Helen Rosemier Photography: August 2010

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Assignment 1: A comprehensive portrait - final submission

Assignment 1: A comprehensive portrait

My subject for this assignment was my husband, artist and writer Matt Rosemier. The brief required between five and seven portraits, which differ in style and type. I aimed to capture Matt’s character and tell a little bit about him in each of the images. I took approx 500 shots over the course of a month or so and found it very difficult to whittle it down, particularly as the ones I liked the most were all from one shoot. That shoot was the most recent so I hope I can take this as an indication that I have already improved my skills since beginning the People and Place course.

1. Hand

Exposed: July 25^th 2010

Equipment used: Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Lens: Canon EF70-200mm, f2.8L IS USM

Aperture: f2.8

Shutter speed: 1/40

ISO: 320

Focal length: 100mm

White balance: Auto

Location: Our garden, London E1

Lightning: evening shade

Processing in Lightroom:

Conversion to greyscale

Exposure +0.20

Blacks -> 9

Curves

Crop

I felt that Matt’s hand as the primary attraction to the eye adds interest to the portrait. The composition worked well with his face being out of focus but his expression still clear. I desaturated it to reduce the distractions of bursts of color in the garden and increased the contrast to bring some extra drama. The image is open to several possible interpretations of what is happening and I like the idea that the viewer may find that intriguing.

2. Guinness

Exposed: August 21^st 2010

Equipment used: Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Lens: Canon EF50mm, f1.4L IS USM

Aperture: f1.4

Shutter speed: 1/250

ISO: 400

Focal length: 50mm

White balance: Auto

Location: a pub in Bristol

Lightning: cloudy afternoon light through a window

Processing in Lightroom:

Exposure +0.35

Blacks -> 6

Curves

Crop

Matt loves his Guinness and I wanted to portray this side of him in a more unusual way. I liked the clean lines and shapes in this image and I think his pose and expression reveals some of his playfulness. The colours and background darkness put me in mind of the classic Irish pub. We tried several angles and arrangements of the glasses but being down and eye level and with the large depth of field seemed to work best.

3. Face

Exposed: August 28^th 2010

Equipment used: Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Lens: Canon EF50mm, f1.4L IS USM

Aperture: f1.4

Shutter speed: 1/200

ISO: 250

Focal length: 50mm

White balance: Auto

Location: Our bedroom, London

Lightning: afternoon sun through muslin curtains

Processing in Lightroom:

Exposure +0.45

Desaturated – red -31

Desaturated – orange -27

Crop

I wanted one of the images in this set to be soft and intimate. This is a gentle, contemplative moment and I deliberately kept it dark and unevenly exposed (resisting the temptation to dodge some of the areas of the picture). Unfortunately the composition is not exactly as I would have chosen and the highlights to the right of the original frame were blown out so I had to crop harder than I would have liked. However, I think the final result is an arresting image and provides a good balance to some of the other images in this portrait set.

4. Chair

Exposed: August 29^th 2010

Equipment used: Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Lens: Canon EF70-200mm, f2.8L IS USM

Aperture: f2.8

Shutter speed: 1/400

ISO: 400

Focal length: 70mm

White balance: Auto

Location: Our garden, London

Lightning: late afternoon in shade

Processing in Lightroom:

White balance -> shade

Desaturation – red -20

Crop

With this image I wanted to create a formal portrait shot to show Matt in his wheelchair but without the physical presence of the chair overwhelming the frame. I also wanted to capture a bit of the anger that keeps disabled people fighting for their rights. Matt is very feisty – he argues that paraplegics absolutely have to be - and I wanted that to show in this portrait.

5. Binoculars

Exposed: August 29^th 2010

Equipment used: Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Lens: Canon EF70-200mm, f2.8L IS USM

Aperture: f2.8

Shutter speed: 1/200

ISO: 200

Focal length: 130mm

White balance: Auto

Location: Our garden, London

Lightning: late afternoon in shade

Processing in Lightroom:

Exposure - +0.10

Blacks -> 6

Crop

This image, for me, captures some of Matt’s joie de vivre. He always has a pair of binoculars to hand and often watches the sky for birds of prey, UFOs or exceptionally beautiful moons. This image is in my opinion satisfactorily completed by his crooked teeth and slightly crazy expression, plus the reflection of our garden (a very important part of our life) in the glass.

6. Camera

Exposed: August 29^th 2010

Equipment used: Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Lens: Canon EF70-200mm, f2.8L IS USM

Aperture: f2.8

Shutter speed: 1/250

ISO: 200

Focal length: 70mm

White balance: Auto

Location: Our garden, London

Lightning: late afternoon in shade

Processing in Lightroom:

Exposure - +0.20

Blacks -> 6

Matt is an avid photographer and this image takes that theme to another level for me. The simplicity of the composition, colours and tones gives it an iconic, timeless look. In black and white or sepia this could be from an entirely different era and I think it really captures Matt’s intelligence and charisma.

