Images for the project

I feel these images give a good understanding to how I have try to get that subject doing different things but to still work around the brief.

My feeling on how the shoot went were, that I found it easy to work with the subject as they had a understanding of what I wanted, I wanted to show the connection with the young which work and the problem with debts and no being able to get a good job because of this.

I feel I really have showcased these problem with in the final image and that I try to show with in these images that I wanted to try a number of sitting and standing postion before I committed to the final image.

Camera and lens.

I used this camera over my full framed camera as I wanted to view them on my digital LCD screen on the back of the camera, and with this having a better on it would be the best choice.

I was worried that people were going to think that I pick this because of that and that I would not care about image quality because of choosing this over the full frame. But I was happy with the quality of image which would get off this anyway.

I used the Canon 50mm prime lens because of how good it is with depth and it is a stunning lens to use for portraits, I wanted a good sharp image around the eyes on the subject as this was a important element to the image.

Overall I feel my final portrait were well shot with this camera and lens and I feel I will use these again for any other portrait I do. I have got a job to do with the college, taking portraits of all the people which are finishing this year and I may try this lens out then as I didn't use it last year, but I feel this will be a good thing to review for this year portraits.

"But, it is for a fact that the best optical quality is delivered by prime lenses (fixed focal length, no zoom lenses). Why? In simple words, because they use a smaller number of glass elements inside the lens, which means lesser loss of quality, and hence better pictures."

http://digital-photography-school.com/the-50mm-f18-%E2%80%93-small-wonder

www.thephoblographer.com
www.the-digital-picture.com

lighting

This is a video which I watched about lighting, I feel I also learn best off showing videos or having someone showing me how to do, instead of reading a book. I love how the photographer is showing with drawing on the diagrams where the light is going to fail on the subject as this gives me a better understand about light and where it fails on a subject.

Overall I feel the photographer did a good job at the portrait and it truly shows the character of the subject with how they dressed and the environment they are in. I also feel a now have a better understanding about lighting a subject too with me doing my project which is on portraits.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maM4dWbK0A0

Project Summary (Dazed and Confused contemporary portrait of youth brief)

At the start I chose this brief from the D&AD because of the quality and diverse briefs which are available from the D&AD website. When first assessing the brief I foolishly got into the mind set of “Oh its just another photography brief” and put it to one side for a good number of weeks and devoted a lot of my time to other work and my input to the group project.

Now after evaluating and concluding this brief I fear I have let myself down regarding my devotion and commitment to this brief. As stated at the start of the year that this brief was our final one so it should showcase the quality of our research, development and to show what quality of work I can do. I feel I got into that unprofessional mind set because of how easy the last D&AD brief was, which I did last year but now looking back on it I foolishly let my professional standard slip, and I feel I have not took advantage of the time frame I was given to do this brief.

When starting the research on this brief I soon found myself struggling because of the style of work which Dazed and Confused publishes and works in. I feel that calling it a very modern and surreal style of photography, where the story and emotion behind the image takes more priority over the actual quality and photographical knowledge, can only sum up this style.

After seeking feedback from my tutor regarding the problem that I landed myself in as I only allowed myself three to four weeks to fully complete this brief. The feedback I got was quite short but constructive, he told me to simply read and research around the subject, which was a contemporary portrait. After seeking this feedback this settled my concerns about this brief but only for a small time. I feel I was so unsettled regarding this brief due to the nature and style which I needed to work in as I have worked successfully with people and portraits for a good number of years but this really pushed me out my comfort zone.

“Where the comfort zone becomes a problem is when we are stuck in it, when we don’t let ourselves move on with the natural flow of life. When we hold ourselves back and hide in our comfort zone we are effectively saying no to life.” Smith, J. (2012)

I knew to get an initial concept for this brief I needed to conduct a survey which would give me vital information about what worries the youth of today. I conducted this survey and got back the information that I needed to justify my reasoning behind this concept. I also tried another larger sized survey on social networking sites so I could get more statistics but due to time and possibly the target audience I was hitting, I was unable to get back any solid feedback on this survey.

I felt it would be wise to look into practitioners that work in the industry, which do portrait photography and from this I would be able to learn and see how they do it and to add my own personal twist on my final image. Overall I looked at seven different photographers which have made a successful career from working within the field of portrait photography, I was also pleased to see all different styles from all the different photographers and to see how they all put their own personal input into each image to make it a successful image.

I also found it helpful to look into what a portrait communicates as this helped me to work out how I wanted my final portrait and how I wanted it to communicate the message of worry, debt and job loss within the youth of today. The other key elements of my research were looking at how light effects and change a portrait and how portraits are seen and described like within the industry.

After this research I felt confident to start shooting development images for my project. Now looking back I should of give myself more time to conduct these images as there is a number of different styles in and out of the studio, which I wanted to experiment with. Yet again I feel this problem is down to time I allotted myself to do it in, throughout the shoots I started to develop an idea on how I wanted my final image to be.

