Independent Project
I will be mainly taking photos of strangers who are completely unaware that their picture is being taken, this could be silhouettes or just natural shots, taken in the street, or in their workplace. I chose to do this as it's quite challenging as you cannot use unnatural lighting to enhance the pictures, to cast shadows and give dimension to the photos, and you have to be fast as the person may move away or notice you, however i feel as though the more natural side of portrait photography is one of my stronger points and it is an element of photography which i enjoy. Here are some photos which i have taken linked to this theme.
Saul Leiter's work
I have chosen to do some of my project in the style of Saul Leiter as I think his photos are interesting and they are a style of photography which I enjoy. He takes photos of people who are completely unaware, which I also have, and through misted windows or on the streets, which I have attempted to achieve myself by using Photoshop to merge photos in front of others to create the affect of the picture being taken through a window or other object. His photos are interesting as in many cases you cannot see their face, it may be masked by something or the photo has been taken from behind, meaning you can only interpret things about their identity as you cannot see their features or full appearance.
my photos
background / overlay images
Resolving my Ideas
In this image I darkened the background to make the woman in the foreground stand out more, and make her more of the centre of attention. This makes her stand out even more than the original photo in the crowd of people and makes the people in the background less noticeable which overall enhances the photo.
I edited this photo so that the background is in black and white and the foreground is in colour. This draws your attention more to the refection in the mirror and makes it stand out.
In this image I cut around a person in the photograph, copied and pasted it, moved it to the side and decreased the opacity. Although unnatural, I have done it quite subtly which almost gives the effect that the person has stepped out of place mid-photograph, which I think looks very effective and interesting.
In this photo I also added another photo over the top and decreased the opacity of it, in this case it makes it look as if the picture has been taken through an object of window with printing on it.
Again, in this photo I did the same as the one above but it looks as if the photo was taken through a window with paint on it. I feel as though this photo is similar to some of saul Leiters work in the way that it is taken through a window of people who are completely oblivious to the fact that their photo is being taken.
I cropped into this photo to make the attention on the girl, and duplicated her, moved her to the right then decreased the opacity to almost give the effect of a ghost stepping out of the girl.
In this image I decreased the vibrancy to make the photo look more bland which makes her eyes, and the overall photograph look interesting and cold.
In this image I did the same as the photo above, but in this case to represent the movement of the motorbike. I tried to make it look as if a sequence of photos had been merged together as the motorbike rode off.
I changed this image to black and white and used the curves tool to darken the photo and increase the contrast to, once again, enhance and give more depth to her features.
here, I lightened triangle sections pointing towards the man which draws the attention to the man stood in the middle, which is the reason why I created this image. it also makes the relatively plain and flat background of the image more interesting and contrasts effectively with the darkness of the man.
I changed the background to black and white, keeping only the woman in colour to draw attention to her and make her stand out from her surroundings. She is the focal point of the image.
|
In this edit, I copied a second photo over the original photo and decreased the opacity, giving the effect of the picture being taken through an object, or there being something out of focus in the foreground. In my opinion this makes the photo more interesting as in many cases it gives it more colour and more depth to the photo. It also masks the person's face.
I changed this picture into black and white and used the curves tool to darken the photo, giving it more depth and enhancing and darkening the features on her face.
For this one I increased the vibrancy and darkened the photo to make the colours brighter and more defined, and also to define the outline of light around the person which gives depth and dimension to the photo, making it more effective.
in this photo I did the same as the one to the left however I used a picture of paint cracking to give the effect of her skin cracking.
I edited a picture of leaves over the photo, this merges with the green background and makes the person in the photo more subtle as they now almost blend into the background instead of standing out due to the contrast of colours.
I changed this image to black and white, then increased the contrast to make the light in the background more vivid and the person in the foreground darker and more like a silhouette.
Here, I copied the man's faced and moved it down the photo, decreasing the opacity more each time. This gives the effect of him moving downwards, and almost represents his intense stare.
Here I decreased the brightness and increased the contrast to give the photo more depth and to enhance the light in the background, and to darken the people in the foreground which gives a nice effect.
I darkened this image to give more depth to her features
i lightened circular areas in this image by using the brightness/contrast tool, this makes these areas stand out and gives and interesting effect due to the lightened areas which differ in size. I did this because it adds an aspect of interest to the image.
I lightened aspects of this image to add contrast.
|
my final piece
I have chosen this as my favourite image as I feel the duplication and decreased opacity of the person gives an interesting effect. It looks almost as if there is a ghost, or she has stepped out of place. I like this photograph as the silhouette contrasts with the streaks of light in the background. The darkness of the person in the foreground is almost eerie, you cannot see any of their features and therefore you can only interpret things about their identity. This links to the theme of identity as the main focus of the photo is the person, although we cannot see their face, we can still interpret things about the individual, from things such as the situation and position they are in, and their body language.
evaluation
I feel as though I have interpreted this project well through the resolution of my ideas with overlaying foregrounds which create interesting effects on the photos, and I have included ideas which you would not immediately associate the ideas with "identity". however, I have included aspects of people and their personality throughout my project which links to the overall theme. in my edits I have enhanced natural features which I am happy with however to improve I could add more of a range of photos and experiment more with Photoshop. in this project I have researched a range of photographers and used aspect of their work to influence my ideas. I have learnt how lighting can make a huge difference to appearance and can greatly improve a photo. I have also learnt some new editing techniques on Photoshop which I will use in future projects.