Evaluation version 2

Critical Evaluation

Jonah

With all of my photographs I have tried to keep the focus of the viewer on the model and the clothing they are wearing. To do this I have adopted a number of techniques and styles that I have learnt and so believe that I have achieved my aim on the whole.

All of my photographs apart from one, feature the model against almost totally black or very plain, passive backdrops such as brickwork containing repetition, this helps to focus the audiences attention on the main subject as there is not much to be distracted by. This technique is used a lot by photographers who shoot in studios such as Terry Richardson who uses a white backdrop to ensure that all the attention is placed on his subjects.

A strength of my photograph is that the background ensures all attention is placed on the model. I think that if doing the photograph again I would try it during the day to get more natural light into the photograph. I could even do a shoot in a studio and replicate Richardson’s photography even closer.

Here you can see the white backdrop that is a common feature of Terry Richardson’s photography. This is similar to the completely black background in my image.

Visual Language.

The only photograph I took that does not use a blank background is the one below where the model has been placed in front of a gate with the union jack painted on it. I included this because I do not believe it takes attention away from the model as the geometrical shapes and lines of the flag lead to the middle, where the model is stood and draw the eye.

The fashion style of the model in the photograph is Skin Head inspired, a fashion style and subculture that emerged in 1960s working class London and so is associated with Britain. Because of this I think the Union Jack backdrop makes sense. Skinheads are seen as hard and rough and so the raised fist works well here. The photograph is made more interesting with the juxtaposition of the smiling model in the Skin Head clothing. This makes the image very interesting and adds a new quality for the viewer to think about.

Lines in the union jack lead into the model and the thick red middle stripe helps to frame him.

Typical image of Skinheads that the audience will be used to seeing. Has the same raised fist as in mine but the children look stern, a contrast to my smiling model.

I have chosen to edit a number of my photographs so that they are monochrome and I believe this adds to the photographs, sometimes giving a moody feel to the image and others serving to further cut down distractions and focus attention on the main subject.

I took a lot of inspiration from the photographs of Helmut Newton. He was an incredibly successful fashion photographer in the mid 1900’s who many believe shaped the way fashion photography is shot today. His black and white images focus solely on the style of the subject and put heavy stress on the clothing they wear.

I think my black and white images replicate the style of Newton well and allow focus to be drawn to the cut and shape of the clothing rather than on the colours in the image.

The style of the coat in the photograph below is very simplistic and clean and I have tried to reflect this in the images with the black and white coloring and passive background. Thinking carefully about the background of the image in relation to what the model is wearing is an essential part of fashion photography.

The way the model is sat on the light almost like a podium illuminating him is really effective in this photograph, and the black and white effect works well making the light look very bright and a stark contrast against the dark background.

The image is very dark though and I could have changed the leveling slightly in post production to improve it. The mid lights are quite dark meaning that some of the detail is too dark to see, editing this in Photoshop would have made the highlights much cleaner and the photograph would have had much better detail.

The strange face the model is pulling in the image below is interesting and draws attention to him. It contrasts the works of photographers such as Tyrone Lebon who usually block out the faces of the models in their fashion photographs but I believe in this instance the face works. It makes the viewer take a double take and then look at the clothes he is wearing and I think the long black coat blending the model into the background is eerily effective with the strange face he is pulling.

In some photographs I instructed my model to have a straight face and not show much emotion whereas some images are quite expressive showing him pulling a face or laughing such as the one bellow. In both cases the photographs worked well but in very different ways; when the model is being emotionless it can add a moody feel to the image and the lack of emotion can allow the focus to be on the clothing rather than the model himself. This is another way to block out the face and is maybe where Lebon got his inspiration for his images. On the other hand the expression a model is pulling can give a certain feel to the photograph such as excitement or happiness and even give the impression it is the clothes themselves causing these feelings.

The highlight levels could have again been tweaked slightly in Photoshop to improve this image. It is very dark and some detail and definition is lost especially around the head and on the coat.

I would like to recreate Lebon’s technique by using some kind of shape in post production to block out the face of the model and if doing this project again I would experiment with this. I may try out cartoon masks or mannequin faces to make the object blocking the face slightly more interesting.

In Photoshop I edited a few images by only making the face and hands black and white. The effect is completely different to Lebon's in fact making more of a striking feature of the face. I think it is however very effective at drawing the eye of a viewer.

I tried not to create an overly superficial, set up look to my photographs and hoped that this would create a naturalistic feel. This is difficult when doing a photography shoot but I tried to achieve it by mostly having the model doing things and moving around, as opposed to standing completely still in a fixed pose as I took photographs of him.

This naturalistic technique is something often used in fashion photography and one that I have noticed companies such as Supreme and Palace using a lot. The photograph below is from the Supreme X North Face collaboration. The models are walking away from the camera as if talking but you can still see the clothing in good detail. This creates a good natural looking photo that still showcases the clothing well.

