Research
Throughout my preparatory shoots, I looked at four different photographers/artists, but when it came to my final inspiration, I chose Duane Michals. Duane Michals is an American photographer. Michals’ work makes innovative use of photo-sequences, often incorporating text to examine emotion and philosophy. Michals' work inspires incorporating writing with portraiture/documentary, the two topics are not merged together and rather placed with each other, one representing the other; linked but not directly.
I have further researched into Michals’ work in my component two blog ‘Photographer Research – Duane Michals’.
Throughout my preparatory shoots, I looked at four different photographers/artists, but when it came to my final inspiration, I chose Duane Michals. Duane Michals is an American photographer. Michals’ work makes innovative use of photo-sequences, often incorporating text to examine emotion and philosophy. Michals' work inspires incorporating writing with portraiture/documentary, the two topics are not merged together and rather placed with each other, one representing the other; linked but not directly.
I have further researched into Michals’ work in my component two blog ‘Photographer Research – Duane Michals’.
Contact sheet
Best Photos
These are my best selected raw photos from my first shoot.
These are my best selected raw photos from my first shoot.
AO3: Record ideas,
observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work
and progress.
My Ideas
My intentions for this shoot was to challenge my typical aesthetic in my photographs; instead of taking such a serious meaning to my photos, I create something lighter in appearance and meaning. When analysing Michals' work, I found him to use obvious and simple wording to be mildly humorous, this wasn't in all of his work, but most of it. Michals' work also presents the power of what words can do to premises and photos, completely changing a presentation with a few words, I find this impact inspiration into presenting the topic writing.
This shoot is presenting the behaviour of millennia’s when it comes to being in front of a camera. The millennial subject being me, referred to as 'He' in the photos. I wanted to present the attitudes of a teenager in a humorous way; I found Michals’ work to be humorous and wanted that style to present a teenager's mind. The use of words is to recreate a photo’s message, removing interpretation that a viewer usually creates. The sentences in these photos are interpretations and opinions made by the 'cameraman' of these photos, who is older than the model and judges him slightly.
My intentions for this shoot was to challenge my typical aesthetic in my photographs; instead of taking such a serious meaning to my photos, I create something lighter in appearance and meaning. When analysing Michals' work, I found him to use obvious and simple wording to be mildly humorous, this wasn't in all of his work, but most of it. Michals' work also presents the power of what words can do to premises and photos, completely changing a presentation with a few words, I find this impact inspiration into presenting the topic writing.
This shoot is presenting the behaviour of millennia’s when it comes to being in front of a camera. The millennial subject being me, referred to as 'He' in the photos. I wanted to present the attitudes of a teenager in a humorous way; I found Michals’ work to be humorous and wanted that style to present a teenager's mind. The use of words is to recreate a photo’s message, removing interpretation that a viewer usually creates. The sentences in these photos are interpretations and opinions made by the 'cameraman' of these photos, who is older than the model and judges him slightly.
AO2: Explore and select
appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques, and processes, reviewing
and refining ideas as work develops.
Use of Camera
I used a Nikon D3400 DSLR camera and a tripod for every photo taken. The camera was in manual mode, shutter speed at 1/160, aperture on F4.2, and exposure at ISO 100; I also used flash since it better revealed the details of my facial features. These were the exposure settings because the bright atmosphere around would bring too much light into the camera if say the shutter speed was put to a lower fraction of a second; these settings make sure the photo is not overexposed with the combination of flash and general lighting.
Shoot Process
Since these photos were taken of myself, I had to capture myself using self-timer while my camera was on a tripod, I used someone else to make sure all the camera settings, focus, and alignments were right. Once making sure everything was set right, I put the camera on self-timer (taking a photo every 5 seconds for 5 photos each time) and posed in a way that presented a confident teenager's attitudes.
Final Pieces
Firstly, I used the spot healing brush tool to remove any blemishes or imperfections on the skin. This removing any possible heavy distractions.
Secondly, I pressed CTRL+SHIFT+A to open up the 'camera raw' edit box. Using this I adjusted the exposure and overall contrast settings, such as the highlights in the photo, to create a softer black and white appearance.
Moving forward, I felt the background in the photo was too dark from the exposure edits, but the subject was contrasted perfectly. So I added an adjustment layer of 'curves' and brought the centre point higher to brighter the tones in the overall photo. I pressed CTRL+I to invert the effects of this layer and added a layer mask to this.
Using a white soft brush tool, I 'painted' where I wanted the brightened effect revealed, that only being the background.
Thirdly, I have to create the borders to the photo. I pressed CTRL+R to open the ruler borders. I decided a two inches thick border would be the most flattering for the photo, so I dragged measurements out to make sure my border is lined up, two inches out.
Then, using the crop tool, I dragged out the frame of the photo to the measurements, creating the white borders.
After looking through a range of possible fonts to choose from, I chose 'rage italic' as it is aesthetically pleasing and rough lined, creating a more authentic appearance to physical handwriting.
For each photo, I create a sentence that would best fit the appearance of the photo, something that I feel a mature cameraman would say about the youthful teen.
I adjusted the size and angle slightly to create a more authentic appearance.
This is the complete photo.
AO1: Develop ideas through
sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources,
demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.
My research into Duane Michals has helped me find a
new aesthetic to challenge myself with. My work has been typically heavy in
tone and dark in meaning and atmosphere, Michals' is work light-hearted and gentle
in appearance, he uses the power of words to mould his premise of the photo and
removes dark suggestions. I find his work welcoming and brighter in calming, I
believe I am able to recreate this aesthetic.
AO4: Present a personal
and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes
connections between visual and other elements.
These are my final pieces.
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Evaluation
I feel I was able to meet my intentions for this shoot. The appearance is softer than my usual aesthetic, the style imitates Michals' aesthetic, and I believe I was able to develop the writing when it comes to humour compared to my previous shoot on Michals. I believe though there is still room for improvement in this area, and for my final shoot (shoot two) I will improve this.
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