Assignment 4, Applying Lighting Techniques

  For this assignment I decided to make a series of portraits of my daughter, Hope, I obviously needed to fulfill the brief of the exercise and show texture, shape, form and colour, but I also wanted to find out how lighting would affect the mood of the portraits.
   Portrait photography has a very important place in the history photography as it was its' first great commercial success as the huge popularity of the carte de visite in the 1850's, where small photographic portraits were used as calling cards, or as collector cards of the great and good.(Badger,G 2007)
  It was not until I started to research portrait photography for this assignment that I realized that it was such a complicated and contentious issue. The debate seems to revolve around what should and does a photographic portrait, portray.We have all heard terms like "the eyes are the window to the soul" and that a portrait should capture the character or the secret inner being of the sitter, but David Bailey(1938-) states that " should you set out to portray ' inner character' in a photographic portrait you will find aim is a will-o'-the-wisp"(Hughes,G 1981). He carries on to say that the best you can hope to achieve is a caricature of the subject and that by close examination of the sitter the photographer should try to exaggerate their prominent features or gestures.This seems a rather shallow approach and seems unlikely to achieve a flattering result. Here we must remember that Bailey is a celebrity portrait photographer so his subjects are well known and so the public have a preconceived perception of them that Bailey has to deliver, they come with a back story. This highlights the two types of portrait, the society and the social, the society relates to the portraits of the aristocracy and high achievers and the social is of the man in the street. If we look at some of the social portraits of the past, such as those of August Sander(1876-1964), Walker Evans(1903-1975) or Paul Strand(1886-1976), we have no idea who the subjects are, we can make assumptions from the attached titles and their clothes and surroundings but we are unlikely to find out their names or backgrounds, we therefore see them as types. If we take Strands' Young Boy, Gondeville,France 1951 as an example.

Young Boy,Gondeville,France 1951

  We can see from his clothes and surroundings that he probably lives in the countryside, that he possibly works on a farm, so he becomes a type, he is a young French farmhand from the 1950's. Strand is devolved of any responsibility to try to get beyond any surface appearances, to try to get the boy to drop his guard, in fact it is boys' direct, impenetrable gaze which gives the picture its power.( Hoffman, M 1976)
   The camera is seen as a very impassive tool, " the camera never lies", so does that mean with these social portraits that the photographer has no effect on the outcome, Strand chose this particular boy, possibly told him to stand in front of the old wooden building, possibly to get out of the sun, maybe for effect. Even with the secret, candid portraits taken by both Strand and Evans, they both still chose their subjects. In Evans' famous series of New York subway pictures he took truly candid pictures of his fellow travelers in an attempt to capture unposed portraits, because it is the pose that which the photographer is trying to strip away, as Roland Barthes(1915-1980) states, " once I feel myself being observed by the lens, everything changes: I constitute myself in the process of  "posing," I instantaneously make another body for myself , I transform myself in advance into an image."( Barthes,R 1993)

Subway Passengers, New York City, 1938

  Although Evans has achieved his aim of the completely unposed portrait, the decision was still his as to when the exposure was made, and his preferred type of subject shows very strongly, Evans states himself that "The secret of photography is that the camera takes on the character and personality of the handler. The mind works on the machine." (Bosworth,P 2005). This problem was finally resolved by Phillip-Lorca diCorca (1953-) in 2000 with his series Heads, the portraits were taken automatically as the unaware subjects passed over a predetermined spot, diCorca says that he was trying to capture individuals rather than types.
   Generally when we take a portrait we will try to influence its outcome, even at its most basic who has not been asked to smile for the camera, the problem with this approach is that it reinforces the "pose", how do we get beyond this. The most important thing is that the photographer must maintain control of the situation and then use that control to their advantage, the aim is to get the sitter to drop their public face, I do not think that any of the best portrait photographers would claim to uncover anyones' soul, Irving Penn(1917-2009) wrote " In portrait photography there is something more profound that we seek inside a person, while being painfully aware that a limitation of our medium is that the inside is record able only insofar as it is apparent on the outside . . . I have at times seduced myself into a mystical belief in the penetrative power of the camera, but reflection always brings me back to accepting the picture process as simply the bounce back of light from a momentary arrangement of atoms that are a face.But that is not to say the power of a tender word, or a clumsy one, to affect those atoms, can be overstated. When  light and the situation of the portrait picture are found and the sculptural arrangement made, it may be that the word is after all at the heart of the whole thing . . . Very often what lies behind the facade is rare and wonderful than the subject knows or dares to believe." (Keaney,M 2010). 
   Portraitists have different methods of getting a subject to drop their facade, Penn would make a session last until his sitter was too tired to keep it up, Richard Avedon (1946-2004)  would sometimes use the same trick or he would quickly shock his sitters with a few words. He said to the anti-Semitic poet Ezra Pound, " I think you should know Mr Pound, that I'm Jewish " as he took his pictures, he did something similar to the dog loving Duke and Duchess of Windsor, telling them " I'm sorry I'm late. My taxi hit a dog." (Lahr,J 2008)

