In this project we will be experimenting with different photographers work and trying to replicate what they do when taking our own photographs. This is to help us when deciding what project to choose when we come to do our own as we will have experience in other areas in photography and we will know what we like and what we are good at.
David Bailey
David Bailey is a British photographer known for his work in fashion and portrait photography. He has worked with many celebrities such as The Beatles, Johnny Depp, Jack Nicholson and Oasis. In his work, he usually takes close ups of the model's face uses high key lighting and then removes the colour from them when editing them. This is a very simplistic form of photography. Bailey's photographs lack any interesting poses and to me they seem like the reason that they are interesting is because of the people in the photograph rather than Bailey's skills as a photographer.
In my work, I will use the same poses as Bailey - looking straight into the lens, looking over the shoulder and into the lens, placing the hand on the face etc - and I will also use the studio lighting onto a white background.
When in Photoshop, I will use black and white and maybe sharpen them if I feel it is needed.
In my work, I will use the same poses as Bailey - looking straight into the lens, looking over the shoulder and into the lens, placing the hand on the face etc - and I will also use the studio lighting onto a white background.
When in Photoshop, I will use black and white and maybe sharpen them if I feel it is needed.
Research: The work of David Bailey
My Work: Raw Images
When photographing the images below I was attempting to recreate the work of David Bailey. Apart from the lighting being too bright in some cases, I would say that the images were a success. I worked around the basic poses and close ups that Bailey uses in his photography.
My Work: Edits
Bailey isn't very experimental with his Photoshop work. His edits will either be black and white or just have an increased saturation. Due to the fact that I didn't use many bright colours in my photographs I just used the black and white tool along with unsharp mask. The edits, although very basic, do improve the images and they are very true to the work of David Bailey.
Conclusion of Project
In conclusion, I personally feel that this project isn't particularly interesting due to the simplicity of it. It is as safe as portrait photography gets and there is no experimentation in the editing. I feel that Bailey's success as a photography is totally reliant on the people he photographs. As I was not photographing celebrities the photographs just didn't have the same flare to them.
From this project I know that when choosing my own direction I should use a more complex form of photography in order to make the photographs more interesting to the viewer. However, I did like the lighting that the studio lights gave so I will use this equipment again when doing my own project.
From this project I know that when choosing my own direction I should use a more complex form of photography in order to make the photographs more interesting to the viewer. However, I did like the lighting that the studio lights gave so I will use this equipment again when doing my own project.
Laurent Duquick
Image Analysis 1
Laurent Duquick is a architectural photographer. In his work, he creates images using multiple images and laying them on top of one another with the top images featuring an lower capacity than the lower one so that all the photographs are visible. The image above is one of Duquick's. It features three photographs of the same building at different angles. One is a wide shot of the building and the street leading up to the building, one is taken at a higher angle and zoomed closer in and one is slightly more to the right side of the building. They all feature people in the photograph and the way Duquick has placed the people on top of one another makes the area look alive and moving within the photograph.
Image Analysis 2
This image is slightly different to the first due to the fact that it takes the style of a panorama by laying thin strips of images side y side as well as on top of some square images. Duquick has created this image through taking images of this strip of shops. He has ensured that all the images are facing the shops at a straight angle and that the images overlay one another. When photoshopping this image, some of the layers have been made darker and had slight changes to the saturation in order to show that the layers overlaying one another. This makes the image more interesting to look at because you have to look closely at it to see the techniques that Duquick has used and the more you look at it the more you find within the photograph.
Research: The work of other photographers
My research for this project is architecture images taken in Liverpool. This is because I am going to use these images as influence for when I take photographs in Liverpool so that I can use these images to create edits like the work of Laurent Duquick.