Portraiture
Definition and theory
Portrait: a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person.
Portraiture: the art of painting or taking portraits.
This portrait photograph by Yousef Karsh shows Wisnton Churchill with a stern face. He looks more miserable than happy. There is harsh lighting on his face making his face look rather chiselled. The lightning could also imply how important he is.
Image bank
I found several images from the Internet that clearly show portrait photography. I tried to select simple headshot images of people so I could get an idea of what to take when I do my shoot.
Research of artist
Thomas Ruff is a German photographer born in 1958.
He acquired his first camera in 1974 and after attending an evening class in the basic techniques of photography, be began to experiment with his camera taking similar captures to those he had seen in many amateur photography magazines.
Thomas Ruff studied photography from 1977 to 1985 at the Dusseldorf Art Academy under the renowned photography couple Bernd and Hilla Becher. Andreas Gursky, Thomas Struth and Candida Hofer were fellow students at the time. In his student days, Ruff worked as an art director for a post-punk band, so the band members became the models for his first photographic experiments. At the that time, he also worked on his renowned series of portraits. He researched the history of portraiture by experimenting with composition and framing.
Ruff usually photographed his friends, all aged between 20 and 35. He asked them to show no facial expression or feelings and to be dressed in ordinary clothes as they sat down facing the camera against a neutral background, as if for passport photographs. The results were revolutionary. In 1986, Ruff decided to print these photographs in large size. The monumental images bring the viewer close to the real physical attributes of those portrayed; the pores, wrinkles and marks on their faces are all clearly visible.
Whereas traditional portraiture would have us believe we are standing face to face with the model, these images leave no doubt that each picture is explicitly a photograph of the person, a chemically treated sheet of paper with an image on it. With this series, Ruff stresses the objective and purely registration function of photography. From this point of view, any interpretations of the character or inner life of the person are 'merely' suppositions on the part of the beholder.
Below are several examples of Ruff's work:
He acquired his first camera in 1974 and after attending an evening class in the basic techniques of photography, be began to experiment with his camera taking similar captures to those he had seen in many amateur photography magazines.
Thomas Ruff studied photography from 1977 to 1985 at the Dusseldorf Art Academy under the renowned photography couple Bernd and Hilla Becher. Andreas Gursky, Thomas Struth and Candida Hofer were fellow students at the time. In his student days, Ruff worked as an art director for a post-punk band, so the band members became the models for his first photographic experiments. At the that time, he also worked on his renowned series of portraits. He researched the history of portraiture by experimenting with composition and framing.
Ruff usually photographed his friends, all aged between 20 and 35. He asked them to show no facial expression or feelings and to be dressed in ordinary clothes as they sat down facing the camera against a neutral background, as if for passport photographs. The results were revolutionary. In 1986, Ruff decided to print these photographs in large size. The monumental images bring the viewer close to the real physical attributes of those portrayed; the pores, wrinkles and marks on their faces are all clearly visible.
Whereas traditional portraiture would have us believe we are standing face to face with the model, these images leave no doubt that each picture is explicitly a photograph of the person, a chemically treated sheet of paper with an image on it. With this series, Ruff stresses the objective and purely registration function of photography. From this point of view, any interpretations of the character or inner life of the person are 'merely' suppositions on the part of the beholder.
Below are several examples of Ruff's work:
The first, third and fourth images are all very similar and share the same connotations and denotations. The images show a woman from shoulders upwards. The woman pulls a straight face, which could suggest that she is concentrating on something or that she is in a bad mood of some sort. These women also show to be wearing makeup and jewellery which implies that they are very feminine. The second and fifth image differ because the women do not wear (much) makeup or jewellery and also appear to be wearing black, plain clothing. The lack of makeup and jewellery suggests that they might have a more masculine persona than the other three women.
- The woman in the first picture wears an off-white turtle neck jumper. The colour is simple and could suggest that she is peaceful and innocent. The style of the jumper adds to her femininity.
- The woman in the second image wears a black scoop neck t-shirt. The colour suggests unhappiness but the style of the t-shirt is a ladies shirt. The t-shirt implies that she is a woman but with the colour, it suggests that she is a woman who has a masculine persona.
- The woman in third image wears a burned orange/brown shirt which is buttoned to the top. The colour of the shirt suggests warmth and also that she is materialistic. The style of the shirt is hard to identify as it could equally be worn by either male or female, but she wears a broach between the collars, which pushes the connotations towards her being more feminine.
- The woman in the fourth image is wearing a red jumper with black stripes. The red colour suggests love, passion and power. The black stripes could suggest fear and unhappiness, although this might not be important as the black colour is a minority in the image. The style of the jumper isn't too clear to identify as feminine or masculine, but the colours could suggest that she is more feminine than not.
Selected images
Contact sheet
Best images
I have selected 5 images from my contact sheet that I think represent 'portrait' photography best:
Images that need improvement
The focus of this image seems fine, but the position of the model is wrong. I should have captured the picture so that the person is in the centre, whereas here, they are slightly positioned to the right. Also, there is an unnecessary shadow at the right side of the photograph because the person modelling for the photo was too close to one of the soft boxes, so to improve this image, I would request the model to move to the centre of the area between the two soft boxes and I would move my camera around to centre it on the the person. However, even if i had made all of these changes, I still wouldn't use this picture in my 'best images' because I am focusing on photographer Thomas Ruff, and all the models in his work do not smile, they pull a straight face giving a blank expression. I had taken a few pictures of this model and managed to capture one that I liked.
