Portrait

Portrait photography uses a person or a group of people as the main subject and focus. It often displays the mood, emotions and expressions of that person to create a strong and powerful image. Most portrait photography focuses on the persons face however the rest of the body, backgrounds and props are alsop often used in the images.

Portrait Photography Moodboard

 

 

Alexander Khokhlov

Alexander khokhlov is a Russian photographer. He mainly does portraits as well as a few landscape images. In the ‘weird beauty’series Alexander decided to disregard a traditional perception on make-up. Instead with the help of make-up artist Valeryia Kutsan, Alexander used women’s faces as a canvas creating sharp black and white patterns. They both wanted to choose shapes that would make the women’s faces dissolve into the background. There is a big contrast between the soft faces and the sharp lines of body paint. All of Alexanders pictures are sharp and clear. He has used black and white to give a higher contrast in his work. Your face is first drawn to the make-up on the face and then the actual face behing it. He has used harsh lighting.

 

 

 

 

Wes Naman

 Wes Naman is a photographer who is interested in distorting peoples faces through various ways such as putting elastic bands on their face. He shoots his photos in a studio, with a high contrast between the face and the background. He uses harsh lighting to make the contrast more pronounced. When looking at these photos your eye is immediately drawn to the face as you can see all the different lumps and bumps because of the elastic bands.  

 

 

 

 

Portrait Experimentation

                

For this set of images I was experimenting with harsh and soft light. For the soft light pictures I used a white background with just natural light from the window. For the soft light pictures my ISO was set to 800 and my aperture was set to f5 and f5.3. For my harsh light pictures, I was in the studio with a black backdrop. I used the flash to create the contrast in the face. My ISO was still set to 800 for these images and my aperture was  f14 and f20 ( the picture where she is smiling). The shutter speed was set to 1/125 for both of the pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shutter Speed Experimentation 

 (1)                                                                                          (2)

                                          

For these images I was experimenting with shutter speed and movement. For the first image my ISO was set to 800, my aperture was f25 and my shutter speed was 1 second. I then got the model to put their hands in front of their face and quicky move them away whilst i was taking the picture. I used a tripod to stop camera shake. For the second image my ISO was set to 800, my aperture to f11 and my shutter speed was 1 second. This image was taken in the studio against the black backdrop and with the flash. In this one I got the model to shake her head slowly from side to side so that I could capture her hair going from one side to the other. For the 3rd image my ISO was set to 800, my aperture to f36 and my shutter speed was 8 seconds. I used the tripod and then I got the model to move her head from side to side every 2 seconds. The black stripes on her face create an interesting effect with them criss crossing due to her moving her head. For the 4th image the ISO was 800, the aperture f/16 and the shutter speed 1/6. For this image I asked the model to stay completely still and then someone else waved a peice of blue ribbon in front of her face. I wanted the effect of blue smoke or mist in front of her face.

Responding to a Photographers work

 

 

WES NAMAN-

For these photos I was responding to Wes Naman's work. I put elastic bands onto my subjects face so that it became distorted and very unlike the subjects actual face. I used a black backdrop when shooting these photo's however I didn't use the studio, instead I just used the natural light coming from the window to create the contrast on my subjects face. I shot these photo's in a close range to my model as I wanted to create more emotion within the image which I think is something that comes across clearly as a result. For all of these photos my ISO was 800, my aperture f/5 and my shutter speed 1/40. As my shutter speed was quite low when taking these images I didn't use a tripod as it would have been harder to get upclose and personal with the model.

ALEXANDER KHOKLOV-

For these photo's I was responding to Alexander Khoklovs work. I was interested in the contrast between the black and white his work and so I modified my first image on photoshop to make it black and white and create more of a contrast between the skin and the make-up. To do this photo I used black lipstick to draw the lines on Hollies face. I then took the photo against a white backdrop in the studio, accompanied by the lights and the flash.


I am going to re-shoot these images as I feel they aren't as good as they should be. The make-up on the models face needs to be a lot neater and possibly simpler as it doesn't really look like a pattern as much as some lines drawn onto the face.

ALEXANDER KHOKLOV RE-SHOOT-

I reshot the images of Hollie in the style of Alexander Khoklov as I don't think the previous images were satisfactory nor as good as they could be. I made the pattern simpler on Hollie's face so that the pattern can really come through in the picture and so that it would have more of an effect. I also used brighter lights and the flash to make Hollie's face look paler so that there would be more of a contrast between her face and the black make-up. I used a black background this time as Alexander Khoklov works with a black background more often than a white one as it creates the contrast between the background and the models pale skin. I then went onto photoshop and made the photograph black and white as Alexander Khoklovs work is black and white however I made sure the black and white wasn't harsh but soft as in Alexander Khoklovs work the black and white doesn't pop out of the image- it isn't harsh. As the jumper in Hollie's work is a bit distracting I used a tool on photoshop that faded the jumper out but not completely as this would look harsh and unatural.


After experimenting with Portraiture I have decided that I would like to explore this further as it is a genre that I am very interested in. So far I think my work has been the strongest on portraiture and so it is something that I think I should use in my project further.