Artist Research
Xenia Lau
I came across this artists work via one of the pages I follow on Instagram, they posted one of her shots and I loved the simplicity of it. Her work is mainly portraiture and she doesn't tend to use many props which is what drew me to her work in the first place. For one of my shoots I want to work in a studio to create a, sort of, character profile and her work is what helped me create a visual for that. What I personally feels works so well with her work is how she manages to create a character or personality through the photo without making the photo appear really busy.
Analysis
This is my favourite of the above photos. The composition is beautifully plain and simple, the photoshop is used tastefully and highlights the interesting part of the model. The models face is in focus but the background is not which creates a really stark contrast between blurred and focused. This works well because it further highlights the small details on the model face, their freckles, hair line, eyelashes, facial structure which this all adds to creating a character for the viewer to understand. Technically this type of photo may be hard to get right because the photographer has managed to get the eyes of the model in perfect focus which can be quite complicated to do. You would need a relatively fast shutter speed (250) to allow enough light in to create the slight glow on the models face as well as cast light on the features that you want to stand out the most. The ISO would need to be between 100-300 to match up with the light from the shutter speed. The aperture would probably need to be set at a medium-large number (f.8-f.18) to create the small depth of field akin to this photograph. |
This photograph works so well for opposite reasons to the last, where as the last was simple and quiet this one is (relatively) busy and loud. The feathers falling in front of the model create gorgeous shadows on the face of the model as well as adding some depth to the photo. I love the contrast between the colour of the models hair and the white of the background and feathers. I think the photographer has used those feathers and background very strategically. The models bright hair colour is an interesting part of her personality - is that her natural colour?Has she dyed it? - it sets her out from everyone else and the whites used in this photo really draw your attention to the bright coloured hair. To get this shot I would imagine the photographer set a medium shutter speed (60-80) in order to catch the falling feathers and highlight the sun light on the models face but one that wasn't too slow that it made the model out of focus. She may have used the al servo feature so that even if the model moved just before she pressed the shutter speed she would still be in focus. |
Anh Tu Nguyen
To try and find inspiration for some of my work I googled searched for a list of photographers that work in a conceptual or fine art genre, Anh Tu Nhuyen was one of the results I got back. Where as I don't like working in a style that is directly similar to his work, I don't like my work to be really drastic in terms of makeup and clothing, I do love the high colouring of all of his shots though. There's so much saturation in them and it gives a really vivid effect.
Even though I said I don't like my work to feature extravagant clothes, I do appreciate that his work is only strengthen by using it. They give his shots a dreamy, fantasy, kind of old style vibe to them and I like that.
Even though I said I don't like my work to feature extravagant clothes, I do appreciate that his work is only strengthen by using it. They give his shots a dreamy, fantasy, kind of old style vibe to them and I like that.
I mentioned briefly why I love his work in the little paragraph above and this photo is the best one to use to explain it. The colour pallette in it is so beautiful and vivid but isn't hindered by the purposeful blur. It has this kind of dreamy yet realistic appeal to it. I hope to be able to achieve this kind of look with some of my photos.
I think in order to take this picture he must have set the shutter speed a little slow to be able to get the motion blur but not to slow as to over expose it. I'd say the ISO was maybe 200-800 but its hard to say what settings are used in photos like this, at least it is for me anyway. |
I don't want to do anything this extravagant, I'm not so sure it would actually be possible for me to do that anyway but I do draw a lot of inspiration from this photo. I love the colours used and the regal, fantasy, kind of feeling I get when I look at it. The coloured mist is so usual and takes the photo from a normal model shot to an artistic shot that has something interesting and isn't very common. The light is used in a very clever way, it casts light shapes on the grass and makes lines through the fog and also highlights the models face. |
Minimalist
Minimalist photography has always been one my favourite genres, the simplicity of it is what intrigues me so much. How can a photo that is so quiet with hardly anything going on be so interesting and in some cases beautiful? I searched the internet for some minimalist photographers but couldn't find any that have more than one or two photos in this genre so instead I used pinterest. Since I don't know the artists for the photos, I'll link the pinterest page that I found the photos on.
The first thing that interested me about this photo is that it tells a story, even though its just a red finger print, and the stories can be childish or sinister. For example, it could be the finger print of a child who's dipped their finger in red paint but it could also be the finger print of a killer who's got blood on their hands. The latter works so well for my theme. It's nice that you can see the detail, the fine lines of the persons finger print, so technical wise its a good shot too. |
This photo is a little bit more busy but just as effective. There could be two different stories for this as well, is the person lighting a candle, maybe a cigarette? Or are they about to set something on fire. Again, for me its the stories you can make up for the picture that interest me the most. I like that the flame is the main focus, it's in the middle of the shot and its emphasised by the fact that the background is out of focus. |
Adam Bird
I was informed of this artist by my teacher. I looked at his work and was inspired by the versatility of it, some shoots use simple colours, costume and background but some are really drastic and elaborate. I can take a lot from this because it can be quite easy with the genre I am working in to get carried away and drown the emotion out of photos by focusing too much on making them look busy. I can learn from Adam Bird's work that not all photos need to be busy, you can keep things simple and they can be just as effective, if not more.