Many of my photographs replicate this style and the one I captured with the model looking down, tucking in his polo shirt and not paying attention to the camera showcases this perfectly. It gives the model a more normal appearance as they are not looking at the camera and posing. This makes them more relatable to an audience member who may not be comfortable in front of a camera and may feel alienated from these models striking poses inside studios.

The main focus of each photograph is clear throughout all of my images because I consistently keep a passive background. Occasionally the use of lines and/or details in the background can help frame my subject or add to the aesthetic quality of the photograph, such as the lights in the background of the photograph to the side. The pose he is adopting is very proud and tall and the line of lights running above his head make him seem important and the center of attention as if the lights are there solely to illuminate him. Only the bottom two lights that can be seen in the image where actually there, I added the rest post production in order for them to be a subtle but interesting feature that would add to the quality of the image. The organic upward curve of the lights featured In this image is aesthetically pleasing.

Fashion photography often shows the model doing things that are seen as cool to make them look desirable. Riding scooters is popular at the moment and this is why I made the decision to include it. The proud way the model is stood also makes him look cool and this would increase a viewers desire to look like him and so increase the chance of them buying the clothes he is wearing.

Making the models look cool is a technique commonly used in fashion photography. The image below is a screenshot from a promotional video for the Palace X Adidas collaboration and I took some inspiration from this. They have got a very talented skateboarder wearing all the clothes from the collaboration riding around a skate park. He will ride towards the camera and execute a trick close to it showcasing the clothing in action. The viewer may be much more tempted to buy the clothes after seeing the video and how impressive he looks as they will want to look like this too and this is the reason I have ensured my model looked cool in all of my photographs.

For some of the photographs I have made the aperture of the camera larger to decrease the depth of field making it so the subject is in focus but the background is blurred or slightly out of focus. This again draws the attention of the viewer to the model while also adding an interesting effect to the backdrop.

Some of my photographs featuring footwear as the main subject very close up to the camera and it is essential that the trainer is in sharp focus. When the background is very blurry and out of focus it really brings the trainer out of the page and makes it stand out.

Almost all of the photographs I had seen on trainer websites have images of the trainers like this with a wide aperture to blur the background and so I replicated this style in my images.

In post production I used various tools such as the spot-cleanser and clone stamp to ensure the trainers looked brand new with no scuffs or dirt and as you can see this worked perfectly. This is essential in order to allow the viewer to see the trainer in a new and clean condition. Fashion images of trainers never shows the them in bad condition as this may make the viewer not want to buy them, especially in trainers with lots of white on them that can get dirty easily. I did see some adverts that contrasted this and showed shoes beaten up and old but these were for products such as Doc Martens and Caterpillar work boots and so I don’t think it would have worked for these trainers. You can see an example of this contrasting advert at the bottom right.

Audience.

When taking my photographs I kept in mind the sort of people I was aiming to reach as an audience. I wanted my photos to be the sort of fashion photography you would find in a “how to wear” or “look book” section of a brand’s website or a magazine featuring the brand. One of the magazines I looked at that often features these kinds of advertisements is Vice magazine. They have a very large readership and online following with 68% being under 30 and 63% being male. In surveys run by Vice the magazine has found that 52% of their readers like to know about new fashion brands/designers before everyone else and 83% buy new clothing every month. These demographics show me that Vice’s audience fit with the audience profile that I am aiming for of young, fashion conscious males. Because of this I was able to use the fashion articles and photography featured in this magazine to gain inspiration.

An audience of young males will relate best to photographs featuring another young male as it is easier to visualise themselves in the clothes that someone of a similar age is wearing. I thought carefully about the clothes I had my model wear by researching what is in fashion and the clothes young males are wearing or want to purchase at the moment.

Historical and Cultural Context.I think my work fits with the trends of current advertisements, “look books” and “how to wear” sections

released by street wear brands such as Stussy, Supreme, Obey and Huff. The style of fashion photography adopted by brands such as these seems to be a more informal relaxed one and shooting more dynamic scenes involving the model being active are becoming more and more common. I have researched the fashion photographer Tyrone Lebon, who shoots for Stussy, and noticed how he uses this same kind of style and has said he often allows the model to decide where the photo-shoot takes them so it is more of a joint adventure than a photographer dictated task. I feel this approach gives a relatability to the target demographic and allows them to see the clothing being worn in more of a real life context, something that high end studio fashion photography does not offer.

I tried to adopt this informal style seen in a lot of contemporary fashion photography when doing my own shoot, encouraging my model to be active. Instead of giving instructions on how to pose and where to stand I followed him as he did what he wanted. For example he himself decided to pick up the scooter and play with it which in turn allowed me to achieve what I believe to be some of my most natural looking and successful shots from my final photographs.

For some of my photographs I had my model dressed in clothes inspired by the 1960’s Skinhead subculture. The Fred Perry polo shirt, Doc Marten boots, Harrington jacket and braces are iconic pieces of clothing with heavy links to the Skinhead fashion movement as was the union flag featured in the backdrop of one of my photographs. In some of the other photographs the model is stood in front of a brick wall, this architectural feature has connotations of the city, in particular the working class estates where the Skinhead subculture was born and so works well in the way it fits with the theme, but also as an aesthetically pleasing backdrop.

