Emotions // Andy Gotts Response

3 favourite images (before any photoshop)

Mise En Scene

The setting of this photo is next to a window, therefor I used natural lighting for this photo, my objective being to try and capture Aaron in a more natural sense. The costume in this photo would be his school uniform, reflecting his surroundings; his school. Aaron's expression in this photograph is calm and relaxed, implying his natural characteristics are likewise. There are no props in this photo as I did not feel they were necessary and would distract anyone from the individual in the portrait. in addition to this point, if I had props as well as the background there would be too much going on, making it hard to focus on something. I like this photo because of the light source being natural, due to the fact that personally, as a photographer, I prefer working with natural lighting and that it lights his face, highlighting his features.

Something that I would improve about this photo (without the use of Photoshop) is the fact he is in his school uniform; if I had to re-take this, I may have his dressed in his own clothes that express his personality more. Also I think if it were more apparent of his surroundings in the photo, I could use him wearing his own clothes as a juxtaposition.



Mise En Scene

The settings are not apparent in this portrait; this was intentional, the purpose being that the soul focus of this portrait of Katie is her. I think that any background would be distracting and would take away the effect of her image. I chose a black background as it represents how dark and crazy her character is in the photo. This also contrasts perfectly with her white school shirt, which is the costume for this photo. Half of her face is insane and crazy, and half is regular and 'normal' looking. this can represent how personalities can be easily hidden if needs be. Her face has little expression to it, because it doesn't surprise the character how she looks or acts; she's content with the way she is. My light source was a studio light source, highlighting all of her face. There are no props in this photo.  

Mise En Scene

Whilst I like this photo, I think there are improvements and enhancements that would make this photo better. The setting of this photo is a local quarry / path that is often visited by my family, which is why I wanted to capture this as it looked more natural and at home. however, there is a cyclist in the background that can draw attention away from the two main focus' of the photo. The lighting used in this photo is natural lighting, and the expressions in the this photo are smiles, which are natural portraying genuine happiness. The costumes in this photo are nothing unique or intentional, it just happens to be what my parents wore that day, not that I believe this takes anything away from the photo but, in the future, I could return to this location to take photo's, and have the models wear something you would expect to wear in an environment such as this. There are no props involved.



What is a Contact Strip?

A contact strip is when a positive print of all the negative images from one film, and is a result of a contact printing process, making all images the same size as the negative. it is the best way of seeing the which images are the best out of all the film, so you can then choose which ones you want to finally enlarge.

These are my photo's before using Photoshop to change any elements. The first one was taken using manual focus and second one was taken using auto focus.

I chose these two photo's out of the six I took because i thought they had the best focus, lighting and they looked the most natural. Our objective in this lesson, inspired by famous photographer, Andy Gotts,  was to capture our models personality, and thier natural reaction.

I learnt a lot from this lesson:

• How to correctly light a photo, using a studio light, and a blank peice of white paper to reflect light. We played around with the placement of our light sources, which often improved the quality of the photo and seemed to airbrush features on a person's face (e.g dark circles under eyes) if you held it underneath the person's face.  
• That the model is not in charge of the photo, the photographer is. Ultimately, as a photographer, you are in charge of what you produce, therefore you instruct the model. 
• In order to get natural reactions, I told jokes (in order to get my model to laugh naturally) and we experimented with throwing things at / around the model. My peers and I found both methods effective, and captured a lot more than our models simply smiling on command. I'm trying to step away from the typical "selfie" image in our photo's during this photography course and experiment. 
• I found that in order to both look proffessional and focus on my model, if the background is one singular colour. I chose black as it was accessable and I thought, as the model was wearing white already, it would contrast the colours nicely. 

Model: Annaleigh Gailbraith

Andy Gotts inspired portraits

These are my photo's before using Photoshop to change any elements. The first one was taken using manual focus and second one was taken using auto focus.

I chose these two photo's out of the six I took because i thought they had the best focus, lighting and they looked the most natural. Our objective in this lesson, inspired by famous photographer, Andy Gotts,  was to capture our models personality, and thier natural reaction.

I learnt a lot from this lesson:

• How to correctly light a photo, using a studio light, and a blank peice of white paper to reflect light. We played around with the placement of our light sources, which often improved the quality of the photo and seemed to airbrush features on a person's face (e.g dark circles under eyes) if you held it underneath the person's face.  
• That the model is not in charge of the photo, the photographer is. Ultimately, as a photographer, you are in charge of what you produce, therefore you instruct the model. 
• In order to get natural reactions, I told jokes (in order to get my model to laugh naturally) and we experimented with throwing things at / around the model. My peers and I found both methods effective, and captured a lot more than our models simply smiling on command. I'm trying to step away from the typical "selfie" image in our photo's during this photography course and experiment. 
• I found that in order to both look proffessional and focus on my model, if the background is one singular colour. I chose black as it was accessable and I thought, as the model was wearing white already, it would contrast the colours nicely. 

Model: Annaleigh Gailbraith

Before and After Photoshop

Before:

After:

How I used Photoshop:

• First I added one new adjustment layer in gradient map.
• Then I set the colour swatches to default black and white.
• After resetting my gradient bar, I put both arrows 15% in either side.
• I experimented with the contrast and brightness, as Andy Gotts uses a lot of high contrasts within his photo's and my goal was to imitate that.

Taking Black and White Portraits...

These are my photo's before using Photoshop to change any elements. The first one was taken using manual focus and second one was taken using auto focus.

I chose these two photo's out of the six I took because i thought they had the best focus, lighting and they looked the most natural. Our objective in this lesson, inspired by famous photographer, Andy Gotts,  was to capture our models personality, and thier natural reaction.

I learnt a lot from this lesson:

• How to correctly light a photo, using a studio light, and a blank peice of white paper to reflect light. We played around with the placement of our light sources, which often improved the quality of the photo and seemed to airbrush features on a person's face (e.g dark circles under eyes) if you held it underneath the person's face.  
• That the model is not in charge of the photo, the photographer is. Ultimately, as a photographer, you are in charge of what you produce, therefore you instruct the model. 
• In order to get natural reactions, I told jokes (in order to get my model to laugh naturally) and we experimented with throwing things at / around the model. My peers and I found both methods effective, and captured a lot more than our models simply smiling on command. I'm trying to step away from the typical "selfie" image in our photo's during this photography course and experiment. 
• I found that in order to both look proffessional and focus on my model, if the background is one singular colour. I chose black as it was accessable and I thought, as the model was wearing white already, it would contrast the colours nicely. 

Model: Annaleigh Gailbraith