Project Development - Week 7

This week I had the chance to go into the photography studio to have the opportunity to experiment with some lights. The tutor, Jurian, gave me some paperwork with some examples of techniques that I could use for my final project. I will explore some methods such as key light, fill light and backlight.

The key light is the primary light that illuminates the subject. The fill light is just added on the opposite side to illuminate the shadows made by the key light. Backlight helps to separate the subject from the background, and it also helps with the shape and depth.

The first experiment I did was the Rembrandt lighting portrait technique. A small inverted triangle of light is situated just under the subject eye. It is an easy exercise due to the few materials that I need to achieve the task. However, it takes some time to get the right light and have everything adjusted for the photoshoot. For this exercise, I have used a key light and a silver reflector. 

Please see below an example of how I have displayed the studio for this experiment. 

The light on the right is the key light that illuminates the subject. On the left side, I have the silver reflector to use some of the light from the key light back into the shadowy areas on the subject.

In the beginning, I felt a bit confused as I did not have many experiences in the studio. But having some learning materials and the induction that I had, I could feel more comfortable in there. I started to move things around to find a suitable layout for this task. 

I have already had some feedback about some of the pics, and I need to create some depth between the subject and the background to have more light on the subject. This will help me in the future experiments that I will do for the project.

Second I have tried another technique with a Key light and a fill light where my subject is more illuminated and with not many shadows if we compare with the exercise above. For this, I have used a key light and a fill light. This exercise was easier if I thought about the light that I had not to move around that much to get a good shoot. However, I had to work more on the manual features in my cameras, such as ISO, Aperture and shutter speed.

We can see the key light on the left side to illuminate the subjects but still have some shadows on the right side. For that, adding a fill light could help fill up these shadowy places.

As a photographer, I am used to mainly doing outdoor photography such as landscape and architecture photography. Going into the studio was a challenge for me. Still, I felt excellent while doing this experiment. I prefer to work with some shadows rather than the key light and low light that brings much light to the subject.

I like to show some dramatic style and shadows in my pictures, just bringing the correct detail into it. I will have many works ahead, but it was an excellent start to understand some techniques I will use in my career. 

I have shot around 400 pictures that I will use in my contact sheets and show how I have found the light technique that I explained above and my project's development.

Investigate the software

In my project, I will work with two different software, such as Photoshop, to create my contact sheets for the final project and Lightroom to edit the pictures that I will take in the studio. 

Both are software that can edit the work I have to create, whilst Photoshop is a more complex software with many different tools. Lightroom works as a digital editing studio easily and intuitively for almost any user. 

Photoshop I will use to create the contact sheets that I look at in the class. I did not know that I could make this here, and it will be necessary for this project and many others in the future

Lightroom is a lightweight tool that I could use to edit the pictures that I will take. It is an easy and intuitive software that will help edit my photographs.

In the session of Digitals Arts, I had an introduction to Lightroom where I could learn the main tools that I will use to achieve this task. At the same time, I will be using a Lightning Diagram Creator to set up my light, camera, and the subject that I will be shooting, which will help me explain my process.

Creating a website - About me page

 For this task I had to start writing an About me page to be able to share some information about myself, my experience as a professional and work.

The following questions I had to answer to start this exercise are:

Who are you?

I am Edgar, I am 30 years old and I am a Portuguese born artist from Lisbon, Portugal.

How did you get to be where you are?

I have always been interested in Arts since a kid. I have studied Audio and Video working as a freelancer for different companies back in my country. Moving to London made me realise that I could actually go into the higher education and pursue my dream.

What are you doing now?

I'm currently studying at De Montfort University in Leicester, England. My progression route is Photograph and Video. 

What is your future?

I want to pursue a career in photography, travel the world and perhaps open my ow studio somewhere. I want to capture moments and write my name in the photography history. 

 

Research Class Exercise

For this session, I had to answer a few questions about how I did my research.

Please find the questions below:

Name something you have researched in the past for art, design or media?

The research that I want to talk about is what I did about the Russian photographer, Anya Kholina.

Explain how you researched this?

First of all, I googled her name and could not find as much information as I expected. I have tried just her name, then her name, adding the words photography or works to see more about her projects.

Then I could find a website, www.cherrydeck.com, with her portfolio and explore more about her works. However, I wanted to find more information about her, such as a biography, an interview, and text explaining her art. I could not immediately see this and had to explore more detailed information about her on Google.

After I visited her Instagram, I could actually chat with her. She said she could answer some questions that I will have prepared to add to my research due to the lack of information about her on the internet.

What facts did you discover?

With the research, I could realize that she does not do only portraits. She also does still life, reporting and backstage photography, interior and food photography. She is also a Graphic Designer with certainly helps her to achieve different targets with her skills. Film photography is also something that she also likes. Her work could be pretty controversial.

What NEW conclusions did you establish?

Looking into this artist, I could realize that I want to explore portrait photography. The way she captures the subject makes me want to try it too. And this is something I really appreciate in an artist when they have the power to convince you to try something or see things differently. 

