Above & Below: Class Practice

Today we will create our new photo-project during our classwork witch called "Above & Below" here we will practice to create different angels shoots and setting up the camera. Also we will work with different light and practice portrait photography. 

Sounds interesting, so let's have a start! 

Class research

During the class, we looked at different variations of the photographs showing Kate Moss and the work of Terry O'Neill. After looking at more of this photographer's work, I identified my favourite:

Faye Dunaway At the Pool

This photo shows the American actress Faye Dunaway the morning after the Oscars. I like the impression she conveys through the photo, a feeling of being slightly tired of everything. This photo also conveys a calm luxury, a woman completely alone by the pool in a gorgeous dress looking directly into the camera, with a lot of news from the newspapers about last night's Oscars under her feet, but she looks so calm, as if she doesn't care at all. She speaks to the viewer with her eyes and pose, without looking at the statuette she won yesterday or at the news about the Oscars, which makes the viewer interested and wants to look at the actress in detail.

My own practice

We had some time to take pictures from different angles outside the classroom with a partner. We worked in a group of three. I decided to experiment with portraiture, in one of the DMU buildings I saw a beautiful white wall that acted as a blank background and three empty colourful chairs and I immediately realised that this was the location where I wanted to try shooting.

So, when we got back, I got these pictures and uploaded them to contact sheets and Photoshop to do this we Clicked on File - automate and then contact sheet and then we chose the file that we had created on the desktop with our images:

Since my photos were taken in a building, but it was a pretty sunny day and the sunlight came through the windows, which also made for a nice picture. I tried to set the best possible flash exposure in the camera and played around with the settings a bit to see which ones would work best in my current situation. It was quite interesting and didn't take much time.

F5.6, ISO 800, 1/100 shutter speed, 0.0 exposure,
Focal length 26

Since I was indoors, it was important not to ignore the light and try to capture as much light as possible for a clear image.

To do this, I used an aperture of F5.6 to catch more light. Also, because I was indoors, I decided to use ISO 800. For a while I played around with the settings of the last aspect that plays a role in exposure, which is shutter speed. In the end, I chose a shutter speed of 1/100, but I think it would have been better to make the photo lighter and choose 1/250.

F5.6, ISO 800, 1/50 shutter speed, +0.7 exposure,
Focal length 35

This shot is much brighter and I like it, here I changed some settings to make the picture brighter. I chose this shot because I think it has a very interesting angle and I like the brightness of the colours, I think it would be great for a personal portfolio and it attracts attention with its brightness. I like the way that there is also a lot of empty space, which makes it feel fresh and light. I also like the fact that the girl in the picture is looking directly at the camera as if communicating with the viewer.

F5.6, ISO 800, 1/100 shutter speed, 0.0 exposure,

Focal length 24

This shot is also no less interesting for me, it's like a continuation of the portrait shooting from interesting angles and visions of the main character. She takes up all the space, she breaks some norms and rules of manners in a certain way and decides to continue posing for her photo shoot in such poses as she likes and as she is comfortable. Once again, the brightness of colours is also the main mood of the pictures for me. Brightness, strangeness, curiosity, desire to show something. I chose almost the same settings as in the first photo, although now I would like to make this picture brighter and change the settings a little bit.

                                                               F5.6, ISO 800, 1/250 shutter speed, - 0.3 exposure,

             Focal length 28

This shot is without anything else in the background, just a photo of a girl who is not interested in what is happening and, unlike the previous shots, she does not look at the camera, she looks busy with something else. Perhaps the main character is trying to dance or play and try different poses. I like that the hands in this shot are quite relaxed and graceful, and this is reflected in the shadow in the background. As we can see in this picture there are sun lights that make the picture more interesting and reflect on the girl's face.

Well, I like these portrait shots, but as I mentioned earlier, I don't think they have enough brightness and some details. So I decided to go to Lightroom and fix it.

Firstly, I changed some settings with the light, specifically indicated in the photo below:

I wanted to make these photos more interesting, so I decided to play around with the red and blue colour settings:

As a last step, I levelled the horizon on all the photos to make it look better:

Here's the final result I got and I call it "Look from a portrait":

When I returned to these photos a few days later, I decided to change the brightness and colour saturation settings a bit, because they seemed too bright to me. 

After changing some of the details, here is the new result that I have processed:

I really enjoyed the process and the result of this assignment and look forward to the next steps in learning and creating photography.