Portraiture

This morning it was our 'In the style of...' shoot. We had to use our images that we found yesterday of our favourite images from each of the four photographers: David Bailey, Rankin, Mario Testino and Platon and recreate them using continuous studio lighting. Downstairs we had an Arri light and an LED light on a white backdrop and upstairs we had an LED light on a white backdrop and an Arri light with a black backdrop.

The first image I wanted to do in ithe style of was the David Bailey portrait of Twiggy. Unfortunately we only had a certain amount of time upstairs and downstairs. We were in pairs and had one camera between both of us so we had to keep swapping the camera over. My partner was asked to be a model quite a few times which meant that I had the opportunity to use the camera but the person I wanted to use as my model was taking portraits of my partner so I didn't get the opportunity to use the camrra then and once my partner had finished she wanted to use the camera so I didn't get the opportunity then either but after we had spent the short amount of time upstairs the people that had just been using the lights downstairs were still on so I took the opportunity to take the portrait then. I only had about 5 minutes to take the the portraits and in the time I had to have the final image that I wanted to use and luckily I did:

This is the final edited image that I managed to come up with. I think that it looks quite similar to the original David Bailey portrait of Twiggy but if I was to do it again I would put the hair that is front of my models face behind a bit more.

The next photographer I wanted to do a photo in the style of was Platon. I researched a portrait of the First Lady, Michelle Obama. I decided to take the photos for this particular shoot in natural light as I thought it would give a good effect and make the photo look more natural. The depth of field in this photo gives a really good effect as it focuses on my model instead of the background but still gives off a very nice, bright background.

I then only had time do one more shoot based on one of the photographers and I thought I would base it on Rankin's photo of Mary - Kate Olsen. I also took this picture using natural light because I thought that it would look the best way to get the lighting effect that Rankin looked like he used. If I was to do this again I would maybe take the shot again in a bit more shade as the lighting is quite bright and my model was struggling to face this direction as the sun was shining towards her.

Overall I was very happy with how my shoot turned out as I didn't end up having that much time but ended up turning out with some good images. One lesson i have learned is that if possible not to share a camera so that I will end up having more time to shoot.