photography
FOR GREENHORNS
A Guide By Chester Weiley
Photography
To me, photography can be a lot of things. It's a hobby, it's a platform for art, it's a method of documentation. Like it or hate it, you see it everywhere. From journalism to fine art, photography is undeniably versatile. Here, I will critically analyse three of these applications: Portraiture, photojournalism, and abstract.
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You've heard it before; "a picture is worth a thousand words". In this guide, I intend to explain why.
Portraiture
I'll start with portraiture, as it has a foothold in so many other photography applications, from fashion to medical. On the surface, portrait photography is taking a picture of a person. But for such a simple premise, there are a lot of factors and techniques that can completely alter the personality of a portrait photo. These factors include the use of lighting, composition, poses and focal length.
I like portraiture because it is as difficult as you want it to be. A candid photo (subject is unaware they are being photographed) may be great for capturing the raw emotion of your subject, but the disadvantage is that you have limited time and limited control over the environment, whereas a studio shoot may result in a better photo because the environment is controlled, but you lose some of the authenticity that is often sought after by portrait photographers.
American photographer Anna Leibovitz is a household name in the photography industry as a whole, and she is arguably the most influential portrait photographer of all time. Her photography is diverse in style, but they all share one trait, which is that the subjects of her portraitures are almost always influential figures in our society.
The image above is a portraiture of Queen Elizabeth II, taken by Leibovitz outside Buckingham Palace in 2007. At first glance, the photo isn't exactly striking or emotionally charged, in my opinion. This is mainly due to the use of quite muted, naturalistic colours that don't really "pop", because they are so similar that they almost blend in with each other. Some would see this as a disadvantage, I feel as though this complements the photo. The Queen has never been known for her charisma, and this photo captures this aspect of her character through the colours alone. Leibovitz paid as much attention to the foreground as she did to the background, as she used both deep focus and a high dynamic range to bring out as many details as possible in the endearing backdrop. This lead to the clouds in the sky appearing more 'dramatic'. The personality of the subject is almost intimidating. This can be attributed to Leibovitz' usage of a low angle medium-wide shot, which makes the subject seem more towering, as she stares ever so slightly past the camera with a cold, steely gaze. The closest thing the subject does to a pose is facing her body slightly away from the camera. Leibovitz' use of composition is subtle but masterful. The subject is slightly off centre, which follows the rule of thirds. The use of framing is highly effective in this photograph, as the subject has been placed in the gap between two large, silhouetted trees. The black outfit worn by the Queen matches the palette and heavily contrasts with the sky, which diverts the viewers attention directly to her, giving her an even more powerful look. One technique that Leibovitz is associated with is 'one point lighting', and I believe she used that technique in this photo. The colour of the light on the subject matches that of the sky, but it does not in any way look 'natural'. Personally, I would have preferred for the lighting to appear more natural, as to me that felt like the general tone of the portraiture.
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The image on the right is another portraiture by Annie Leibovitz, this time depicting music artist Rihanna for a Vogue shoot in 2011. In comparison to the last photo, this one is almost completely opposite, which shows how versatile her portraiture style is. This photo is stunning and shows a lot of personality, even with the abundance of negative space. The use of a medium angle was a good choice in my opinion, as a high angle shot would have made the subject look vulnerable and a low angle shot would have made her look intimidating. In addition to this, the medium-wide shot gives her enough space to look natural but doesn't come close to dominating the frame, so the background is still relevant. Unlike the last photo, this one was shot with shallow focus, which is completely appropriate as the backdrop can be interpreted by the viewer, even out of focus. The palette uses highly contrasting deep reds and soft blues, which make the image 'pop'.
On the left is a candid portraiture, taken by the late American photographer Mary Ellen Mark in 1983. There are some instantly noticeable differences between this kind of portraiture and the almost idealistic Leibovitz-style. This photo instantly comes off as more 'gritty' and 'real', somewhat resembling photojournalism photography. The subjects are two young adults, one of which is brandishing a firearm which he appears to be tucking away in his jacket. Like all of Mary Ellen Mark's photos, it is monochrome. I think that the lack of colour does wonders for this photo. It makes the whole situation more disturbing, as it dehumanises a subject whose face is already obscured by a hat. The rule of thirds is not followed, as the subjects are placed within the centre of the frame. In my opinion, this makes the already headstrong teens look even more powerful, which works well for the sort of portraiture Ellen Mark tries to depict. This photo is a great example for showing how applications for photography can always cross over.
