For my colourful people project, I am taking inspiration from the works of Sara Gage who's the main photographer for Ryan Matthew Cohen who is a collector of taxidermy, oddities and other antiques but in a studio setting. She does product shots and also shots of Ryan, so her works will be looked at for this project as inspiration.
Products
An example of the product shot are that they are shot on a black background, even though I think black does really make detail show out specifically in old antiques etc. and also present it with a clean look, I am going to use white instead.
To produce a product image such as above it would require having a black backdrop. You could edit images to have a black background but intricate object such as the monkey skull would be much more difficult than say the above example images.
Planning
I am not going to do that same style as which is shown above as I think the background in this instance would look nicer and cleaner being white. I also want, as Im going to be using my prosthetic arms and a monkey skull, to get the small details on each of the items. Such as on one arm it has a number which was hand carved into the metal, which if captured I think makes it have much more character.
Some attempts I did where i was experimenting with different lighting techniques to see what i could produce.
The above and the two below images was shot with a light underneath the table which was shining up to create this effect. Obviously the light is well too bright. The bottom image, not so much, however I didn't like the way the image looked.
Evaluation of some final product photographs
This photograph I like the way the subject is close to the middle of the frame with outer space surrounding them.
I like the way the skull looks on this close up without the dome on. Its one of the better composed photographs up close I took.
I think this photograph is the best monkey skull photograph out of the bunch. I like the bone colours of the skull and the glass and base looks nice.
Even though I know that products are 'not supposed' to have shadows on them, I believe that with what the item is that it adds something towards the item. For example the shadow of the holes on the base of the stand for the grabber thing.
I like the arm in this particular set up, with the hook and the holding clamp along with hammer attached.
This photograph of the arm along with a couple of accessories I think is an ok photograph. The particular thing I like about this image is the shadow off of the strap with the eyelet holes. I have done some close up of some of the accessories on or beside the arm which are featured below.
I think the close ups of the attachments are better looking on the arm as opposed to not attached and just singly photograph.
I like the way the bristles look on the brush here and also the glove. This is a different arm to the others.
I think the lighting makes the scratches in the leather and the warm look about the overall photograph.
I edited all these product shots the same in order to keep them consistent with each other. I decreased the contrast so the leather in the arm would show out more, tuned the highlights down a little made the shadows a little brighter and that was it.
The above final product shots, were all shot with a softball and light on the left side and a continuous light with no softball on the right. The settings for the images above is ISO 200 which is low as there is enough light being in a studio setting and F/11 1/125.
Portraits final image
For most of the portrait shots below, the setup was one light was bouncing of the ceiling without a soft box in the centre front. I had two lights with both facing the subject.
I cropped this photograph as I though it would look better tighter than it was and turned it black and white. Contrast went up a little bit and exposure brought down, I hardly did any editing to the overall photograph.
Although the focus is slightly off, I still like this image and the composition of it with her looking into the camera. I thought including the skull in these photographs made added to the style which she was dressed in and also made the shoot feel better having her interact with something that she too likes.
2.
This one I turned black and white and pulled back the exposure and put up the contrast, I darkened the blacks in order for the hair to be a bit darker.
I think this is a nice photograph, of her having a glisten in her eye.
3.
One from a previous studio session for this project. Although it isn't quite in focus in the face, i still think its an alright photograph nonetheless.
3.
3.
All the editing on this photograph is turning up the contrast to make the hair a darker tone brown and the skin more colourful, I added some black for the hat to appear darker.
I like the composure in this photograph with her being in more or less the centre of the frame and the positioning of her holding the monkey skull close to her mouth.
4.
With editing this one I did it in the same way as past black and white images.
I think black and white worked better for this photograph than the colour version did. I like the way she is looking up and is holding the parasol. I decided to try black and white with this photograph to give it a timed look, which I think worked better than the colour version.
5.
For this photograph I wanted to have a more straight forward photograph and looking into the camera. I think the hair on this photograph, with the way its parted and equally on either side of her, creates a nice characteristic about this photograph.
6.
I turned this black and white so it appears more peaceful. I also used softer black and white tones when editing the skin so that it wasn't
as dark and or light as I normally like black and white.
I wanted a more softer toned black and white as opposed to the others as i think it fits the image alot nicer as she is looking relaxed with her eyes closed and mouth slightly open.
7.
The contrast went up slightly to make the hair a little darker. Thats all that was done with this photograph.
Im not so keen on this one as much as the other, as she is looking directly into the camera which I'm not too fond of.
8.
With this one I increased the contrast to make the colours more vibrant and dimmed down the exposure and the black to make them darker.
I like the composure of this photograph with her looking into the left of the frame.
9.
With this one I had to turn down the highlights in order to make her skin not as light as well as add contrast to gain that too, while making the hair darker as well. I made the blacks darker so the parasol wasnt as see through as it was.
This is more like a model type of shot. I think its an alright photograph, not too appealing to my personal tastes. I like how the parasol takes up most of the background only leaving three out of the four edges open.
After this I decided to do 'colourful' images with face paints, more so because most people we're using face paints and I thought it was funny that they was all doing the same thing. So these images, are more of a mess around than anything.
10.
This one was harder to edit due to the make up on the face no being white. I increased the highlight white exposure as well as contrast while decreasing the black. I increased the reds so they was a darker red.
I do like the clown photograph above more than the rest and think its a nice photograph which could be a contender as one I would print.
11.
I did the same too this clown photograph as i did to the first one.
Evaluation
Overall I am pleased with the way the two shoots went, although I much prefer the 'Darker' shoot to the clown photographs. I like the way they looked and also am pleased with the product shots.
This is really the first time I have properly worked in a studio setting. I found the equipment less daunting than I once did, and have a much better understanding of how the lights worked than I once did. I feel that, while my skills do need to get better, than I have done a good job and one that has made me more intrigued to try out more studio photography.
