Assignment 208: Robert Doisneau: Review of Selected Portrait Photography

Robert Doisneau - Gentilly -Sur -Seine, 1912

After attempting to compare my street photography with my research to date I felt that there was a gap between what had initially inspired me to capture urban moments with the content that I was producing.  Therefore I wanted to carry out further research to identify additional photographers that I could help me to continue develop my work.

I found Robert Doisneau in book entitled Icons of Photography, The 20th Century published by Prestel in 1999.  The image in the book was 'Kiss in front of the Hotel de Ville'.  This image is an iconic one - having been used in advertising campaigns and postcards.

Dosineau was actually taken to court by the couple who believed it was an image of them taken without their consent - which was, at that time against French law.  This court case forced Dosineau to reveal that the image was staged - he had used two actors to capture this moment - a kiss that he had observed from a cafe table, but did feel comfortable to capture.  He asked if they would kiss again allowing him to capture the moment on camera - which they happily did.

This picture reminded me of a couple of my images - where I had captured displays of public affection.  The couple below were completely oblivious of the crowd around them, this image was taken just after they had finished a passionate kiss - unaware of the fact that they were actually in a road and a car was waiting to move through!

This image was from a serious I took of a women joining a group of family members - there was much hugging and many kisses exchanged at the joy of reunion

Doisneau lived and worked in the Parisian suburbs where he observed people, expressing empathy with their lives - he attempted to compress this sentiment into a single photograph.  Many of his images portray the unabashed displays of young couples in love - oblivious to their surroundings.

reference:  

Robert Doisneau - Wikipedia

Masters of Photography: http://www.masters-of-photography.com/D/doisneau/doisneau_articles3.html

Icons of Photography - The 20th Century

Assignment 208: Research: Comparison of Street Photography

Comparison of Street Photography: How My Research Has Influenced My Work

As in the last blog I want to compare a number of images from my research on street photography with some of my strongest images.  With street photography it was much harder to isolate and replicate the research  -   instead what I tried to do is identify what it was that made the images and how I could bring this into my work.

This image by Cathal McNaughton was taken as an ironic piece - the Queen isolated below all of the other dignatories - an image that I took of an street seller captures a similar sense of isolation - but without the irony, however the pink feather boa and bucket add a strong sense of colour that you get in Cathal's image. 

The lack of eye contact from the people around her also echo the sense of isolation that the Cathal image portrays.

This image by Alfred Eisenstaedt captures a sense of excitement from a group of children - I dont know what the occasion was but the range of facial expressions keeps you looking around the image.  The quotation that went with the dialogue around this image was about clicking with the people - not the camera - which is why I have chosen to compare it to the image below.

Although this picture is focused on one person - similar to the above image it is about capturing a moment - an expression - not posed for - but giving a sense of the crowd and action that was going on around.

This image of Cathal's was about capturing the reality of the harsh,political side of life.  It was about not planning but capturing a moment - taking a photo and moving on - being decisive.

Whilst the images below may not have the same aggression in them - they were taken during the EDL demonstrations in Birmingham - which were kept extremely peaceful - but these two images were about me being decisive in what I wanted to capture. They have both been slightly altered in photoshop - the first one cropped tighter to frame out some of the distraction - the second has been slightly altered to excentuate the colours and contrast

I have found it harder to compare my research on street photography to the images that I have taken which leads me to the conclusion that I need to review and refine my research - or consider expanding my images to reflect the research.

The strongest influence to date has been Cathal's work - and I would like in my research to find more photographers that blend the political statements with their work.

Assignment 208: David Shankbone:Research

http://www.good.is/post/the-most-important-occupy-wall-street-photographer-you-ve-never-heard-of/

Assignment 208: Theme 1: Portraits - Comparison

Portraits - Research Comparison with my images

As I am now starting to select some of my final images I think this would be a good time to demonstrate how my research has influenced my work through a comparison of a couple of the images.

This image of Sinaed O'Conner by Jane Bowen captured the shy nature of the singer through the down cast head and eyes, the cigarette behind the ear revealed a personal trait of the singer and tight crop ensured that the individual was the sole focus.

I have looked to capture a similar style with this image - the indirect eye contact and the cigarette behind the ear.  In my image I have bought more of the face into view - this was on purpose because rather than shyness of the person I wanted to capture the boredom of youth.

