I painted black over the white.

Green Screen Photography

Green screens or blue screens are used as backdrops in chroma key photography, which is a process that replaces a solid-coloured background from behind the subject of a photograph or video with a new background. Green screen are also used frequently when doing product photography as it is much more economical for the photographer to use as you only need one background no matter what colour the product is as it would be a lot more expensive to buy multiple different coloured backdrops.

Green Screen Photography

Photography Law

It is important to know what you can and cannot take photos of when out on a shoot. It is not illegal to take pictures in a public place in the UK, but if you are wanting to take photographs inside any building which is private property (such as a shopping centre) you would need to gain permission from the property owner.

Under the UK law, there are no restrictions taking photographs in a public place. This could be images of a model you have brought with you or even members of the public weather they are adults or minors, as long as the individual does not want to be in the image, you should delete them but there is no way of enforcing this upon people. Equipment or film may not be confiscated or images deleted by any person or officer unless a warrant for such action is issued. Any attempt to delete them without a warrant is considered assault under the UK law.

Members of the public and the media do not need a permit to film or photograph in public places and the police have no power over stopping them filming or photographing incidents or police personnel.

Copyright

A copyright allows the photographer (the person who took the photograph) control over how the photograph is copied, transmitted and reproduced. Generally speaking, in the UK copyright for images lasts for the life of the photographer plus 70 years from the end of the calendar year of their death, although the length of the copyright period will depend on when the image was created. Since you are the original author and you took the photograph then the work contains your copyright and you hold the rights to the image even if it is unlabelled. This means that the right to reproduce your images without your permission. The photographer of the image is automatically the full copyright owner and owns all rights of the image taken.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons is an internationally active non-profit organisation that provides free licences for creators to use when making their work available to the public. Creative Commons licences provide an easy way to manage the copyright terms that attach automatically to all creative material under copyright. The licences allow the material to be shared and reused under terms that are flexible and legally sound. Creative Commons has six licences, these are:

Attribution
- This licence lets others distribute, remix, adapt and build upon your work, even commercially as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating licence offered.
Attribution-ShareAlike
- This licence allows others to remix, adapt and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and licence their new creations under identical terms. This licence is often compared to free and opens source software licences. This is the licence used by Wikipedia!
Attribution-NoDerivs
- This licence lets others reuse the work for any purpose, including commercially; however, it cannot be shared with others in adapted form and credit must be provided to you.
Attribution-NonCommercial
- This licence allows others to remix, adapt and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new work must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial they don't have to license their new products on the same terms.
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
- This licence allows others to remix, adapt and build upon your work non-commercially as long as they credit you and licence their new creations under identical terms.
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
- This licence is the most restrictive of the six main licences and this only allows others to download your work and share them with others as long as they credit you but they can not changed them in any way or use them commercially.

https://creativecommons.org/

Public Domain

The public Domain consists of the creative work which nobody has copyright to as the copyright law has either expired or people are happy for their work to be uploaded directly into the public domain.

Research for my Body of Work

Water and Ink Photography

For my body of work I want do ink and water photography. I have been researching into different artists and photographers who create the images I would like to also create, here are some of the people I have found.

Alberto Seveso

Alberto Seveso is a graphic design artist who was born in Milan but is now working in Bristol UK as a freelance artist. Alberto Seveso has worked for many high profile brands such as Adobe, Nikon, Sony, Technicolor, MTV, Sony Music, National Geographic, GQ Magazine, Apple, Disney and many more. His work has also featured in various magazines, books and blogs.

His website is : http://www.burdu976.com/phs/

Plume

The art collective Plume consists of graphic designer Ernest Otoo and photographer Andy Pilsbury. Ty describe their work as "escapism through exploring" and aim to revolutionise the use of ink and its effect on the viewer.

possible links to help with this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U-UScwyCr8

Work Experience

I was asked to photograph the Burnley Social 'Welcome to Burnley' University Freshers event at Illuminati Burnley. The event was held on Friday 1st October 2021. There was an opportunity for students to socialise and meet new people.

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