Narrative photography sounds us in our everyday lives. So the design brief for this assessment is to tell a story through a sequence of coloured images. The images must feel as one collection of work while still looking unique and different from one another.

The chosen phrase for my narrative “on the journey, we meet”  is simple and sweet. I wanted to show how the little things in life bring us the most joy. In a world that is more connected than ever with the internet and social media, people have never felt more alone than now. In our busy lives, it is often overlooked at how important making time for relationships is. Even if it is as simple as sitting down with a few friends for a cup of coffee or milkshake and having a chat. The simple message behind the narrative is the happiness that is brought by getting out and about, meeting up with friends, eating delicious food and doing fun activities.

I used the phrase “on the journey, we meet” because the storyline was the same but kept things open for the characters I was going to shoot. As one of the hardest parts of shooting this story was organising times for the models. It was quite a challenge as people have busy lives and eat street is only open from Friday to Sunday night. Unfortunately, my original model Amy got sick before the final shoot so I had to organize another model last minute to replace her.

Working on from my WIP my plan was to have one female as the main character and she meets either a friend (female) or her boyfriend (male) at Eat Street. The shots will all still be the same and tell the same story. Yet, the 5th shot was open for a male or female character. 

I visited the location 5 times to plan, practice and shoot for the final images. It allowed me to test out my new lens, work out the best times to shoot because of the lighting and crowds and to test the type of shots that worked and did not work. So when it came to the final shoot with “Yuki” the new model I knew exactly what shots I needed and what props and location I wanted her in. This made it really efficient to plan out my final shots.

I took a series of location shots on a day without the models there. I went to Eat Street early on a Friday as that has the least amount of crowds. The models could not make it early on Fridays because of work commitments. But it was the best time to shoot images of the location as people were not getting in the way of the shots. I found the most challenging part of shooting at Eat Street was dealing with the crowds and trying to time the shots so you do not get people in them or in the way of people walking by. There were so many I location photographs I wanted to use but was able to cut it down to, two of the best images. 

As the shots were taken on different days and they were taken as the sun was setting all the colours of the shots were very different. Using Lightroom I edited the colours to intentionally to all have similar tones to make them feel apart of the same collection. 

I was very happy with my overall final shots. I was able to produce 7 images that reflected my goals from my WIP. I was able to capture the dreamy, bokeh aesthetic that I was inspired by and able to tell a narrative of a girls journey through Eat Street. You can see how shooting at Eat Street has that modern take on vintage diner photography and it shows how the simple things in life make us the happiest.

Output and Printing

A printed image is a moment of time captured and saved for people to appreciate and remember. It is one of the best ways for photographers to share their work. However, the colours you see on the screen will always look different from what is printed. Shadows can print too dark and whites can be overexposed, often making the image lose detail. There can even be a shift in the tones of the colours. Therefore, there are many methods to make what you see on the screen resemble the print as close as possible.

RAW Conversation

In order to prepare RAW images for output, they must be processed using RAW conversion software. Raw conversation software comes in many forms, such as those from your camera’s manufacture and third party companies too.

This to consider when printing:

• Print size and dimension
• Colour Mode
• Resolution
• Paper/print media

Print size and Dimension

Print size and dimension is one of the most important things to understand and get correct when it comes to printing. It can often be quite confusing for new photographers as there is a lot to remember and every printer and print job is slightly different. You need to get the right dimensions for the photograph relative to the size of the paper that is being printed on.

Colour Mode

The colour mode has one of the biggest impacts of how the colours will turn out when printed. It is critical to always check what colour mode the printer uses as each printer is different. The colour modes include grayscale, RGB and CMYK, among others.

Resolution

The number of pixels in an image is referred to as the resolution. The resolution is defined by the width and height and the number of pixels per inch (PPI), e.g 100mm (width) x 200mm (height) and 300ppi. This is critical to know when printing to make sure you get a sharp high-quality image and no pixelation when printing. Pixelation happens with an image gets printed to large for its resolution creating small squares in the image (its because you can see the pixels that make up the image).

Paper/Print Media

The paper/print media will always impact the colour and texter of the final printed photograph. Print media comes in a range of sizes, thicknesses, and finishes which all change the final colours. A gloss finish will make the colour pop and look shiny where a matte finish soaks in the colour and makes it look more flat and dry.

