Research – Annie Leibovitz
Annie Leibovitz Is an american portrait photographer. My biggest inspiration from her body of work is her use of lighting on her subjects. It is usually quite subtle but create a great contrast bringing out the features of the face. The lighting is also very natural and doesn’t look too harsh as some studio lighting. I think using window lighting would help me replicate this effect on the photographs I take.
Friend – Experimenting with Window Light
The light from the window created a a great impression of natural lighting falling upon my friends face. Perhaps In these images could bit lit slightly more but feel I achieved a good contrast of light upon my friends face. I think my photograph from this exercise was the close up. the background image has merged in abstract colours with appear as stripes.
I practised taking some more photographs of billy in the window light in different locations. I experimented with different backgrounds to see how they altered the look of the image.
Research – David Benoliel
David Benoliel is a fashion and beauty photographer who uses neon lighting on his models to create quite interesting compositions. The models face photographed below is lit in stark contrast to its background.
Here I attempted to recreate a similar lightning approach using multi coloured lighting found in the universities fashion department. I think if I had attempted this lighting within in a studio the image would have been more successful. The exercise in reality helped more with understanding light. The lighting here looks quite strange as its quite a strong coloured light but not contrasted like the image above.
I then experimented with taking photographs indoors using the rooms lighting. Although the corridor provides and interested background it was a struggle to take a well lit photograph in this light. You can also see that the strong light from the ceiling has been burnt out. I think I ill need more experience with the cameras settings to successfully take good photographs in these environments.
Stranger
I took these photographs of strangers on a trip home to Sheffield. I had fantastic lighting on the day and managed to capture relaxed expressions from these strangers enjoying the sunshine. The sunlight created a great contrast between the subject and the shadow behind them. A great example of this is the woman’s red hair glowing in the sun. Potentially on these images the figures in the background distract from the composition (maybe more so on the photograph of the red headed woman) but also feel that they add to the atmosphere.
Self Portrait
For my self portrait I experimenting by taking my photograph in the mirror. Obviously my face is being covered by my camera but also think the images are quite interesting, like the view from the subject I’m taking a photograph of . I think my favourite thing about these images of the depth of field I manged to achieve with the notice board on the left.