Wallis, Duchess of Windsor; Edward Duke of Windsor, 1957

 As you can see the words had their effect, the royal veneer has been stripped away and we see expressions of concern and angst.
    Lastly I want to look at the way Diane Arbus took her portraits , she told one of her students she would " stop at nothing to get the picture I wanted." and then this from Germaine Greer " She kept asking me all sorts of personal questions, and I became aware that she would only shoot when my face was showing tension or concern or boredom or annoyance ( and there was plenty of that, let me tell you), . . . It was tyranny. Really tyranny. Diane Arbus ended up straddling me- this frail little person  kneeling, keening over my face. I felt completely terrorized by the blasted lens. It was a helluva struggle. Finally I decided. " Damn it, you're not going to do this to me, lady. I'm not going to be photographed like one of your freaks! " So I stiffened my face like a mask. Diane went right on merrily photographing- clickclickclickclick- cajoling me, teasing me, flattering me. This frail rosepetal creature kept at me like a laser beam. . . . It was a battle between us. Who won? It was a draw. After that afternoon I never saw her again. I never saw the photographs either."
  All of this bullying and cajoling and wearing down to the point of fatigue, might give us interesting portraits but does it show us the true person, or just a scared, bored or tired person. Or can we never really capture a person in a photograph, will any portrait only ever be as Barthes states ' a likeness of another likeness ad ifinitum '
  As I stated earlier I have taken a series of portraits of my daughter to see the effect of different types of lighting.

Covered Alley, Side Lighting

  I have taken the portrait above in a covered alleyway, which has given a short lit effect with a nice triangle of light under the nearest eye, which is reminiscent of Rembrandt lighting, named after the old master. The deep chiaroscuro gives good sculpting to the facial features and the side light reveals the texture of the skin, although you do not necessarily texture in a portrait.( Prakel, D 2007)

Covered Alley

  By moving Hope to the other side of the alleyway and closer to the entrance, I have achieved broad lighting. Now most of the face is lit, there is still nice gentle modelling to the face, which fits with her age better and because of the more frontal light texture is reduced.

Silhouette at the Bus Stop

  This nice crisp silhouette was taken in front of a local bus stop which had had its poster taken out, I had my white balance set to auto and it came out with these lovely blues and greens.This obviously shows Hopes' shape, luckily it does not show the face she was pulling at having to pose in front of a bus stop outside the local shops.

In Shade, In Hall just inside front Door

   This is the technique I normally use if I am asked to take a portrait, sitting the subject in the hall with the door open and shooting from outside, keeping them out of direct sunlight, gives a lovely flattering light. I have set the white balance to cloudy to get as much warmth and colour into the picture as possible.

Large Window, Gold Reflector

   Here I have stood Hope next to a patio door, which has given quite a strong side light and the I have lowered the contrast across her face by using a gold reflector as an infill. The gold reflector has added some warmth to her skin and lifted the colour in her eye.The side light has provided a good modelling light.

Flash Head, Barn Doors, No Diffusion

  In this image I have used a flash head  with barn doors and no diffuser aimed at the back of Hopes head to show the texture in her hair, a small light at a low angle should reveal texture, so I have tried to get the light to glance the side of her head.( Hunter,F. Biver,S. Fuqua,P.2007) . I have placed a white reflector facing the light to bounce some light back onto Hopes face.

Rim Light, Undiffused flash

   Once again using an undiffused flash head with barn doors to create this rim lit portrait, the light was placed slightly forward and to the side of Hope and the camera lens was flagged to stop flare as the light was pointing almost straight at the camera. This lighting shows a good outline to the face and nice texture in the hair.