Colour Management

There are so many factors that affect the colours of a printed photograph but the colour management will essentially determine if the image will print close to what is seen on screen or if they will come out incorrectly often looking muddy and lose in quality. In this case of printing our images, we first need to make sure our image is set using the correct colour space to suit. In this case we are printing sRGB photos and one day to manage this colour is by Colour Calibration.

By downloading the Print Profile of the printer you can use it to correctly color calibrae your image. Colour Calibration aims to adjust the colour of a device to the known state of the printer. Using Photoshop or a colour reader you apply the preference to your file. The reader uses software to adjust the image to best suit the printer.

Portraits

Portrait photography captures the personality of the subject it can be of just one person or a group of people. It can be one of the most challenging forms of photography because the subject needs to appear natural whiles reflecting their personality. Quality portrait photography takes years of practice and skill.

The two most important factors to consider when choosing a lens for a portrait is:

• Focal Length
• Aperture

The focal length has the potential to either compress or distort your subject. The aperture will blur the background to make the subject stand out and removing unwanted distractions. It makes the subject the cleat focuse of the image.

Best Portait Lens

The best portrait lenses tend to be a bit longer which are around 85mm – 1350mm with a wide maximum aperture, e.g f/1.4, f/2.0, f/2.8. This is because the longer lengths are more flattering for the subject as it makes them look thinner as the facial features are more compressed and enables a shallow depth-of-field.

The Eyes

When shooting portraits the most important part to focus on is the models eyes as this is the part of the image people will naturally look at first. Therefor, it is the most important part to have in focus.

Lighting Portraits

The following are some of the best ways to light a portrait photograph:

• Artificial Light
• Window Light (if you do not have sufficient artificial light) as it acts like a soft box
• Reflections or an external flash to light up the shadows of the face
• Position the subject in such a way the light falls on the face from the side
• Have your subject facd the light source

Backgrounds and Portraits

The background plays an important role in all portraits as the subjects face and eyes are the key elements in the photo. It is important to have a background that does not interfere or distract from the subject. This is one of the main reasons why portraits are shot on a wide aperture for lots of backgrounders blur.

Yet, in some cases the surroundings may need to be considered to bring our the personality of the subject.

Studio Lighting

The hair light adds detail to the subject’s hair and lifts their head off the background. It is normally places above and behind the subject. Having a hair light is particularly important if the subject has dark and against a dark background.

A background light, lights up the background. This adds a sense of depth to the photograph and can be positioned to draw attention to the subject. It is common to use the background light to create a vignette of the subject.

Accent lights are added to illuminate to emphasise a small area of the subject or to show texture. These are normally placed behind or to the side of the subject. A hair light is a type of accent light.

Lighting Modifiers

Modifiers are lightening accessories that modify the shape, strength and direction of the light. It does this by bouncing, reflecting, diffusing and/or blocking the light.

Common modifiers include:

• Reflectors
• Grif
• Barn doors
• Scrim
• Umbrella
• Softbox
• Beauty Dish

Some common lighting setups that are used in portrait photography are:

• Butterfly Lighting
• Loops Lighting
• Rembrandt Lighting
• Broad Lighting
• Short Lighting
• Split Lighting
• Back Lighting
• Clamshell Lighting
• Wraparound Lighting

Fun Fact: Rembrandt Lightning

Rembrancdt lighting is named after the iconic painter Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. He often used window lighting when he painted his portraits. The idea is to create a small inverted triangle of light on the subject’s cheek that is opposite the lightsource.

Studio Lighting Setups

A basic studio lighting setup to use is the three point lighting set up. The three lights are:

• Main/key Light
• Fill Light
• Accent Light (e.g hair light, background light)

Weekly Activity

This week our class activity was to shoot different types of portrait shots. I tested 3 diffrent types of lenses to see how it would effect the shots, a 30mm, a 50mm and a 100mm lens.

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The above shot was shot on the 30mm lens. Each shot was taken in the same position. You can see how this one has the full body of the subject.

This shot was taken on the 50mm lens (in the same position). You can see how it is cropped in a lot more.

Lasting this shot was taken on the 100mm lens. This is the classic portrait lens and you can see how tight it is on the persons face. Despite how tight the shot is I am standing quite far back.

This last shot was for a bit of fun. We used a face and a gold reflector to creativity a “glamy” beauty shot.

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These last shots were also very fun to take. We set the camera up on a tripod with slow shutter speed to create light painting.