7. Rubberbands

Exposed: August 29^th 2010

Equipment used: Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Lens: Canon EF70-200mm, f2.8L IS USM

Aperture: f2.8

Shutter speed: 1/160

ISO: 200

Focal length: 153mm

White balance: Auto

Location: Our garden, London

Lightning: late afternoon in shade

Processing in Lightroom:

Exposure - +0.25

Blacks -> 6

Split tone highlights – hue 53, saturation 20

Matt requested that we set this up for the portrait shoot. To me, it clearly indicates his very unique (slightly insane) mind. He told me he once tried this when he was on his own and thought it would look cool as a photograph. I like the expression in this shot as it portrays the spirit of someone who is carrying on, as normal, and with dignity and a sense of power, even though things are not really as they should be. This also seems to be evocative of primitive war paint or tribal scarrings/decoration. I desaturated it to emphasise the lines and shapes rather than the actual rubberbands which varied in colour (reds and purples). The split tone highlights warmed the image up a bit. I am expecting the viewer responses to this image to vary considerably!

Summary

The best successes in this assignment all came about when I had preconceived the images, planned them carefully and used effective direction for my subject. These were in a shooting location that I am already very familiar with so I don’t feel that I pushed myself as far out of my comfort zone as I should have done.

I was unsuccessful with some images by trying to shoot in poor (but atmospheric) light. More experimentation with different backgrounds would also have added more to the set and I must avoid situations where I am rushing or feeling self-conscious about being an amateur and wasting the sitter’s time! A few times, I missed a good shot by using a very wide aperture and not getting a sharp enough image in the right places.

Now as I prepare my final thoughts on this assignment I realise I have failed spectacularly to include any portraits where my subject really interacts with the environment. Stylistically, I prefer more simple images with dramatic black or single colour backgrounds, and I found shots taken around the flat or elsewhere to be too cluttered and mundane to want to include them in my final submission. This is an area I really need to work on and I am looking forward to the rest of the course where ‘place’ has more of a focus. It will be a challenge to try to shoot Matt in our very small kitchen or spare room or in the neighbourhood in a way that doesn’t look like a dull snapshot.

Areas for improvement

· Taking time over researching, planning and shooting

· More confident and unhurried direction of subject

· More experimental – backgrounds, poses, angles, lighting

· More confidence with using flash selectively

· Exploring more how people interact with the environment

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Exercise 8: Varying pose - Review

I deliberately chose some exaggerated poses for my subject, partly because he is a clown but also to explore some more unusual positioning of limbs. I expected the shoot to just be a learning process and good practice for directing my model so I was surprised to find two 'keepers' in the final results. I love the image of John looking out of his shed in the rain and the one of him squatting. I thought the latter would look false but it somehow suits his personality and expression.

Next time, I will ensure slightly less clutter around the area - I wanted to include the England chair and the BBQ but the cover for the BBQ was a distraction in a couple of shots (inc the squatting one). Again this is about slowing down and registering everything I can see in the frame.

Exercise 8: Varying pose, part 2

Exercise 8: Varying pose

Again this exercise reminded me that it is important to take time to plan and arrange the shoot with specific poses and ideas in mind. My subject Johnnie was excellent - he followed my instructions to the letter.

Exercise 7: Focal length and character

This exercise clearly indicated the distortions which start to creep around the 50mm mark. A longer lens might also better for more camera-shy subjects as it is not necessary to get so close to their faces.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Dorothy Bohm retrospective - Manchester

Went to see the Dorothy Bohm exhibition in Manchester last week. Lovely way to spend an hour out of the rain.

Dorothy came to England in 1939 to escape the Nazis and worked in a photographic studio. There was a shortage of photographic material during and after the war so Bohm only took four pictures of each sitter. Two as she imagined the subject would like to be seen and two as she saw them. Would be an interesting and extremely difficult project to attempt. Unfortunately there were not multiple examples of her studio work to illustrate this statement. She travelled extensively and settled in London raising a family. In 1971 she co-founded the Photographers’ Gallery.

In her work, Bohm sought to “portray dignity and the harmonious relationships of people to their environment”.

Having seen the Manchester retrospective of her work, I think she certainly achieves this and I found it to be surprisingly inspiring. The pictures are very gentle, appealing art shots. Not often challenging or necessarily thought-provoking but that is fine for me. Her head is turned by the kind of shapes and colours that draw my eye too and I loved what she describes as “indications of the human to complete the picture”.

Many of the photographs in a way just seem like very good snapshots from someone’s travels. She captures people and communities and built environments well – seemingly snapping at the scene before her without much intellectualising of the best composition or angle. Some of her urban shots (particularly of walls or buildings) are taken at angles that I would find too casual. I would have wanted to square up more or to have walked around and try to find a ‘better’ shooting point (she may of course have done this and was in fact shooting from the best spot).

