Portraiture

Portraiture

Definition

Portrait photography or portraiture in photography is a photograph of a person or group of people that captures the personality of the subject by using effective lighting, backdrops, and poses. A portrait picture might be artistic, or it might be clinical, as part of a medical study.










Research

Alec Soth's work is awkward like himself when he was young. Each shows the story of the people in the image. His uses dark colours which set a sad tone. Unlike most photographers he doesnt have a plain background.







I was inspired by how random the images are and that he doesn't have a plain background. I will use this in my work. I like the top one the most as it has props I will also have the use of props in my work.

Image Bank








I will take images similar to the once above, just I will have both plain and non-plain backgrounds.

(AO:1.  You must ensure that several of the visual ideas/inspirations within the image bank are pursued. )

Contact sheet






Best Images

Images that require improvement

In this image as well as overs the image wasn't framed properly so you can see a black line. To prevent this from happening again I will frame the pictures first.

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

My idea for portraiture was to take random photos using Halloween props. I also wanted to take photos that weren't against a plain background. 

With reference to the best selected images 

The first image was inspired by Alec Soth use of props ,the skull mask and lion ears, as it's different, although it does have a plain background. I did this because it was funny and creepy.

This image has a colourful background which makes a happy and relax atmosphere and Eleanor is smiling like you normally would in an photo as well as trying not to laugh. It's not like Soth's work but a more tradition portrait.

This image was inspired by Alec Soth as its got a non-plain background of a forest. I won't edit this image as I don't think it needs to be changed.

We used the background for this image as its not too busy and its not where you would normally take a photo. The way Eleanor is acting is as if she doesn't care about the photo, which is odd as people normally care about how they look in photos. Its almost as if she docent know she's been photographed.

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

These images were taken using my cannon camera, F:6.3, IOS 200 and shutter speed 1/125 for the outside images and F:22, IOS 200 and shutter speed 1/125 for the photos taken in the studio.

To improve my images I decided to import some of them into photoshop and use this to change the hue, saturation and lightness. How this was done is shown below in a sample image.

The screen grabs selected show how Photoshop was used to create a high high saturation and make it look darker.  To do use this, I used the hue/saturation/lightness tool adjusting the colour sliders to get the desired hard contrast effect.

     AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

     My research of Alec Soth helped me to focus on the both normal and out of the box ideas. Knowing that you don't have to take images like everyone else does, like Alec Soth, I decided to experiment.

I believe that I have produced a decent series of images inspired by my research of portraiture and the images of Alec Soth. The final images produced were inspire by use both classic and Alec Soth fashioned design. And all so mixed the to together to see what would happen and it went well.

AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements. 

I believe I have created a strong series of images inspired by Alec Soth. The final images were adjusted by converting them into a darker colour.