Photojournalism
I find photojournalism photography interesting because it often sees dedicated photographers in dangerous situations, which the other photography applications just don't really do. Photojournalism is the use of photography to document often tragic real-world events, such as war, poverty, and injustice. The images are often collected to be used by news networks. Unlike other esteemed photographers in different fields, famous photojournalists tend to have only one photo that defines their career. Photographers in this field are not unskilled by any means, but the quality of their work is often dictated entirely by luck.
Eddie Adams is an American photojournalist, whose most noteworthy photos came from the horrors of the Vietnam war. The image on the right is, unfortunately, Adams' most famous (or infamous) photo. Taken in 1968, the photograph depicts a handcuffed Vietcong prisoner being executed by the chief of the national police in South Vietnam. Due to the time period, the picture is grayscale, but I feel as if the lack of colour fits the gritty tone of the photo perfectly. The rule of thirds can be seen, as both of the subjects faces are on the top left and top right power points respectively, making the image a lot easier to interpret. Shallow focus may have been used, as the foregrounds look much sharper than the backdrop. This picture has been viewed by millions, as Eddie Adams has used photography to give the general public a peek into a the violent side of the world we try so desperately to ignore. This photograph divisive, disturbing and powerful.
Above is another photograph from Eddie Adams, this time depicting a US marine bringing a wounded soldier back to their distant base of operations, taken in 1965. In comparison to the last photo, this one seems a lot more composed. The candid photograph of the soldiers is emotionally charged, as the one face that the audience can see displays so many emotions with his genuine expression that Eddie Adams captured. I see it as mixture of fear, anger and hopelessness, and the photo complements these feelings in a few ways. The use of selective focus is nice, as it gives the viewers a great sense of depth. It also places the focus on the subjects, who are in focus whilst they are off centre, directly on a vertical power line on the right. The unplanned use of light is almost poetic in this case, as the Sun lights a diagonal streak down the side of the subject's face, as his eyes are shadowed by his helmet. For me, the lack of colour furthers the already emotional picture. Just like war, the lack of colour deprives the photograph of everything that made it human, like the green in the trees and the colour in the subjects faces.
Abstract
Abstract photography is my personal favourite photography application, as I find it entertaining to see how creative people can get with their cameras and mise-en-scene. I would describe abstract photography as an unrealistic imitation of reality. This involves macro-shots of obscure objects, photos taken from unconventional angles (canted, upside down), and the creative use of colours and lighting. Unfortunately, abstract photographers don't have a large audience, and for most, like myself, it is just a hobby.
Above is Colin Knowles 'Skytrain'. This photograph is a great example of how creative you can be with the correct amount of camera manipulation. This photo shows a grey tunnel with a bend. Despite what some would think, this effect can be achieved in camera through the use of 'long exposure'. The tripod-mounted camera was placed at the front of a moving subway train , and the exposure was set to three seconds, resulting in the camera picking up three seconds worth of frames and merging them all together, creating something that looks like this. Long exposure is not new, but this is one of the best uses of it I have ever seen.
This is Evgenji Soloviev's 'Call Him Cliff'. It shows the outline and some features of a man looking down, but the photo has been edited to make his face and body contain a desaturated image of a red cliff. In comparison to the other pictures featured in this guide, this may be the one that spent the most time in post- production. This type of editing is called 'double exposure', and it is the process in which you take two drastically different images, (often a portraiture and a landscape) and you combine them into a composite image. Personally, I love the effect, even though it is seen so often on film posters.
I was quite surprised when I found out this was a photograph. This is Kevin Dooley's 'Sunday Abstract', and it is the result of mixing various sources of light with 'long exposure', the same effect seen on 'Skytrain'. This time the camera was on an eight second long exposure, while he moved various light sources in abnormal directions, resulting in these 'light trails'. Despite the appearance of the photo, there are still some compositional techniques at play. All of the instances where the light bends are placed on power points, which make the design even more aesthetically pleasing.