I liked the torn posters set but, when I tried to analyse response to this I found myself moving to the opinion of: but what’s the point? I often feel like this about my own work of course - even the better stuff. Following my thought process on this, I should also say that pictures of posters, graffiti, street art or anything including sculptures or paintings are starting to leave me with an uneasy feeling that the image gets an immediate boost because it already includes some (usually good) art made by somebody else. Surely this is cheating a little bit?

I am also fascinated by whether or not her images are very obviously taken by a woman. They seem very feminine to me but, as a woman, it is difficult to be objective. An interesting area to explore I think.

>>>>>> Dorothy Bohm's website

Some of the Bohm quotations on the walls at the gallery: “I photograph the humble, the anonymous who are spontaneous and mirror all of us.”

“People everywhere live with the same joys, the same loves, terrors, tragedies. But it is a world of constant change… it is the evanescence that moves me – the vulnerability of human existence, happiness that passes, beauty that fades.”

“In the photograph the child remains forever a child; laughter remains. The blossoming tree retains its blossom. A woman picking flowers in the sunshine lives forever and in them, just a little, so do I.”

Exercise 6: The best of a sequence

I probably should have chosen a different model for this exercise as I know exactly which pictures would be best of my Mum whilst shooting and on later viewing. The poses she is most comfortable with always come across best (but, interestingly, this maybe because I am very keen to always take flattering pictures of her...) and my notes at the time tallied closely with my choices now, a few weeks later.

With the lighting in the shady pergola, shots with her looking directly at the camera always work well and three quarter (45 degree) turns. Mum's eyes are beautifully green and very penetrating. The head and torso shots looked better in retrospect than I had thought on the day. This exercise served as a good reminder to be very proactive about trying a wide variety of poses and shooting angles (which makes me wonder why the course notes suggested using a tripod?). I would be really interested to see how Mum's expressions caught in this shoot would compare with those from a portrait session shot by a stranger. Could someone that didn't know I was her daughter see the love (and maternal indulgence) in her eyes, I wonder?

Exercise 5: Eye-contact and expression

This exercise encouraged me to direct my subject to take different poses. There were some surprisingly good results from the stage directions with poses I would not have thought could look right so it was a really useful process to work through.

Exercises 3 & 4: Review

Exercise 3 was all about experimenting with light. I chose Matt as my subject (always my favourite model) and went for a head shot. We tried very bright sunshine which highlighted the contours of his face rather unflatteringly - I found the shadows around the eyes to be distracting.

Foil worked well as a reflector (although it almost blinded him). This gave a lovely surreal lunar feel to the images. A bit unflattering to anyone with heavy chins though, I suspect. I also liked the rectangular white shine in his eyes. I have used a collapsible photographic reflector discs on several shoots before but had never thought to try foil and it would be much more flexible and less intrusive/intimidating in certain lighting situations.

We then moved into the shade, under a vine-covered pergola. The light was very flattering and the final images true to the tones I was seeing with my eyes.

The night time candle-lit images were passable but too noisy (ISO 3200) and too red for my tastes, even with the adjustment of the colour balance in Lightroom. The black and white versions worked better and I liked the abstract shapes and blocks of tone.

Shooting in the diffused light setting was rather a revelation. I loved the light and the colours. Picked up on the detail of the face without being too invasive. Slatted blinds also give great lines and enhance the composition so very pleased with that. Must keep experimenting with light and locations and must also become more confident with using flash (and less purist about it!)

Exercise 4 aimed to capture expression while the subject was engaged with an activity. I photographed my Mum, Patti, chopping onions up. She is very self-conscious – especially up close so I was glad that she relaxed enough for me to get a smiling shot. And I was pleased to capture the look of concentration and the final eye-watering image after she’d had an onion cry. Nice natural light from the kitchen window and I just about got away with the 50mm lens, wide open. It was a very restricted area though and I would have like to get more angles. Should have moved the shoot to somewhere with more space to give more options and tried other lenses and apertures.

Also took some pics of my Dad - TC. He too is sometimes uncomfortable in front of a camera and usually talks when I photograph him so I got quite a few unflattering outtakes. I thought the wide-angle lens in his garage worked reasonably well, despite some of the resulting distortions. A couple of these images were usable as contextual portraits and certainly captured TC as his family so often see him. It was difficult to always see his face and eyes due to the set up of his garage and I should have tried to pose some of the shots better to get his profile. Again I really need to practise directing my subjects more.

I converted some of the images to black and white as the many colours in the scene, combined with the ludicrous clutter of the garage, was rather distracting in my opinion. The desaturation helped to give the portraits a softer and more timeless feel, which seemed in keeping with the traditional craft of woodworking.

All in all some good final images but I still must work harder to slow down, plan, find the right setting and then direct my subjects more, while keeping them relaxed. I must also keep focussed on experimenting with light and location more to get outside of my comfort zones.