Unit 24: Studio Techniques and Unit 25: Studio Photography

Still Life Workshop:

This is a test shoot I did for Still Life and these are examples of what could be product advertisement:

The cut up onion on the left has been put on a piece of slate to make it more visible and crisp. This is good product advertisement for food brands that want to promote a certain shop that they are selling their products in.

On the right is a mirrored object and the whole purpose of photographing something like this was to learn how to photograph something reflective without having your surrounding or camera appear on the product. Although it isn’t perfect, I used a ‘Light Tent’ to which is essentially just a tent that goes over the product with to lamps aimed right at it.

Portraiture Workshop:

In one of our lessons we went in to the studio with a white background and a black one. I chose the black background approach and these were the results.

The first image was a chance serendipity which I chose to keep because it created a really cool effect.

Essay:

Firstly I am going to establish the key differences/similarities between Portraiture, Still-Life and Advertising. Portraiture focuses on taking photos of living things like people, animals, insects and is commonly seen almost everywhere we look; from shop windows to website pages. This is because it is used heavily in advertising photography to show off clothing for a store or maybe even advertise a pet store. The history of portraiture has been around for hundreds of years and was commonly done with oil paints for the wealthy who could afford such a thing at the time, nowadays a portrait can be done at the click of a button on a phone or a camera and is seen everywhere.

Annie Leibovitz is a very famous portrait photographer and her work is widely praised for being dramatic and consists of clear, bold images of most celebrities. Where her photos are clear and bold, Martin Schoeller (New York-based photographer) takes it to the next level on simplicity with photos that are direct and head-on with hard lighting from almost every angle and the person’s face filling up most of the photo.

Still life, on the other hand, is the complete opposite of portraiture as it involves taking photos of inanimate objects, this form of photography is also commonly used in an advertisement. The two main things that Portraiture and Still Life have in common is that they are both usually (not always) studio-based and are also used in the third form of photography which is Advertising. This form of style hit popularity all the way back in the 17th century with once again oil paintings as the starting point for still life photography. These paintings mostly consisted of stuff like fruit bowls and once again has influenced the modern day of photography while being seen almost everywhere for advertising.

Edward Weston was an American photographer who specialized in close up photos of fruit and vegetables which he manipulated to make them look like surreal objects. He used one studio light usually above his object so he could cast these cool looking shadows which was his main selling point for his photos.

Advertising can be presented in many different ways and is seen almost everywhere we go; from buses to billboards and almost anywhere on the internet. The main purpose of advertising in photography is to promote a product that is featured in the photo.

For the portrait genre, there are many different lighting techniques that are used and can even be done in a way where the light is positioned behind the model so that we can only see the outline of the person. In the practicality of advertising, a harsher light source is better so that it is easy to see and the product like clothing or for whatever the company is trying to sell for still life is more visually eye-grabbing to someone who may be passing by.

Rembrandt Lighting is a technique where it can be only done through portraiture, it is recognizable because it leaves this triangle of light under one of the eyes of the subject. Before the camera, people would actually do this technique by just using natural light and then painting it in from what they could see in front of them but now with the development of the digital camera and studio lighting, it is a lot easier to add in with the use of artificial lighting.

One difference between painting a portrait of someone and taking a portrait in a photography studio is that there are a lot more health and safety concerns. Back then there weren’t any lighting rigs so they just used the lighting coming through a window but now with the advancement of technology, there are all these safety issues from wires all over the floor to leaving the lamps on for too long meaning that they could overheat and cause a fire.

Still-life has its fair share of hazards but not as many as portraiture as the main worry with hazards is the risk of putting anyone in danger but still-life is taking photos of objects and not people. There is still the same risk as leaving the lamps on for too long but it is a lot safer as you have fewer people walking around in a small dark room. Advertising can full into both of these categories as they use both photography techniques.

In conclusion; these three genres of photography all have different and sometimes the same techniques. The main thing that is usually different is just the subject itself which can also require different lighting techniques. The same equipment is used when doing either of the genres but still-life could require more props and or objects to go into your shoot if you want there to be, whereas a portrait shoot could involve clothing, props for the person to hold or just some props for the aesthetic of the background.

Studio Photography: Still Life Advertising Photography

Research:

I have picked Nintendo to research as their target demographic is very specific. In this photo they have used photoshop to bloom out the lighting on the devices and make their latest product, (Nintendo Switch) stand out in the photo.

Their target demographic are kids onwards and adults that grew up with the retro style of Nintendo in the 80s and 90s. This is shown by the use of the mini arcade machine and the old Nintendo NES controller to the right of it.

