These are some shots that inspire what I want to do with my portraiture. The difference for most of them is that I seem to pick black and white whereas the brief asks for colour.
I am using a male model who will have his bass guitar. I think I will use the bass in the full length and mid shots. The head shot will be high key, half body shot, mid key and low key for the full body shot. I have an image in my head of how I want the shots. Quite moody.
We had Class Critique for our Architecture on 30th October 2018. I was happy with the feedback and found it fair. I had researched this one quite a lot and think, hopefully, that it showed. The only thing that came up was how with it being a tight crop it may be difficult to place a model without hiding some of the details in the image. I had misunderstood and thought it was to be portrait but it’s a possibility that I could go back through to Glasgow and reshoot which I would be happy to do. However I had two shots I was debating over using so I am putting this up for feedback and to decide if this would be a better shot to use. It is a comped picture, I bracketed to get the beautiful sky I was lucky to have that night and to get maximum detail in the buildings. The only thing I would maybe do is desaturate the sky a bit so it fits the colour scheme I wanted – more neutral and taking less of the focus. It’s Circus Lane in Stockbridge and it could be a mews development in London which also fitted into my idea. As an aside in Crit I was asked how many shoots I did for this and I said 1. For some reason I wasn’t thinking about the others I took in Stockbridge, New Town and Malmaison in Leith! I think this is because I had the 1 solid idea for the one I took in Glasgow, went, took the shots and was happy with them. The others I took more recently and was out with my camera and tripod, it wasn’t planned so I didn’t think about it. However I did really love this shot, I just didn’t know if I could use it. I think I could place a model in here easily.
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My inspiration for the Architectural Portrait is Burberry.
Above images shot by Mario Testino who has a long history working with Burberry. The images above are on location (or shot to look like they are) I think the Kate Moss image has maybe been shot in the studio and added to the background in Photoshop. I am not sure. That’s what we have to do for this task. The reason I have chosen these images for inspiration is 1. The colours – neutral tones, beiges, creams and blacks. These are synonymous with the brand 2. The backdrops, a city street, interesting features, make me think ‘London’ where the brand is based.
I was inspired by the adverts below, I like the locations, the images look high-end and classic and is the sort of time period when the Burberry brand had those connotations as opposed to the nineties when the brand’s image took a nose-dive. Thankfully that began to change when Christopher Bailey took over.
Below, the images are more up to date – there’s Brooklyn Beckham taking the shot on the left! On the right is a still from a video ad, the architecture seen in the background is similar to the kind of architecture I wanted to shoot and why I shot in Glasgow. I wanted a doorway/gates/arch to frame my model.
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My subject for the Environmental Portrait will be my brother, who is really into cycling. I had an idea first of all for a picture of him where he goes often in Peebles but the shot I wanted I think personally, really only worked in landscape, not portrait.
I asked what he’d normally do on a break and he said they’d normally stop in a wooded area for a smoke and a coffee, so I went to Corstorphine Hill and had a look around the woods. I found some areas I thought would be good composition wise. I used my husband as the subject and have left space for the bike etc to be placed. These haven’t been processed – they are just recce shots for me to work out what I’m doing. The light could have been better, the sun was splitting the trees and there were lots of shadows but I will be using flash to light my subject in the final shots so that hopefully won’t be an issue.
I took a lot of shots, these are the ones I think could work – there are a couple of issues I can see – I need to fill the frame with my model a bit more in a couple (pics 3 & 5) and not have him with branches sticking out his head like in pic.5! Overall just now I’m leaning towards pic 2 for lighting, composition and depth in the image (bike would be leaning against the tree, biking gear used as props and model in biking clothes)
Magazine – Mountain Biking UK https://www.mbuk.com/
Image below by: Barry Orillia
I like the composition with the trees in the background although I feel it’s maybe lacking depth (like it could be a flat backdrop) The neutral tones of the trees are contrasting with her outfit to make her stand out. The good thing about trails and paths like this is they add a leading line on which to place your focal point. I personally think her thighs and that area of the bike look a little overexposed but that could just be my screen.
Image below by: Scott Markewitz
I like the shallow depth of field here, the soft tones, the light behind the model making him stand out. I like the composition also. I am wondering if that is the leg of a tripod at the back with flash bouncing off the bottom side of the tree?
Image below by: Steve Wyper
The Photographer here describes himself as a Graphic Artist. I think it shows in his work as it’s mostly quite heavy on post production. This is the opposite of the first image – here the background is more colourful than the model, who aside from a couple of pops of colour on the shoes, gloves and bike looks like he has been de-saturated the toned with platinum or something. I think there’s too much been done to this but it suits the image, which is quite cool with the tattoos etc. I can’t decide whether the light coming through strong at his neck is good or too much. I like the image overall.
JillBarnett 
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