This photograph doesn't quite fit the standard to show the similarity between my own work and Ruff's work which is my aim for this element on 'portrait'. One reason being that the head of the model is tilted to the right lightly, which isn't how Ruff's models look; Ruff's models have straight heads. I thought that maybe I could use Photoshop to rotate the image, but realised this wouldn't work too well as the shoulders would now not be straight. Also, the model's head is titled back, so in the future I would make sure to ask the model to keep their head straight and frontal. Furthermore, I am unsure how, but the lighting was different on the first shoot I did (first four models from contact sheet) to the second shoot it did (last 2 models from contact sheet). This image, 13 other images, seem to be underexposed. This might be due to using a different camera. This isn't such an issue though because I can edit it in photoshop with to increase the exposure.
AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress
For capturing portrait, my intention was to capture several models each pulling a straight face and showing no emotion. I intended to do this because of the research I had done for photographer Thomas Ruff. I successful in this and was able to take a few dozen images in this way with 6 different models so that I could have a variety for my contact sheet. However, they aren't all the same for each model; there are some that show different postures and facial expressions as I was experimenting with the way I thought they should look, but I selected the images that looked most like Ruff's work. For all the images that I took, I used the same technique for each, therefore in the following explanations, I have had to repeat myself as I had to repeat myself in the shoots.
With reference to my best images:
For the first picture, I asked the model to stand in the area of the studio between the two soft boxes and to pull a straight face. I captured the picture along with a few other of the same model, but for this model, I experimented with the position, hand gestures and facial expressions so that I could see how they turned out. The first image I took was the best for this model as it shows a lot of similarity to Ruff's work. To take this image and all my other images for 'portrait', I used a tripod in a studio, adjusting the height to capture the body, head and shoulders of the person. I will later use photoshop to only show the head and shoulders of the model.
In the second photograph, I asked the model to do the same as the first model, but I only managed to capture 3 from this model because I realised that the second image I had taken was perfect to use as one of my best images. Again, I would need to edit this image in photoshop so I can crop it down to only head and shoulders.
I captured the third image along with a handful of others using the same model. I took so many because I came to the realisation that it makes it easier to select images for 'best images' if I have a bigger variety to chose from. I asked the person to, again, pull a straight face with no facial expression. For other captures, I additionally asked them to pull a 'moody' face. I did this because it is a similar look to a straight face but looks more miserable, which is vaguely what I gathered from Ruff's work. I couldn't zoom in any more to be able to only capture the head and shoulders, however, I could have asked the model to stand closer to the camera. I will crop the picture in photoshop later on to get this frame.
For the fourth image, I asked the model to do the exact same as the previous, which was to pull a straight face for some captures and a 'moody' face for other captures. I took several images of this model, some with glasses and some without. I selected this image without glasses simply because none of the images I found in my research of Thomas Ruff had models wearing glasses. This image was one of the best for just capturing head and shoulders, but it would still need to be improved in photoshop to crop it down so that it is more like Ruff's photography.
The fifth photograph was taken in a separate shoot than the first four and using a different camera, but still using the same area (including backdrop, soft boxes and tripod). As I have asked all the other models, I asked this model to pull a straight face. As the lighting is underexposed, I will edit it in photoshop to increase the exposure, as well as cropping it to just head and shoulders.
AO2 Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops
I used a Nikon D3300 and a Nikon D3000 to take my images. I had to use the zoom lens for all of my images as I wanted to capture the heads and shoulders of the models which so the zoom lens was most important for the shoots. I positioned the models directly in front of the camera, about several feet away. I used a tripod for all pictures to ensure that the images were straight and not titled/slanted. I also took all my images in a studio so that I could get the best lighting using soft boxes. The camera settings I used in the studio (on both cameras) were f11 for aperture value, 1/125 for shutter speed value and 200 for ISO value.
Below are screen captures of how I edited one of my best images in Photoshop:
I opened the image in Photoshop and selected the 'crop' tool. I dragged the corners of the grid to the size I wanted so that it only showed head and shoulders. I also used the grid lines to centre the model's face.
Next, I had to adjust the exposure level, so I selected 'exposure' from the adjustment panel. I dragged the line on the bar to experiment with the levels of exposure and see which level I thought would show to be the best. After experimenting, I decided that '+1.29' looked great for the image, but it did now look rather light.
I selected 'brightness/contrast' from the adjustment panel and lowered the brightness so that it would look more like the other images. This is because this image came out more underexposed than the others from 'best images', so this adjustment only had to be done to this image. I lowered the brightness to '-18' as I found this to be the best for the image.
AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytic and critical understanding
After researching photographer, Thomas Ruff, I was able to take inspiration and take my own photographs. Whilst researching Ruff, I came to the realisation that the information I found about his upbringing and living situation wasn't useful for my photography work. On the other hand, I was able to find many images that Ruff had taken which gave me ideas for my own photography. From finding his images, I was able to understand the lighting and image focus that he used and I would be able to transfer this understanding of it to my own work. I found that Ruff's images were mostly all of candid photographs, which I thought I would be able to succeed in accomplishing this. I tried interpreting Ruff's techniques and style into my own work. I would say that the research helped in various ways because I was able to visualise his images to take my own.
AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections on work and progress
My initial intentions for capturing 'portrait' was to take photographs of a variety of models all showing a rather miserable expression on their face rather than a positive expression. I wanted to capture all of my images in a studio so that I could have access to the right lighting. I had inspiration from the photographer I researched, Thomas Ruff, which helped me to shoot my own photographs. My interpretation of Ruff's work was to captures the models with a blank expressions, only head and shoulders in sight. I found that these looked like pictures you use for passports or driver's licenses as the person isn't allowed to smile, so I applied this knowledge to my work. With this interpretation in mind, I tried to take a similar approach to the style of Ruff's work in almost every picture I took for 'portrait'.
Below are the final edits :