Following the 2006 drama “This Is England” and the 2010 Channel 4 spin-off “This Is England ‘86” the Skinhead subculture has seen a slight revival, becoming quite fashionable and remaining so, with filming beginning on another spin-off “This Is England ’90” soon. Because of these influences and current trends I felt it was relevant to use the Skinhead subculture for inspiration.

Intentions and fitness for purpose.

I have always had an interest in photography and fashion and because of this I decided to choose fashion photography as my application as it brought together two elements that I am interested in. I enjoy following current trends and movements in society and have a good knowledge of fashion trends both current and from the past, allowing me to gain inspiration as I did from the Skinhead fashion movement. When setting out on the task, I wanted to use the knowledge and inspiration I had gained from certain types of fashion photography to produce aesthetic images with my own style that could be used commercially.

I know that the presentation of the model is very important, fashion photography is, after all, mainly for promotional and advertising purposes and so my model must look good and the photograph must look professional in order to attract the right attention. I wanted my model’s look to seem relatable, accessible but also aspirational and have my audience thinking that in the same clothing they could look as good. This would motivate an audience to make a purchase and I believe I achieved this quite well. The photographs I took look professional. I think I could have explored with the manual settings more to experiment with different effects and also could have taken more photos in the daylight to see what effect that had on my photographs.

Technical Competence.

During my photo shoot I had to consider what camera settings to use in order to achieve the best results with my photographs. I found that when shooting at night it was quite difficult to get the right settings without using the flash to help light the subject but after a period of experimenting and trial and error I produced some good photos.

With this kind of photography a large aperture is often used to shorten the depth of field. This can blur or soften the background whilst keeping the foreground of the image in sharp focus. The softening of the background can minimalise distraction from the main subject and the contrast between blurry background and sharp subject can make the subject stand out and attract the most attention. I used this theory in most of my images setting a large aperture to allow me to get a shallow depth of field. This worked particularly well with some of my photographs featuring footwear when I made the aperture large allowing for a very close up shot with a crisp foreground against a very blurry background.

With the majority of my photographs being shot at night I had to use quite a high ISO. This allowed the camera to pick up light better and so illuminate my images. I used the flash in some cases and so could make the ISO slightly lower allowing their to be less grain which in turn improved the quality of the image slightly. In the images where I did not use the flash however, the grain was not too bad and the images still came out well as long as I set a higher ISO.

I kept the white balance on automatic for all of my photographs because, after experimenting with all the manual settings I deemed appropriate for the light conditions present, the automatic setting was still producing the best results.

Creative Ability.I believe that this photography task has really brought out and developed my creativity as it is

something I am very interested in and enjoy. I have enjoyed researching other photographers and exposing myself to different ideas, techniques and sources of information and have adopted many of these new influences into my own photography.

One of the main ways my creative ability had developed is through gaining inspiration from other existing fashion photographers who I admire such as Tyrone Lebon and Terry Richardson. Terry Richardson shoots almost exclusively in a studio with an all white background and I think this gave me the inspiration for the very passive backdrops present in many of my photographs, focusing the attention on the subject. Both photographers also seem to share an informal style trying to get naturalistic looking photographs, another aspect of their photography I try to replicate.

I think that gaining a better understanding of the camera and how it works also helped with my creativity as I could get better results with some of my photographs by tailoring the settings to my needs. Becoming better with the post production side of things also aided my creativity as I could add effects and improve images in ways I would not have known how to do before. For example in the photographs of the trainers I researched how to eliminate dirt from an image and seamlessly clean it up. In doing so I progressed from merely using the paint tool to cover the unwanted grime badly, to using the clone stamp, a tool I had never heard of before. This tool uses selected pixels to cover up unwanted ones adding not only a colour match but also the correct texture and shade blend, something that the paint tool is not sophisticated enough to do.

I have learnt more about the science of photography; what works in a photograph and why, for example leading lines bring the eye into the photograph and geometrical shapes can help to frame a subject or draw attention to certain aspects of a photograph (e.g. the rule of thirds). In the photograph with the Union jack I stood the model in the middle because the stripe in the middle framed him and all the other lined lead towards him. Deconstructing images in this way has helped me to decide how to take my photographs and where to frame other elements of the shot that could help the overall composition.

Time Management.

I believe my time management as a whole has been good for this assignment of work. For the week of production I was not at college so was unable to take the photographs but caught up quickly on my return, producing the photographs and beginning my post production editing quickly. I did not feel too under pressure, but there was a higher sense of urgency to get my photographs done quickly. This may have effected the planning and time I put into them. If I had been at college the week of production I would have had a lot more time and may have been able to take photographs in a variety of settings, at different times of day to see what results I could have achieved. From here however, once caught up, I did not fall behind again and have completed everything I set out to complete.

In the future I will formulate a better contingency plan in case of the event of my absence so I can give myself a larger amount of time to work on my images.