Single Flash, No Diffuser

  I have used a single flash with no diffuser here to try to recreate the kind of high contrast portraits made by Irving Penn and E.O Hoppe (1878-1972) in the early Twentieth century. The single small light has created real texture on the skin and the deep shadow has created some drama.

Facing out 6 feet from patio door

   This is similar to the picture taken in the hall, only Hope here is standing about six feet in from the patio door on a bright sunny day. As you can see the light is quite flat with very little modelling, but it is very flattering, because the light is bouncing in off of the wall it has become a large light, even though the sun itself counts as a small light.

Single Flash, Diffuser

  For this portrait I have used a single flash with a soft box fitted, the light is placed about four feet to the right of Hope, angled down at about forty five degrees above her. This set up approximates the normal angle of the sun, this has given a bright, modern feel to picture, with gentle form and not too much texture. Here I have influenced Hope to do something, I mentioned she has a slightly lazy eye and this was her response, I know its  
not bearing her soul, but its a start.

Smiling

  I have included this last picture just to prove it was not all hard work for Hope, she loves it really.
  What I have learnt from this assignment is that portraiture is a very complicated subject and that just when I feel I have grasped all the different arguments and implications there seems to be another twist to throw things back into confusion again, and when I look back at this blog in a few days or weeks time I will think of all the things I meant to say and haven't.
  As for lighting portraits, I have so much to learn.
 One last picture, this was why Hope was so upset down at the bus stop in front of all the shoppers.

Oh the Shame for a Thirteen Year Old

References:  
                  Badger,G,2007,The genius of Photography,Quadrille,London.
                  Hughes,G,1981,David Baileys Book of Photography,J M Dent & Sons,London.
                  Barthes,R,1993,Camera Lucida,Vintage,London.
                  Bosworth,P,2005,Diane Arbus A Biography,Vintage,London.
                  Hoffman,M,1976,Paul Strand Sixty Years of Photographs,Aperture,New York.
                  Keaney,M,2010,Irving Penn Portraits,National Portrait Gallery Publications,London.
                  Lahr,J,2008,Performance Richard Avedon,Abrams,New York.
                  Prakel,D,2007.Lighting,AVA,Switzerland.
                  Hunter,F,Biver,S,Fuqua,P,2007,Light Science & Magic, An Introduction to Photographic Lighting,Focal Press,Oxford.

Outdoors at Night continued

  Sorry about the break in this Blog, I pressed the wrong button. There follows some more pictures of my local Chinese takeaway.

China Palace

China Palace

  I like the way this series shows the way you can work your way into a subject, from a fairly weak opening shot, to the last two which I think are pretty strong. The first with the reflection has a nice variety of angles and the second has a nice connection with the lady working behind the counter, but shows here in her environment.

Subway

   This was a sticker on a Subway shop window, I decided to use a long lens and a wide aperture to isolate the hand from the background and really boosted the colours to give a strong graphic image.

Marriages Mill

 This mill was the closest thing I could find to a floodlit building locally, the building has an interesting combination of textures but the lights from the windows over power the picture.

Salvation Army

  Our local Salvation Army building has this neon cross on top so I decided to try and combine it with some light trails of the traffic passing in front of it.

Railings and Light Trail

  Taking pictures at night and being able to use light trails makes ordinary scenes into something more special.

Shoes Poster

  This is the sort picture I really like, you have to look twice to work out what is going on, the juxtaposition of the giant shoes and the light trails makes for an interesting image and brings to my mind the work of Walker Evans.

Neon Reflection

  This is a straight forward reflected light in a puddle of the type we have all seen before.

Lidls

  This image is very noisy because it was taken at a high ISO on a compact camera, but it is a nice bright, colourful image and I like the repeated stop sign.

Lidls

  Most of these pictures were taken late at night so they show a deserted world, which in itself is quite interesting, because they show all the traces of a human world without the interaction of people.

The Queen Bee

  I was drawn to this scene by the coloured lighting and the silhouettes of the tree branches triangulating the frame.

Shopping Trollies

  This is another scene that would look completely different during the day, the shadows cast by the streetlights add the extra dimension.

Lone Figure

  I love the long shadow thrown by this lone figure cast by the street lamp above, and the fact that because of the complete silhouette you have no idea of the sex of the figure or whether they are walking towards or away from you. It brings to mind the lone figure that was used by Andre Kertesz throughout his career ( Dyer,G 2005).