Research into my major project

My final project will be based on my progression route, Photography and Video. The first idea that I had was to do landscape photography, which I am used to. But instead, I have chosen to do something that could be challenging me as an artist. Instead, I have planned to do portraits, and this will be done in the studio using a camera, Canon 700D, with a 50mm lens.

The first step was to look at an artist that could inspire me, such as Anya Kholina and after, I could research Yousuf Karsh in some of his pictures and some of the techniques that I have used in is a career and that I want to bring in my projects such as key light, low key or Rembrandt technique.

Research through my major project

Light will be the primary technique that I will explore, such as High Key, which is a technique that illuminates the subjects and the fill light that illuminates the shadowy places.

I will go through Adobe Premiere Pro to create my contact sheets and finally the Lightroom Classic to edit my final pictures.

My website, WIX, will be where I will showcase my portfolio, and it will be available by the end of the first term.

Research Artist - Final Project

My project will be based on my progression route, which is Photography and Video. With this project, I want to create a set of 12-14 images where I can explore and learn new techniques and, at the same time, apply some techniques that I already got. This will be made in the studio at the Art Factory during my self-study time.

I have done some initial research, and now I will, in detail, explore from where I got my ideas and see how they relate to my work.  

I will explore Yousuf Karsh, an American Photographer, his techniques such as portraits and lightning and see how I can bring some of the methods he uses.

During his career, he has done many portraits exploring light, which will be my starting point. I want to explore and understand how to bring something more than just take a shoot into my pictures. 

Please see below some examples of Yousuf Karsh photography works.

High

Reference:

https://www.borrowlenses.com/blog/portrait-lighting/

Creating a Website - Part 3

It is still a moment of reflection on what I want for my website, but having this moment of discovery and learning, I can step by step realize how I want my website to look to others and how I want to share my work. 

My website must look minimal and accessible to everyone who comes to see my projects there. I want the viewer to stay and explore me and the work that I have developed.

At this research stage, I have looked to a few artists and their websites to inspire me in different ways. I could get inspiration such as layout, colours, fonts, typography, design, etc. Hopefully, soon I will have my own website that could express myself.

The first artist that I could look into is the Brazilian artist Pedro Oliveira. He has won many awards, such as editorials, documentaries, and advertising. He has done some works for Forbes, National Geographic, Vanity Fair, The Guardian, and many others. His progression in the industry gave him a nomination for the "Top 10 Photographers of 2020" by PhotoPolitic. 

Now let me introduce you to his website and how it inspired me.

Something that catches my attention here is the homepage. Simple and effective. I want to explore more about the website. 

Clicked on the Culture button to explore some of his galleries. In this section, I can see everything aligned and clear to my view. I can quickly scroll down and see some of his works in this section.

I can see more of his works in another section, but I want to talk about the sidebar with other buttons that you can access. The white background makes it easier for the reader, with all the pages that we need to access well visible. 

Looking through the About Me page, I can see the relevant information on my About Me page. It is clear and with the news that readers such as clients or employers want to look at. The information must include progression, projects that I have done before, and knowledge about the different tools that help accomplish my works.

Creating a Website - Part 2

This second post I will talk about more in detail what we should include in our website and also some of the principles of design that we should follow to achieve success. It is a simple way to start as the website as all the feature for beginners. It also my first time creating a website and until now I found it easy and intuitive.

For this website I have been asked to have a few sections in my homepage such as HOME, PORTFOLIO, ABOUT and CONTACT. This words in capital are the main things that will guide the viewers through my website. 

Please see below how it looks the website with some screenshots that I took before I start to editing this to suit my needs.

HOME - Homepage where you can find the main buttons to going into different sections in my website.

PORTFOLIO - Showcase of my works and my projects

ABOUT - Some information about me, some of my work and education

CONTACT - Page where people can send me a message or do a review about anything they want. NOTE: This page should not include any personal information such as address, contact number or personal email.

After we saw these 4 sections we have discussed above, which they are the main body of this website I will go trough Legal and Ethical issues regarding to posting online. 

To build an online presence I need to be careful and managed this platform for my own success and avoid issues. I have to make it clear that the copyright belongs to me. See below the example where you should chance this to avoid any issues in the future.

At the very end in brown bar we could something like, '© 2021 by Edgar Romaneiro. Proudly created with Wix.com' this should be included in your website. 

This will help to prevent people to stealing the name of a product or brand, my inventions, the design or look of my products and things that I will produce in general.

It was a very interesting session where I could understand some principles about the website and how I should present this to get into a very important work that I am going to developed.

I was a bit confused at the beginning with the structure of the website but after spending some time on my self-study time I could understand that is not to complicated.

Soon I will have this ready for you to access and from that moment I will start posting my projects for this first year. Very excited with the idea to have a website where others can see what I have been doing and learning during my time at DMUIC.

Creating a Website - Part 1

For this week task I had to start creating my website with my tutor help and this website will include my final project. This website will be my digital portfolio where I will showcase my works from now on. It will be accessible to everyone after I have this ready by the end of the term. 

We started the class with some examples of websites that we could look at and discuss the different things they have on it such as design, we had to identify the target, we could explore a bit more and find out some different features. I could understand the principles of a good website design such as consistency which includes fonts, sizes headings and so on. Typography, colours, navigation, visual hierarchy and content are other important aspects while creating a website. I wanted to look professional and interesting for the viewers or in the future for potential employers or clients.