Coca Cola are another famous corporation that does a lot of still life photography with their bottles or cans. In the photo I have found they have added broken ice and vapor type substance around the bottle to show the refreshing drink that is Cola.

Jack Daniels came out with a cider simply called (Jack Daniel’s Cider) to target the British demographic as we are a heavily cider based country when it comes to alcoholic drinks. In the image the photographer has put the bottle in a large apple ice sculpture with the tagline “JACK TO THE CORE” implying that although the apple/cider may surround it, the Jack Daniels is the core

Planning:

My idea is to do still life with retro and modern technology and how they have “improved” or changed drastically over the years. For example a cassette tape and a CD. These are some examples of what I’d like to do.

My intention is to have the photos of the two products combined together to show how the technology has changed over the years.

One of the products I will be promoting is a Canon camera which will be compared to the 1979 Olympus OM-10.

These are some diagrams of the lighting I will be doing:

The backdrop and flooring the product will be on will vary so It won’t just be a white background and I also may be using some coloured gels to get some warm or cooler effects depending on the product.

For the camera ones I am going to have some props surrounding the product to add a bit more to the photo. Some ideas I have are coffee beans and some camera lenses which sounds unusual but I don’t want to use any bright colours which might draw the audiences eyes away from the products and the camera lens will be in the background and won’t be in focus.

Most of the props and backdrops I will be getting from ‘The Range’ down in St Phillips Marsh which is only a 20 minute or so bus journey from the college. There are two art shops up on parks street which is only a 7/8 minute walk away. I will be going to those shops first as it’s closer and then ‘The Range’ on the 19th.

These photos will be poster advertisement for the product so for the camera ones I will be using the “Canon” font from dafont.

Proposal Form:

https://furlongphotographyhome.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/still-life-proposal-.docx

Backdrop:

This will be my backdrop which is a dark brown and will go with the aesthetic of the shoot which includes mainly shades of brown and blacks. This isn’t a huge backdrop as it doesn’t need to be because these photos will be more close up towards the cameras.

I was going to use a black backdrop from the college but the cameras wouldn’t stand out as much as they are also black so I decided to go with a brown.

Subjects:

These are some old and new cameras that I will be photographing together and separately.

Props:

These are the props and objects I will be photographing in my shoot. The photo on the left will be my backdrop which is a dark brown which will go with the aesthetic my shoot is for which includes mainly dark brown/browns and blacks. In middle

Contact Sheets:

These are some good and not so good photos from my shoot on Friday 24th Jan:

I am overall happy with this image but the only and main obvious flaw is that the cassette tape has too much light reflecting off of it which I later positioned differently to make it more visible.

The best parts about this photo is the way the phone is positioned as it showed the Spotify logo perfectly without and glare coming off it.

I am happy with how this photo is positioned with the use of the negative space around it but the one obvious thing is my hand holding the rope in the photo. With some editing I should be able to edit the hand out as there is nothing to complicated behind where my hand is located.

Edited Images:

Final Images:

Studio Photography: Portrait Photography

Research:

Annie Leibovitz is a widely known American portrait photographer born in 1949 and is best known for her engaging photos with iconic celebrities. One of the most iconic photos from her is from the movie ‘Les Misérables’.

Leibovitz intended to become a painter and enrolled in the San Fransisco Art Institute, 1967. Although she enjoyed it, after taking a night class in photography, she quickly became invested in that medium. By 1970 she got her first commercial assignment to photograph John Lennon for Rolling Stone magazines.

A lot of her photography are created either for magazines or sometimes film

This photo has many good ideas and techniques in it, one of the obvious ones being the heavy use of rule of thirds on the girl. This gives room for her hair to flow and take up a lot of photo so it isn’t just a completely blank blue background. Another feature I like is the colour of the eyes matching the background.

There aren’t many colours in this photo which is good as it matches the tone of the movie.

Nadav Kander is a London based photographer born in Israel and is know for his heavy use of greens and blues in portraiture. Before he moved to London when he was older in 1986 he moved from Israel to Africa in 1963 when he was only 2 years old.

Kander got into photography when he moved to London and later got heavily recognised and was awarded the Royal Photographic Society’s “Terrace Donovan” Award in 2002.

He has photographed many iconic celebrities such as Keira Knightley, Chiwetel Ejiofor and even Donald Trump.

He also photographed the famous 2009 black & white portrait of Barack Obama

All his photographs have a similar style to them; in the way that they are shot and the colour of them. In the photograph below he has still done a green/blue colour but has also put a yellow gel of some sort over the light and has pointed that at the models face to make the viewers focus in that particular direction of the photo.