My Best Photographs

Studio Form Straight Images

Mario Testino

Mario Testino is a peruvian fashion photographer who uses lots of formal elements in his work such as colour, form, texture and tone. In 1997 Mario shot Diana, Princess of Wales for her Vanity Fair which is commonly known as his career high point and has encouraged the British Royal Family to choose him to shoot them on frequent occasions since. Testino is widely known for his persistence of shooting Gisele Bundchen (who as of May 2014 became spokeswoman for the iconic Chanel No. 5) and is credited with elevating her to supermodel status. Other notable faces that Mario Testino has photographed over his career are Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Madonna. As well as his celebrity shoot he has worked for many a fashion house in his time inlcluding Gucci and Versace. 

I chose to study Mario Testino because I adore the bright colours used in a lot of his photography, I love the way the use of bright colours are combined with the form shown in studio shoots which Testino obviously does. I find Mario Testino's photographs interesting and intriguing due to the dramatic makeup used in his photographs which creates attitudes, other elements that help add to the attitude and message of the photographs is the styling and setup used.

 I love this photograph because I think the use of colour and form show off the contours of the womans face, form is used by shining bright light into the front of her face and shadowing her hollows of her cheeks, colour is used to emphasize the main features of her face; eyes and mouth. An additional formal element used in this photograph is texture, texture is shown on her skin, her lips and the fur she is wearing. I like this photograph because I think it is a representation of the entire fashion world in one photograph.

This photograph is one of the famous shots from Diana, Princess of Wales' Vanity Fair campaign. The use of tone is in this photograph because every colour in the photograph is the same except they are different tones, the darkness of her roots and shadows around her collar bones are also shown in different tones. Form is also used to emphasize these same shadows. I love this photograph because it captures a natural air of Princess Di that the press were never able to capture, she looks carefree and willing, unlike the way she was when she was being hounded by paparazzi. 

In this image Testino uses Form, Tone and Colour. He uses colour and tone together, he creates a red hue that acts as a filter and spills delicately over Emma Watson, the tone comes in and adds shades of lighter and darker red over the lighter and darker areas, Form also ties in with this formula due to the fact that in the shadowy areas that are caught behind the lights the tone makes the photograph darker. I like this photograph because of the way the colour fades in from one side of the photo and out from the other.

In this image Mario Testino puts form into practice in a very basic but very vocal way. This is my explanation due to the fact the colour scheme stays repetitive throughout Miley's outfit, makeup, hair and the backdrop ties in with all of these things, even the pale porcelain white of her skin ties in with the colour scheme put into place, form is employed by the use of lights to echo the shadows and emphasize areas of the photograph. I love the simplicity of this photograph.

Mario Testino has increased my interest in joining Colour, Form and Tone together to create these powerful pieces which allow an attitude of arrogance and promiscuity. As I mentioned in my annotation of these images, the form in these photographs is shown by using severe studio lights to create light and dark areas, these light and dark areas are then enhanced by toning the photographs e.g. black and white, however Testino introduces a twist on the classic tone experiment. Testino uses colourful hues as seen above to show tone in a modern way, so instead of dark black grey areas there may be plum coloured areas to represent black or lilac to represent white. I would very much like to experiment with this type of editing or toning in my own photography. Another technique of Testino's that I wish to use would be the dramatic carefree way in which he manages to set up his models for example his shots look almost relaxed and tense at the same time - if that's even possible. I love that as a fashion photographer Testino focuses on people and clothes, his collection 'Portraits' was extremely successful and it traveled all over the world to places like Milan, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Tokyo, Mexico City, and Boston.

I believe the hype - that Mario Testino is one of the greatest fashion photographers of the recent times. As it is a personal dream to shoot for fashion houses Testino is a particular inspiration to me therefore I hold him in such high regard that I would love to do shoots like his one day.

Since studying Mario Testino I have done some shoots which I chose to experiment with the colours of my photographs similar to the Emma Watson photograph above, here is an example. This is how Mario Testino influenced me, I loved his use of colour when I studied him so I put it into action with this photograph.

Portraiture (Back of Head) Straight Images [Studio and Location]

Studio:

Location: 

Portraiture (Back of Head) Definition Post

Definition
Dictionary: Portraiture - noun

1.                           1.  the art of creating portraits

    
2.                                - graphic and detailed description, especially of a person.

                                  "it's part murder mystery and part portraiture through poetry" formal

                               -  a portrait.

                                   plural noun: portraitures

Adjectives & Synonyms for Portraiture

• Posed
• Form
• Tone
• Colour
• Smile
• Frown
• Family
• Engagement
• Expression
• Hair 
• Makeup

1. Annotated Photographs

I chose this image for an example because of the use of natural backdrop, the way the background blurs makes the viewer focus more on the woman.

I chose this photo because it is a great example of a studio portrait with the white background of the photograph.

I Chose this one because it is another good example of  studio photography for example the white background makes the models dark hair stand out and the waves in it shine due to the fact its the only dark colour.