Self Portrait, Bus Stop

  On my way home one night I spotted this bus shelter with its poster missing and thought I could use it as a giant light box and make a silhouette, so using my cameras timer I took this self portrait.
  I think that this series of pictures show the huge variety of different types of image available after dark, especially now with the excellent high ISO capabilities of the new crop of cameras allowing the user to hand hold in quite dark situations allowing the kind of street photography that was only possible during daylight.

Outdoors at Night

  The aim of this exercise is to take a series of photographs at night to show the variety of effects available.

  This was one of the suggestions made in the instructions for the exercise, this exposure shows the light trails in isolation, it does not show the surroundings, so there is no context to show what they are. So I increased the exposure time so that the twilight sky showed itself.

Light Trails Longer Exposure

 Now that you can see the horizon it gives you some idea of what you are looking at.Also whilst on the subject of roads, on a long drive back from Bristol I experimented with the lights of the cars through the windscreen, needless to say my wife was driving, I used a high ISO to freeze the movement and used multi exposure to overlay the lights and make some more abstract images.

Traffic on the M25, Five Exposures

  For the image above I kept the camera on one plane so that the diagonal strings of lights as the cars negotiate the bend draw your eye across the picture.For the second of these images I took both vertical and horizontal frames.

Traffic on the M25, Five Exposures

  This picture is my own personal favourite of the two, I like the way the strong vertical lines draws your eye up the picture to the bold cross light. Overall it has quite a painterly effect and is most obviously influenced by the multi exposure images of New York at night taken by Ernst Haas.

China Palace

  Next I took my camera out onto the streets, and using a high ISO again I tried to see what I could find hand held. This is my local Chinese takeaway, which is a subject I have often thought of photographing before because of the mirrored counter front and strong geometric pattern made by the black and white tiles.

China Palace

Shiny Surfaces

  The object of this exercise is to see how the use of a light diffusing material can help when photographing objects with highly reflective surfaces. The first image shows the ice crusher I am using with no diffusion material, which shows just how much of its surroundings are shown on its surface.

No Diffusion

  As you can see because of its domed shape the object acts like a fisheye lens and shows a full 180 degrees of its surroundings. It could be used as a self portrait of the photographer, but it is not much use as a picture of the object.
  The next stage was to form a cone of a light diffusing that fitted around the lens of the camera and opened out to the ground to envelope the object, without appearing in shot. I decided to use grease proof paper as it was the nearest thing I could find to the tracing paper stated in the exercise instructions. Because the object is quite large I had to staple sheets of the paper together, therefore I did not end up with a seamless finish.

Diffused Natural Light

   As you can see this is a huge improvement over the first image, this was taken using the natural light from the large window to the right, therefore the object is slightly brighter on that side. Also you can still see the camera lens poking through the centre of the paper.
   Next I added some photographic flash light to the image to see if I could balance the light from the window.

Flash Next to  Lens

  Firstly I placed the flash above next to the lens, this has given a most unsatisfactory result, you can see there is a very bright highlight right next to the lens. So then I moved the flash 30 cm from the lens.

Flash 30cm from Lens

  This is slightly better, but the light coverage is not very even and there is still a hot spot.

Flash 1 Metre from Side

  Here I have moved the flash to 1 metre from the side of the light tent, towards the bottom. Now the light has become much more diffuse because the light from the flash is wider because of the extra distance, so it hits more of the diffusing material, therefore the light, in effect, becomes larger.
  Next I moved the flash 2 metres away to see whether the light would become more even.

Flash 2 Metres from Side

  As you can see the effect of moving the light the extra metre is minimal, the light is slightly softer, but no more  even.

1 Metre Above the Camera

  The image above was made with the flash held 1 metre above the camera and I think with a slight movement to the left to balance the window light this could be the way to go. The only concern I have is the amount of fall off in light towards the edges of the object and also how would you hide the camera lens.
  To try to disguise the lens I have next turned the object on its side so that the reflection of the lens fall on the edge of the lid, which hides it quite well.

Light Bounced Off Ceiling

   Also for this image I have bounced the light off of the ceiling to give a more even light, the only problem left is that the edges of the object are not defined, they have been lost in the black background.