The best part of this photo, for me, is the eyes. They are crystal clear, in perfect focus but the rest of the photo has this kind of foggy haze over it. I don't think its out of focus, to looks to me like theres maybe deliberate condensation on the window the model is behind and so it creates a nice subdued blur effect. Rain being on the window pane adds a little bit of depth to the photo, I feel like without it the photo would be a little bland. Even though its a relatively plain photo since its just a shot of a model I think the facial expression and rain make it almost like a story. |
This one inspires me the most since it is narrative which is the main genre I will be working in. It looks like his own spin on The Princess and The Pea. I like how he's taken all of the drama out of it, he hasn't used any of the dramatic princess clothes or made the interior room look regal, nothing like that. He's just taken it down to basics and made a whole new story.
Similar to the last one, he has this weird fog in the background that gives the photo a dreamy quality. It has a large depth of field, pretty much everything is in focus except the background is a little bit out. I like the colour scheme going on, the tan/brown/orange colours along with the blues, its interesting because orange is quite a happy colour but blue is the opposite so it creates a nice contrast of emotions as well as colours. |
How I Have Been Inspired
Each photographer has given me something new and interesting to work with and has inspired each shoot differently. It's always important when going into shoots that you have a log of things that have inspired you to conduct that certain shoot so that you don't loose sight of the visuals you had planned.
Firstly, Xenia Lau showed me that plain shoots that only feature the model don't have to be boring. Before this I have always liked to use costume or makeup to make the photos look a bit more busy and interesting but her work demonstrated to me that plain, old model and coloured background can be just as artistic and effective. I will use her work as the main inspiration for my first shoot which is a studio shoot to characterise Mara Dyer.
Ahn Tu Nguyen showed me that colour and vibrancy isn't something to be afraid of, which is a bit contrasting to the inspiration I gained from Xenia Lau. His work is so high in saturation and it's really beautiful. Previously I tended to shy away from having such high saturation in my photos because I thought that it had a tendency to make the photos look a bit tacky but his work has proved the direct opposite. For one shoot I have planned, this lesson will be really useful. I have an idea to depict a particularly graphic scene from the book where Mara is escaping a, supposed, 'hospital' and has to murder a woman there who is keeping her captive. I think it will be quite interesting and, it may seem weird to say but, nice to have the colour so intense, especially for the type of shoot I am planning to carry out.
The work of the various artists I showed in the minimalist section actually inspired me to work in a completely new genre, I have ever worked in the style of minimalist so it was really new to me to see the photos and want to conduct a shoot entirely around this genre. It was good for me to experiment in a new genre because I have learned from this that new things in terms of photography doesn't have to be scary or complicated and I think that is a useful thing to learn considering this is the first time I have ever decided to depict a piece of literature through my photos.
Lastly, I mentioned briefly what I have learned from Adam Bird but I will elaborate here. Usually when taking pictures I have a tendency to maybe overcrowd my photos and Adam Bird has shown that a photo can be successful whether its busy or quiet. It's a small lesson but an important one because for this section of work I need to show a lot of contrast in my photos and a good way to do this is to have different amounts of things going on in the photos. For example, when she's happy it would be quite nice to have the photos rather busy to show that she has a lot going on and things are working well for her but when things are going bad having the photos a bit quieter would be interesting to show the loneliness she is feeling after being thrown into this situation.
To summarise, each photographer has taught me something new and I feel as though I can transfer each to an individual shoot and maybe even all, I am confident my work will be better after exploring the work of the above photographers.
Firstly, Xenia Lau showed me that plain shoots that only feature the model don't have to be boring. Before this I have always liked to use costume or makeup to make the photos look a bit more busy and interesting but her work demonstrated to me that plain, old model and coloured background can be just as artistic and effective. I will use her work as the main inspiration for my first shoot which is a studio shoot to characterise Mara Dyer.
Ahn Tu Nguyen showed me that colour and vibrancy isn't something to be afraid of, which is a bit contrasting to the inspiration I gained from Xenia Lau. His work is so high in saturation and it's really beautiful. Previously I tended to shy away from having such high saturation in my photos because I thought that it had a tendency to make the photos look a bit tacky but his work has proved the direct opposite. For one shoot I have planned, this lesson will be really useful. I have an idea to depict a particularly graphic scene from the book where Mara is escaping a, supposed, 'hospital' and has to murder a woman there who is keeping her captive. I think it will be quite interesting and, it may seem weird to say but, nice to have the colour so intense, especially for the type of shoot I am planning to carry out.
The work of the various artists I showed in the minimalist section actually inspired me to work in a completely new genre, I have ever worked in the style of minimalist so it was really new to me to see the photos and want to conduct a shoot entirely around this genre. It was good for me to experiment in a new genre because I have learned from this that new things in terms of photography doesn't have to be scary or complicated and I think that is a useful thing to learn considering this is the first time I have ever decided to depict a piece of literature through my photos.
Lastly, I mentioned briefly what I have learned from Adam Bird but I will elaborate here. Usually when taking pictures I have a tendency to maybe overcrowd my photos and Adam Bird has shown that a photo can be successful whether its busy or quiet. It's a small lesson but an important one because for this section of work I need to show a lot of contrast in my photos and a good way to do this is to have different amounts of things going on in the photos. For example, when she's happy it would be quite nice to have the photos rather busy to show that she has a lot going on and things are working well for her but when things are going bad having the photos a bit quieter would be interesting to show the loneliness she is feeling after being thrown into this situation.
To summarise, each photographer has taught me something new and I feel as though I can transfer each to an individual shoot and maybe even all, I am confident my work will be better after exploring the work of the above photographers.