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
These are all the raw photos taken for my second/final shoot.
Best Photos
These are my best selected raw photos from my second/final 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. I also wanted to improve my writing skills when it comes t humour to make the photos more pleasing to a viewer. 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. 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 quotes from the teenager themselves, explaining either how they felt in a photo, what they wanted to present, or simply just a statement from them. I wanted to create almost a documentary piece, where I am documenting this one teenager and their attitudes, the captions similar to notes or explanations, but their revealing the thoughts held by this teen.
This shoot is presenting the behaviour of millennia’s when it comes to being in front of a camera; the millennial subject being me. 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 quotes from the teenager themselves, explaining either how they felt in a photo, what they wanted to present, or simply just a statement from them. I wanted to create almost a documentary piece, where I am documenting this one teenager and their attitudes, the captions similar to notes or explanations, but their revealing the thoughts held by this teen.
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 I feel this teen would say about himself or the photo.
I adjusted the size and angle slightly to create a more authentic appearance.
I also added my initials to these photos, something Michals did in his work. I felt it would appear more professional.
This is the complete photo.
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This is how I created the photo collages.
Firstly, I'd decide the photos I was going to put together, and make sure they are edited the same as all the other photos.
Then, on one of the photos, I converted it into an actual layer rather than a background. Then adding another blank layer and filling this with white.
Then with this added layer, I use the crop tool to drag it out to the usual two inch borders for my photos.
Using the ruler marks, I add lines around the actual photo; this is so I know how far my photos in this collage can go out before it passes the borders.
Then, holding down the SHIFT key, and on the move tool, I bring down the size of the first photo, making its width reach the 11.5 inch mark on the ruler; I felt this size was fitting for the collage.
Now I add in the second photo, it'll add on its larger (original) size, so once again, holding the SHIFT key, I bring the photo size down, same as the other photo. I bring this photo to the opposite corner as the first photo, this was the most aesthetically pleasing composition to do.
I can now finish off the photo by adding in the writing. I use the same font and sizing as I do with my other photos, and position where I feel it best fits.
As usual, I add my initials to trademark the photo.
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
Overall, I'd say this shoot was very successful. I was able to meet my intentions, which were to create a documentary piece where I document a teenager and reveal their thoughts and attitudes. Creating this by using the photographer Duane Michals' style, with a soft tone aesthetic, and using writing captions to better document the teen in a humour, light-hearted way. I was able to improve on my writing skills by changing the perspective of the writer. The teenagers thoughts and statements on the photo make the photos more humorous and is able to change the premises to a lighter aesthetic.
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