Now is the time to create the website and you can find below the process that I have done to create my digital portfolio. I could say that the platform that I have use, WIX, is simple and intuitive. With my tutor help for the next few weeks I will have this ready to integrate my final project on it.

When you go to WIX website you can initially find this homepage. Then you click GET STARTED

The website has all the features that you need to help you through the process while creating the website accordingly to your needs. I have chosen portfolio because it is what will need for the future.

Then you find another page with two different options and you will choose the option on your right hand side with some templates that will can edit going further in the creation of the website. It will much easier having a guideline that will help you rather to create a website from the beginning.

In the next page you will find many options of templates and the one above is the one that I have chosen. You can view many websites as you can before make a decision. You can have a look into the options they all have always having in mind which template it suits better your progression route.

This is the moment where you can go and have a look on the website before your final choice. You can explore and see the different features. Then you just need to click on the top right side on EDIT THIS SITE and you will be redirected to another page where you can start editing the website.

On the next post I will talk about the choice of my template and how I want to look like. As a photographer it will want to look clean and intuitive where people can see easily my works and not get bored with many other distractions. With will showcase my portfolio, my final project and other projects for the terms coming. 

I could understand how to start creating the website Wix.com with my tutor help and now one my self-study time I will start doing some editing and creating a website that could suit my needs.

Project Sign Off

In the week 4 I had the chance to have a meeting to discuss my final project for the module of Digital Arts. 

I could have the feedback from my tutor and discuss the best options for me while doing the project. Before this meeting I have been asked to do research and starting in my project idea. 

My progression route will be Photography an Video and for this project I have chosen to create a series of 12 images in portrait. I will exploring different techniques, such as light and composition and it will be made in the studio at Art Factory. 

I had some feedback in some points that I could change it or doing differently I got a clearly idea for the final project. 

For the next few weeks I still have to do some research and start working on this and I will post here every step that I will be doing in the next few weeks.

 

Initial Research - Anya Kholina

 Anya Kholina was born in Moscow, Russia and she works as Fine Arts, People and Lifestyle Photographer. Mostly focused on a portraits she has a passion shooting on film but also she can works in other fields of photography.

She came from a very conservative background and both of her parents are lawyers. She went to law school but she realised that she was not interested in this. But she graduated from University from her parents insistence. 'After that she started a course in Graphic Design and Illustration. During design education I always integrated photos into my graphic works and the final (graduation) project was a collaboration with a fashion designer.'

Nowadays she does reportage, food, interiors and still life. But her passion is people. 'A pretty funny thing is that I have always considered myself an introvert but at the same time I love taking pictures of people.'

She considers herself introvert but at the same time she loves take pictures of people. "People inspire me. How they look, their style and their mannerism."

She is a visual person and she sees fashion as a visualisation of our inner selfs.  She believes that fashion is a big tool to tell a story. When it comes to inspiration she says something interesting that I do like to share it here. "Frankly, I'm doing nothing for this. Inspiration comes from things and people that surround me, just surround yourself with the right components. Networking also helps. If things are really bad, then the best way is to go on a trip."

During the lockdown she started to make a series of portraits of people parted their hair. That kind of photography it is very different, exciting and it is very interesting for me. Photography that people in general are not used to see. With different elements and subjects. Exploring more than a beautiful face she adds different things to her pictures. 

Thanks to quarantine she can take pictures online from anywhere. That is something that I want to explore. A new technique that others artists could not use in the past. 

I have looked into Anya Kholina work and to her subjects that she uses to bring emotion and reality into her pictures. The balance, light and composition is something that captivate me.   

Facetime Photoshoot

References

Interview with Anya Kholina.,2020 [online] 

Available at:

https://www.yourlocalnewsstand.com/post/anyakholina

Portfolio of Anya Kholina [online]

Available at:

 https://cherrydeck.com/anya_kholina

Galeries of Anya Kholina [online]

Available at: 

https://cherrydeck.com/anya_kholina/portfolios/reporting-and-backstage

https://cherrydeck.com/anya_kholina/portfolios/food-and-restaurants

https://cherrydeck.com/anya_kholina/portfolios/interior

Smart Objective - DIVERSITY

I will be creating a series of images where I will show DIVERSITY. I will use primarily images for this project, and I want to explore the reality of life. Different poses, exploring expressions, working with different light, different backgrounds but never forgetting the main point of this project: DIVERSITY.

For this project, I will look for people around Leicester, primarily focused on the campus and introduce them to my idea to get some people to take some pictures. Hope this goes well, especially with the COVID-19 circumstances.      I can do it at the studio or outdoor. 

I will use my Canon 1200D or my iPhone. I will also reach AV Loans to access different material as soon I have everything planned and discussed with my tutor on the 28th of October.

I like to impress and generate discussion about my pictures. It will be my point of view. It will be my Art with all of my heart.

Find below some pictures I took a couple of years ago that I will use as a starting idea for you to understand what kind of Art I will be doing.