I chose this photograph because I think the background is an interesting choice, the way the primary focus of the photo is the back of the girls head however we can see her slightly reflected in the mirror, although she is blurred which adds to the focus of the plait down the middle of her back.

My Own Definition: Portraiture - A photograph taken of someone else or a group of other people.

Portraiture (Back of Head) Work Diary [Studio and Location]

Evaluation
My photography session on back of the head portraiture was very interesting. During this session I got the opportunity to shoot both in the studio and outside, I did this to gain a wider range of photographs for this topic. I didn't find this topic particularly interesting because every photo was similar, as it was the back of a head however this was part of an enlightening challenging element of the topic which was to make each photograph unique. Outside the studio it was interesting to find new backgrounds which would look good in the photograph however it was difficult to master the blurring effect which I didn't particularly enjoy. In the studio it was fun and challenging using the different coloured screens to change the value of the photographs for example I used black, white and pink which created lighter and darker tones within the photographs. Some of my favourite photographs were...

I liked this photograph because I like the way that the wall behind provides an interesting background for the people plus it is actually slightly blurry which was the aim.

These are two of my finished edited photographs from the studio shoot for back of head portraiture. I chose these photographs because I like the way the backgrounds make the colours of the subjects hair stand out.

Progression:

If I could progress with back of the head portraits I definitely would due to the fact it restricts the identity of the subject and the viewer can come to whatever un-biased decision about the subject that they choose. One progression idea I had would be to focus on people with different colours of hair, I'd want to do a collection which focused on the different shades for example one on different types of blonde, brown, reds and blacks which would focus on natural hair, then one which focused on dyed hair creating a rainbow within my pictures of peoples dyed hair from bright orange to subtle lilac. This idea also involves the formal elements of colour and form.

Portraiture (Back of Head) Image Bank

I chose this photograph because I like the way the colour scheme is matched up, the hair, jumper and background are all the same shades of light rose pink.

I chose this portrait because I like the way the photographer has used an interesting background and also made sure to capture the shadow to show form.

I like this photograph because it is very clean and taken from a side on angle but is still a back portrait.

I chose this photograph because I think this example of portraiture shows form because the muscles in the mans back give off a shadow and have different tones in the picture.

I chose this image because I think the way the photographer has made the model posing so her arms draw the eyes of the viewer to the middle of the photograph, they act as leading lines.

I like this photograph because the background is different to all the other photographs, this was taken outside whereas all the others were taken inside, here the background is blurred out to focus on the back of head portrait.

Shape Straight Images

Shape Definition Post

    Definition:
    Dictionary: Shape - 
                          noun

                            the external form, contours, or outline of someone or something.

  

Adjectives & Synonyms for Shape:

• form
• appearance
• configuration
• formation
• structure
• round
• square
• pointed
• circular
• spherical
• aspect
• image
• mould
• build

Annotated Pictures:

This photograph shows shape because the leaves of the plant are made up of loads of shapes layered up.

This second image is an example of a star, the big shape is created using lots of little hands.

This shape is a spiral leading into a circle which incidentally looks like a camera lens.

This photo is a huge cog made up of lots of small shapes, the many small shapes all create a larger cog shape.

My Own Definition: Shape - The outside appearance of something or the size of it or the outside aesthetics.

Shape Work Diary

Evaluation
My photography session on shape was more difficult than expected e.g most of my straight images are of circular objects due to the fact that this was one of the easier shapes to show however I tried to find new and interesting shapes although it wasn't easy. One thing I liked about this topic is that it was quite expansive, everyone looks at shape differently and can take it to mean anything at all. I think my best photographs come from quite obvious examples of shape such as mirrors or drains. These are some examples of my work...

I like this photograph because there are a multitude of shapes for example the floor pattern is one example being squares then the bin itself is an oval then the shapes on the bin include triangles and circles,

This photograph is an example of shape again due to the shape these bicycle racks give when they are spaced in this way.

The shapes exhibited on this photograph are the triangles and the diamonds and squares.

Progression:

If I could progress with the topic of shape I definitely would however I think I would carry on with a different area of the topic for example body shape; I would focus on a photography version of the work that Jenny Saville, the painter, does. One progression idea that I have is to focus on the different shape of skylines in different cities or areas over Britain or the world although this may be a far-fetched hope.

Shape Image Bank

I chose this photograph for shape because I think the spiralling effect shows off multiple oval shapes.

I chose this photograph because I love the way the heart shape here is created by the bendy pages of the book.

I chose this photograph to represent shape due to the grapes spherical values. I love the way the bouncy roundness of each grape looks like a bouncy ball.

I chose this photograph to represent shape due to the quality of the point of the building and the odd shape of the one below it.

I chose this photograph to represent the shapes the human body can make and what those shapes represent.

I chose this photograph to depict shape due to the fact that one shape can create another shape in its shadow.