The image has had little alteration - a minor crop and converted to black and white.

This image of Mick Jagger (also by Jane Bowen) captures a sense of fun - the laughter accentuates his mouth and the deep lines around his face, traits which are distinctive to him - 

 These two images of mine seek to pick up the same traits - the unabridged laughter and the naturalness that this brings to an image. They have been slightly cropped to remove any distracting background and converted to black and white to help accentuate the lines around the eyes and mouth.

This image by Dorothea Lange portrays childhood as it - not posed and clean but untidy and with a slightly challenging air to it.

Whilst the image that I have chosen to compare to this one is tightly  cropped on the face - I think it captured a similar essence around the eyes - the slightly blank challenging stare.

The adjustments made from the original image was to crop out the background, convert to black and white and deepen the exposure.

Assignment 208: Location Photography: Post Production - Contrast & Curves

Photoshop - Post Production - Contrast & Curves

With this image there was little cropping required, I feel that I focused on what I wanted and just about delivered on the right composition. 

The minimal amount of cropping done to slightly tighten the focus

I felt the contrast on the image needed deepening to bring a greater depth to the image as the original looked slightly washed out

I also played around with the curves function - I thought this alteration made the image much clearer and seemed to remove the shadow around the image

I was happy with the colour image produced above but wanted to see what the effect of turning the image black and white.  I liked the fact that it dulled out the background - but overall feel the image had more warmth and impact in colour.

Assignment 208: Location Photography: Post Production - Cropping

Photoshop - Post Production - Cropping

This image has too much distraction - the break in the harris fencing, and the label on the fencing.

The aim of the crop was to create total focus on the boy behind the fence, but retain enough of the fence to keep the sense of isolation and enprisionment.

I also wanted to see if this image worked in black and white - personally I feel the colour image has greater impact.  In black and white there is no punch to the image - it doesn't add any depth, whereas in colour the muted hues add to the sense of desolation.

Assignment 208: Principles of location photography: Theme 1: Portraits

Portraits - Shoot 3

Although I wasn't able to carry our my planned shoot this weekend I did persuade my son to pose for me (in exchange for other favours such as a taxi service!) to help me work on the feedback from Steve this week.

The feedback on my first two shoots was to:

• Try and work with natural light only 
• Take a step back and not crop so tightly on my subjects to give me space to work in post production

For my first attempt we worked in the garden - the problem with these images are the background - it was very difficult to pick an area where the background would not detract from the image to keep my images in the style of my research - but there were a couple of images that I think worked.  

I hate him smoking - but you can't live their live for them - and against my own feelings I chose this image because they capture a story about him at this point in his life - the culture of his age group.

ISO 200, f3, 1/125

This image reminds me of the one taken by David Bailey of Paul McCartney where his eyes are shut and the image has a soft tone to it.  

ISO 200, f3.2, 1/4

I then took the shoot inside to try and capture low light images without a flash.  To help me achieve this I used a tripod.  (I even got my husband to participate in this session).  This was very hard - it might have helped if I had taken these images earlier in the day when the lighting was at an optimum rather than when the light was failing.  They are not the most successful images but still they might be rescuable in post production.

He was having a nap before starting out on a four hour journey to Norwich!

ISO 200, f3.2, 1/5

A rare moment of joy - not sure what sparked it!

I also had to be careful working indoors with the tripod - I have three dogs - and it can get a bit lively at times - to make sure my equip was safe the dogs were temporarily assigned to the kitchen - or in the case of the little one's snuggled up on the settee!

ISO 200, f3, 1/6

Deep in thought.

ISO 250, f3, 1/4

What can be better than a sunday afternoon on the sofa?

Nature

A damp and dull day.

I was supposed to be doing my second portrait shoot today but due to illness (not mine) this has had to be postponed to next week..so we went for a walk with the dogs instead round Branston Water Park.  It was a dull, damp day - you could feel the dampness in the air but I still wanted to take my camera to continue improving on my manual skills.

ISO 200, f11, 1/50

ISO 200, f11, 1/80

ISO 200, f3.5, 1/80

ISO 200, f3.5, 1/320

ISO 200, f3.5, 1/80

ISO 200, f6.3, 1/60

IS0 200, f6.3, 1/60

ISO 200, f6.3, 1/60

ISO 200, f3.2, 1/100

ISO 200, f3.8, 1/60