I have done a series of mock-ups to test and try different background to show different emotions within the image. I settled with what seemed at first as a standard head and shoulder portrait, but I started adding elements to this image so it would be interlinked with my concept. The elements which I introduced to the image is a sense of the subject being blocked into the frame with the letters acting as a wall which the subject needs to knock down before they get their final goal. These letters are representing the student debt aspect of the concept, and with me using the background and environment my advantage I was able to get the feeling that the subject was unable to get the job they wanted after going through higher education because of the job cuts and economic crisis which is happening at the moment throughout the world.

Overall I feel with the problems I have given myself regarding the motivation and commitment to this project I have successfully executed the final image to a standard that fits the brief. I feel it is a portrait that I will use within my portfolio because of the personal story and the feeling this portrait gives off. 

Evaluation of final image

This is my final image, which I have done for my project to take a portrait of contemporary youth.

The concept I have made behind this image was to show that the young, ages between the age of 18 to 25 years old, struggling to get into employment after having gone to university or finishing higher education.

I have used a number of elements to get this image right, are these are:

Using the letters in the foreground as a wall to block the subject to getting out of this problem of student debt when they finishing higher education.

With the logo of Student Finance being noticeable and in focus gives the connection to student debt and with the letter being half way up the face shows the sense of being blocked in by them.

I got the subject to wear there uniform, to get them into the character of how they feel when working in their dead end job. At first I was not to bothered about having the uniform in shot as all I wanted to for them to be in character.

I am happy how the subject is starting into the camera with a sense of worry and stress with in there eyes. I feel this is a key element to this portrait as the eyes draw you into the image and give it the true feeling of angry and a sense of the subject being unsettled with there situation. I also think that

The background I have selected shows the problem with the world today with all the cuts and job lose out there. I feel this complete and into link all of elements of the image together. I feel the background is well balances and bold to give the image a 3D effect.

I used nature lighting for this image for a number of reasons, The first being that I felt that it would test my skills on lighting to get the image well lit and to get the right exposer with in the image with out using flash lighting and to get out of the studio. The second reason is, because of time I felt that I would be rush in a studio location and I felt because of the time I had left to do the shooting I would be better off shooting at a slower pace than I would be with in a studio.

Overall I feel that this evaluation truly explains my image of contemporary youth and the image itself show cases all the elements which I wanted it to show. These elements were debt, worry and job loss I got these elements from a survey which I did as part of my project research. 

Using the environment

Within this project I am aiming to use the environment in which my subject is in to enhance the final portrait. I feel these are good examples of how you can use the environment in which you are shooting to enhance the image. I do not think these images would be half as good if the author did not use space and environment within these images.


I feel i'm going to use this method of using the environment in my images to enhance the final artwork in quite a lot of my photography as I feel this would work well in everything from motorsports to weddings.

http://portfolio.joemcnally.com

Portraits

image 1

 Image 2

 Image 3

 Image 4

Image 1- This image portrays a sense of power and authority. I feel this also gives off a sense of pride because of the two american flags in the background. I feel the sense of power and authority comes from how the subject is standing, this stance is normally seen when you are taking a portrait of a director or owner of a company. I feel that the stance of the subject and the environment of where this portrait has been shot suits what this image is supposed to comunicate.

"Along the lines of defining your purpose, you must evaluate why you’re outside, what it adds to the portrait and how to best capture it.  In this photo of someone working out, a full body portrait makes the most sense to convey the health & fitness message being sent."

http://www.lightstalking.com/environmentall-portrait-tips

Image 2- A portrait like this is commonly found in a fashion magazine or sources like that. I have the feeling of this because of a number of factors and these are.

1. The highlights which you can see on the subjects hair is there to show details in the hair which interlinks with my first thought of it being something to do with beauty or fashion.

2. With the subjects hand being posed like it is gives the sense of seduction. Also with the subjects clothes slipping off her shoulder also backs up my feeling on the sense of what this is trying to communicate which I feel is the sense of seduction.

Image 3- What I feel this is trying to communicate is the feeling of commitment and devotion to the subject winning. With the obvious blood marks on the subjects head and the hand gives the sense that the subject maybe in a position where they might not be winning. With the subjects face being full of anger and that he looks like he is shouting also makes me feel that there is an element of pain in this image.

Image 4- I feel this is a natural lighten shot or a single light set up. I feel that the author of this image has tried to communicate the sense of disappointment or heartache. I feel it has been put in monochrome to enhance the masculine subject and the details of the arm, face and hair. With the subject holding the white object in his hand balances the image perfectly. I feel that the story behind this image is that the subject has just lost someone he loves and that by holding what I feel is a piece of their clothing in his hand and is reflecting on the good times.

Overall I feel that by myself breaking down the images to see what the author is trying to communicate and what lighting set up they have used will give me a better understanding on how portrait photography is changing all the time, and will keep me up to date with any changes to industry standards.




www.photovide.com

www.babydoll.ws

www.twentytwowords.com

www.funzug.com