Replication Plan

I choose the image by Justyna Banach. This image of a man in a hallway is from her “Bachelor Portraits” series. What I think what would be challenging when replicating this image is how to set up the strobes. In her image there is some natural lighting coming from the doorways that light of the scene. In my hallway there is some natural lighting that will be useful but how can I utilize the strobes to effectively light of the rest of the scene. Also another thing I need to keep in mind is when is the best time of day to shoot.

In my light diagram below- this is how I am starting to picture the shot. I would light the wall and possibly the subject.
Here is a photo of my hallway around 6pm (the light diagram was taken around 7:30pm.) I would need to take more shots during different times and figure out how much light do I want to come in from these rooms.

Final Project: Seeing Things?

This final project was WILD. I started off with not knowing at all what direction I was going and ended up with images that I am very happy with.
I cried three times and spent hours looking at mirrors, reflections, and paper until my vision went blurry. The concept of New Formalism still confuses me, New Formalism is, I think, about the different process that one can explore to create a photograph, but a photograph that is more than just pointing and clicking the shutter. “They are playful, raucous, disrespectful to norms, and openly celebrate of the surface beauty of the art objects they create.” Doing photography in this style has been interesting and has pushed mt creativity out of its own comfort zone and capacity. Honestly I’m not really sure if this New Formalism but I’m okay with that. I have a new respect for this style that forces one to push their limits and their idea of a photograph and photographic process.

Still Life: Menstruation Pads

This is not my area of photography at all so I felt very lost and uninspired. I literally had no idea what object I was going to shoot till day of shooting. I choose pads because well they were the first thing I saw that morning and because I thought of different ways to shoot them and create a still life. I think things ultimately turned out alright. I ended up with images and edits that I am okay with and ready to receive some feedback. I was definitely hesitant of using the “bloody” pad images because they may be too “graphic” but I decided that it was best to keep them as final images because women’s menstruation is something that needs to be normalize. A lot of the ads out in the world are shown with the simple blue liquid that is absorbed by the pad but I want to live in a world where that liquid is red and messy because that’s what women have to deal with- it shouldn’t be a weird thing SO we will see what feedback is given back.


Looking back now, things I would do differently would be playing with lighting bit more- and really push composition. Adding more text to the ad shot maybe could be helpful. Perhaps getting more variety of shots too.

At the end of the day though I think I did well for my first time doing this kind of photography

Model Cars

I think I was rather successful with this assignment. For both cars I used similar set ups and with the large soft box over head. The black car did not require a second strobe but did need to use black cards to block out some light to create a focused spot on the car to achieve the harsh shadow.
The harder of the two was shooting the white car since in the demo photo on canvas the red car does not have a shadow and it was hard to avoid it with the second strobe since I wanted to light up the background. I ended up moving the second strobe towards the back of the backdrop but light fell off towards to right side of the image.
Camera settings:

Black car: 1/80 @22 ISO 100

White car: 1/60 @22 ISO 1oo

PORTRAITS

This assignment made me very sacred and anxious- I have never taken portraits before and I had no idea how I was going to create something fun and interesting that respectfully represented myself and my subjects.

Ultimately though I had a very good session with my subjects, and I think I did well. My goal was to elicit different expressions from them and to capture their personalities. I wanted them to feel as confident and comfortable as possible during the shooting-since none of us have done this before.

I sat them straight and center of the camera and I used two strobes – the strobe on the left had an umbrella and the strobe on the right had a softbot.

 I like how all three photos of each subject have different expressions. To get such expressions I asked them different questions that I knew would bring out an expression- especially a happy/content one- I think I was successful

The images I choose as my favorites are:  R1 image 3, R2 image 2 and R3 image 2

I like how each are not looking at the camera and that they are all these different kinds of expressions that are amusing, and it shows their quirks. I took the photos as I asked them questions so I could get “in the moment” raw photos- I do know each subject but not super well so I relied on my friend Evonne (first row subject) to ask her friends Brandon and Gloria, questions and make them feel comfortable also- I remember showing them the photos as I took them and they said “Wow! That is so (blank)!” SO I was reassured I got images that represent the subjects well!

I think where I wasn’t very successful was with my lighting- since they all have glasses you can really see the reflection in their lenses and its sort of distracting- I should done a bit better of moving the camera and subjects so their wasn’t too much reflection- but I think for my first time taking portraits I did well and I am proud- I know now how I can improve.