Assignment 5b: Self-portraiture ✩°｡⋆⸜ 🎧✮

My Assignment 5 contains 2 portraiture shots: a headshot and a candid photo. It's good to stop and reflect oneself for awhile to notice the little things we love and appreciate about ourselves. Both of my portraiture shots tackle my passion in music.

BEHIND-THE-SCENES/PRE PRODUCTION

PORTRAITURE 1: Headshot

I had to DIY shoot my headshot portraiture inside our small living room because I don't have any equipment that is even remotely close to professional photography. Not even a tripod or a simple phone stand! All I have was a black cartolina taped to our wall as my background, a tape holder on a rice cooker serving as a 'phone stand', and my tatay's old 200w solar light. I adjusted the light settings depending on which kind of shot I'll be taking and moved the light back and forth exploring different moods. Although 200w is brighter than the usual lighting equipment, I had to manually adjust how far and near so my face won't look burned in the shot.

Like previous assignments, the camera I used was my Iphone 11's built-in camera. I didn't adjust the camera settings as much as I adjusted in Assignment 4 since the front camera of my phone has limited settings than the back camera, so instead, I applied it on post-production.

PORTRAITURE 2: Candid

Originally, I had planned to take my candid portraiture in the same setting as my headshot. However, being able to explore freely rather than just staying inside a black rectangle gave me much more creative freedom. Although the heat index here in Taguig city is almost 40 degrees, I got to enjoy taking shots of myself in a different setting.

Here, my background are the plants and the sky. My camera is leaned onto some stuff in what appears to be an old carpentry table, securing a good angle. Again, I used my Iphone 11's built-in camera and didn't adjust the camera settings as much except for the exposure since natural light (the sun) began to fade.

RAW PHOTOS AND TEST SHOTS (using a 3-second timer)

SETTING 1: Indoors

The photo I picked for my creative headshot was me holding the guitar's headstock and looking softly innocent. I really like this photo because of how the innocence of my face contrasted with my look or outfit. Since I just dyed my hair color blue last week, I decided to dress up like a goth or dark (but soft) aesthetic to match my hair look and the setting (it's 3 am in the morning). The only make-up I wore was a lip-gloss I borrowed from my big sister who was already asleep at the time.

As seen in the other two test shots above, the light reflects from the right side of the photo. In this photo, the light is coming from the left side leaving a light shadow behind achieving a soft lighting for the shot. Regarding technique composition, I have two balanced spaces on both my sides and my head on the middle giving it the element of symmetry.

SETTING 2: Outdoors

In this photo, the lighting I used was natural lighting which came with its pros and cons. Pros being natural and fresh look while cons being dependent on weather and time. I shot this at around 6 in the evening, and given the heat index in my home city, I was sweating still when the sun is already setting. Since I am using a 3 second timer and photo bursts to capture my shots instead of having a clicker, I had to lock the lighting adjustment in my camera's settings such as lowering the exposure and turning on the brightness. With this, the spread of the sun's light gave a beautiful gradient background.

Unlike my headshot photo where my face is the emphasis, this candid shot emphasizes me playing the guitar. I used burst shots while playing my new song and feeling it while still moving around like I was playing for an audience. In this photo, we can see that my eyes were closed just like how my usual 'tugtugans' or gigs go. We can see in this photo an aspiring artist yet to become a rising star.

POST-PRODUCTION

I edited both my shots using Adobe Photoshop and my Iphone editor in my camera settings.

PORTRAITURE 1: Headshot

Since I aimed to have a dark and goth theme, I added extra shadows using an airbrush and adjusted the basic settings like contrast, brightness, and the levels of the photo. I also adjusted the curves to sharpen the look and highlight the whites more and darken the shadows. For the final touch, black and orange radial blurs around the face and set its blending mode to overlay, lowered it around 7% opacity. I wanted to highlight my face more so I adjusted and re-adjusted back and forth the curves and highlights where the light is reflecting. Having the size set to 9:16 emphasized the features of my face more especially the eyes. Letting the shadow of the guitar popped as well gave the feeling of sharp and threatening as it is shaped like a sword.

PORTRAITURE 2: Candid

I added a yellow radial blur where the sun is located radiating a warm tone like how a sun sets. Before this, I also adjusted the brightness, contrast, levels, and curves of the photo emphasizing on the sky and the sun but still giving attention to the subject. Using the Raw Photo filter in Photoshop, I also adjusted the white and black balance to enhance shadows and highlights.

Since the original photo looks so dead and faded, I enhanced the saturation and added a warm photo filter to give it a cinematic vibe. I really like the warm tone in this capture as it gives off a strong aesthetic.

FINAL PHOTOS (How an artist copes)

Song of Solomon

This photo is inspired from a goth dark look but contrasted with a soft aesthetic face or pose. I titled this capture "Song of Solomon" as I remembered one of the Bible's books, "Song of Songs" or also known as "Song of Solomon" about the passion and intimate type of love between a man and a woman. I would like to think that I'm one of the girls who was inspired by Solomon's poems and started to sing with my heart and soul in place like his. With an innocent face and angelic, even though the girl was dressed up as a heartbreaker, she poured her passion into love and intimacy.

The guitar symbolises that she expresses herself through songs while the soft smile and glaring eyes symbolises her innocence in love contained in her lyricism. The warm tone felt like it was from the (Old) testament in the Bible. I also interpret the guitar leaving a soft shadow from the chest toward the neck as a scar of heartbreak and pain.

Rising star or Hidden art?

As my camera started to photo burst, I played the strings of my acoustic guitar while singing my latest release "seryoso?". This shot is inspired of how I perform in front of an audience. Feeling the song and feeling my emotions when I was writing it, my expression and strange plucking of the guitar strings shows how I kept my songs close to me. Realizing I'm becoming as one of those "flopping artists" of the era, I always wonder if I'll make it in the spotlight. However, here in the photo, no matter how far or close I get in stepping to a stage, I would always remember that the sun was my first spotlight to begin with.

REFLECTION

This is by far the most enjoyable activity I encountered in this course. I got to use my creative freedom as an artist and my skills in photography all in one activity without limiting myself from one topic or concept. Although the only limitations I had to adjust to was the camera settings like automatic ISO and shutter speed. Since I can't exert my effort on those like what I did from the last assignment, I got to explore post-production more and had fun with it. I'm already familiar with Photoshop and how the basic settings like brightness, contrast, and exposure but what gave me to further explore my concept was adjusting the curves, levels, and tones of each portrait. From concept brainstorming to writing this blog, I had fun and loved each part of the process!

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