For this shoot, I wanted to push my skills within a studio environment in order to display some strong portraiture. I got inspiration for a shoot when I saw a piece of art from, graffiti artist, Banksy. The image featured a couple who are holding each other, however their attention is diverted by their phone screens. I thought this was extremely powerful and I knew that I could use some methods within the studio through lighting in order to create a similar effect. I wanted to think about composition in order to communicate an idea of how everyone is so immersed within a media world and how everyone may be present in body but not in mind as they diverge into social media. It is a massive subject that is often debated. Its relevance, especially as technology has greatly advanced and the world has socially grown smaller. I wanted to focus on contrast as a key theme in order to make the image more visually striking as well as to make the message abundantly clearer. I also wanted to add some other themes that I have explored through hyperreality by changing the intensity and tone of the light in order to replicate the Banksy art style and to make the image/contrast more dramatic. To achieve the effect that I wanted to use, I had a two light set up. One light had a soft box while the other light which would flash had a snoot. This would allow a small/softer light to be projected onto the face of the person in order to simulate a dramatised version of the light from a phone. I used a black background in order to create a sense of emptiness within the frame. I used a shutter speed of 250, and an ISO of 200. This would allow me to achieve a brightness which wouldn't cause the face/background to appear too overexposed while not causing the image to be too dark as I lose detail within the image to darkness.
Example from Banksy:
This image features a person taking a selfie. It is a common term which immediately offers connotations to the digital age and social media. It implies a sense of vanity/self obsession which causes people to build up a relationship with a digital world. The person within the image is smiling which contrasts with the dark tone of the image. This is used to imply that the person is happy within her social media life but in reality her life is extremely empty, as is represented with the use of black in the frame. I have enhanced this sense of emptiness through the use of composition by ensuring a large portion of the image to be engulfed in darkness.
Initially, the image, while dark did not reflect the extremely dramatised glare effect from the phone that I wanted. To start, I applied the pale blue light effect to the image through the use of the photo filter. In order to give the sense that the light was coming straight from the phone, I removed the blue tint through the use of the brush tool and began removing areas that were out of reach of the phone's light.
I wanted to pull the shadows from around the face into the centre of the image, to give the impression that the darkness is engulfing the person. I wanted to exaggerate this more and in order to exaggerate the fact that the only light within the frame was coming from the phone. I used a black brush with a hardness of 54% in order to create shadows around the light of the phone. I used this technique for all of the images within the shoot, however I liked the pose of the person within the frame on this image however I believed that the image would be composed better if the subject was more central. I took the lasso tool and looped it around the area that I wished to change. I copied and pasted the selection, then proceeded to paint the background black in order to remove the old position. I feel this composition works much better.
This image promotes the same method and visual style. This image features a much more personal, central composition which uses low light within an extremely dark background. The expression and posture of the person resembles someone who is reading a text. This is a common sight, however the use of light and contrast implies that the phone is the only bit of light in her life, as everything around her fades into obscurity. The composition reflects this as there is a great amount of darkness in the remainder of the frame.
Progression:
a very good post here Nathan, I think you have goethe detail of your work about right and the concept is strong linking into our attitudes towards the self and mobile phone.... A word of advice camera setting notation should be recording shutter speed as 1/250 second followed by the f stop used... if necessary add the ISO although this is less important than recording aperture. You need these values to describe e.g. depth of field or movement.. One final comment be careful to check for grammar. Its
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