Test shots in the studio using fabric

I photographed some images with the help of a friend so that I could practice using continuous lighting. That way when the dancer is in the studio I am more familiar of how the set the lighting and capture the image.

When the dancer is in the studio I will still be trying different types of lighting such as continuous and tungsten lighting and maybe trying other lighting sources such as a torch but my aim to to try high and low key lighting when capturing my images.

Below is an example of some of the test shots I captured the studio using continuous lighting.

I used one continuous light behind the person and the fabric as seen below

My inspiration for the image below is from Arno Rafael Minkkinen where he uses different parts of his body to create shades. I wanted to symbolize that the dancer is trying to break free and feels constricted

I asked my friend to try and put her face through again to give the impression that she feel constricted by the material and cant break free but her nose points out too much and makes her look like a form of an animal and she looks like she whiskers. I asked her to then turn to one side and to see how it looks in comparison. I will try this with the dancer and see whether it looks correct or not

My friend turned to one side so I can get a profile image and she placed her face by the fabric. Due to the light in the back and the way the model is its shapes her body and the gives the shadow of the person have different textures. For example her hands are darker that her arm and her arm looks thin and long

The two images below are examples of my friend Emma holding different poses. This is my aim with the dancer to have her hold different poses while I capture her and have her stretching out of the fabric more to emphasize the dancer trying to break free. I will try high and low key lighting.

My idea with the dancer is to try something similar to Martha Graham's dance and to wrap the fabric around the dancer and have her stretching out again to symbolise she is trying to break free. I tried this on my model to see how it would look

Below is an example of the lighting and how it was set up and of how the image turned out to look

The light is coming through slightly so I would over expose the image to make it more promenade. I also wrapped the fabric around Emma and found it looked untidy and did not keep on properly so when I try it on the dancer I will put the fabric on her front first and click it in the back and hopefully the fabric will not come apart and you will be able to more of a shape form

I used one continuous like, I will try and use two lights and put one at the top behind her shoulder area and one further down by her feet so it is more well lite

I then continued to try using the light in different ways and placed it either side of Emma and slighting behind her and asked if she hold the fabric up so I could see how the lighting looked

As Emma held up the fabric I liked the shape of the fabric and what it had formed but I it didnt show her off behind and didnt achieve what I was aiming to get which was the light shining through and giving a more of a silhoutte shape within the fabric

Eventually I wanted to try the same lighting but with the fabric that was more clear and more floaty. I like the concept of the idea that even though the model is within the fabric, because the fabric is soft and see through it is more suttle and more illegant. I would like to try a few of these images to to see how they would look

Below is an example I would like to try high key lighting

Below are contact sheets from the test shoot in the studio

Location Shoot- Abbey Villiage

I wanted to try some more test shots on location and as it was a windy day I thought I would take my dancer to 'Abbey Village' that has a nice reservoir and thought I would continue the theme of using fabric with the dancers but after shooting these images I found the background to be to distracting andyou could not focus of the model. Also, after speaking with my tutor I have decided to stick to the studio and the theme of dancers and fabric and will try different lighting techniques and positions

Below is an example of what I captured that day

I wanted to use Lycra in studio and have the dancer bounded by the fabric and try to stretch the fabric making different images to symbolize the dancer is trying to break free and feel bounded. I tried to wrap it around the dancer but it would not stay up so I learnt that I need to bring some pins to pin it together and I will try it in the studio

Below are contact sheets showing you all the images I photographed that day with the fabric and dancer.

Editing Techniques

I had a lecture with my tutor Richard Peregine who showed us some editing techniques using photo shoot. He spoke about the different tools that photoshop had to offer. Below are some examples

• Cropping (Use to improve composition or reformatting)
• Levels (For images brightness, shadows and highlights)
• Layers ( So actions can be separated for constructing)
• Curves ( To control contrast)
• Black and white conversion (Turn images to black and white)
• White Balance ( To create or remove bias)
• Resize (To resize an image when exporting)
• Text (Add text to your image)
• Hue/Saturation (brighten or dim certain colours of the image)
• Dodging and burning (to increase or decrease certain areas on the image)
• Cloning Tool (to copy and past a section on the image
• Border (to give the image a border)

There are many more tools that can be used in photoshop but these are some examples and some tools that are used often. Below are examples of what effect the different brushes can do when using black and white conversion, cloning, text, borders and cropping on image

Black and white conversation

Cloning tool

Text

Borders

Cropping

Camera Techniques

We had a lecture with my tutor and he made us aware of different camera techniques. There are several different camera techniques that can be done when capturing images. Below are some examples:

• Hyper Focal Distance
• Ambient Flash
• Mixed lighting sources
• High/low key lighting and exposure
• Long Exposure with a tripod
• Medium/Large format camera

I tried to use some of these examples and apply them to my work. For example I captured an image with a long exposure so I could have movement with a medium format camera. I also have not tried to use hyper focal distance in my images so when I went to the beach I tried to capture an image by sending my lens to infinity but when I captured the image I notice it was blurry and thought that I hadn't done it wrong but I then realized there is a button at the back of the camera where you can change the sharpness of the image when looking through the view finder. Below is an example on me trying to use infinity technique

I tried to use low key lighting so that is brought the dancers outline in the studio. Again this was not as successful as I hoped it to be more dark, although it is under exposed it is not as low key lighting as I aimed for. Below is an example

Below is an image taken using the large format camera. I like using it and feel with after practise my technique will get better. I hope to use it again to capture a long exposed image of a ballet dancer.

I tried to incorporate the use of long exposure using the larger format cameras but the image didn't turn out how I hope it to be. Below is any example. I want to capture her arm so that it looked like she had wings but because it was a white background her arms blended into the background

The image below is an example of mixed lighting. I used a continuous light on one side and the a tungsten light with a blue gel on the other side. This was to test the use of mixed lighting

The only technique that I didn't try was the ambient flash as I have difficulty understand how to create that effect but I would like to try this effect to see whether or not I would find useful.

Film

I tried using Mamiya RZ67 camera c/w 50mm, 110mm lenses and 2 film backs (as seen below). One of the film backs had a roll of film in ready for when I wanted to capture an image and the other one was empty so I could practice using the camera before capturing the images for real.

I did not find it easy using this camera. Firstly I tried using the camera without the film to practice but when I was ready to capture the images I cocked the trigger to them press the shutter release button but it would not click and capture an image. After speaking to a technician it would not take a picture was because I did not cock the shutter far enough, I needed to push it towards the end, so the technician allowed me to go back out try capture my images.

When I tried the second time I got used the cocking the shutter, I then put film back on which had film in it and while I was waiting to take a picture I practiced the shutter release several times not realising that there was a button that moved the film along as every time I cocked it. As the slide was in the back of the camera, I wound the film along without capturing any images as the slide was not removed. So in total I got about 2 or 3 images.

Below are the images I managed to capture on film. I would like to use the camera again and become more familiar with it

Ideas- Low Key Lighting

I would like to try and develop my skills with lighting and woud like to try and use more low key lighting within my images. Low key lighting highlights features of the subject.

Below are some examples of what low key lighting is.

I was watching an expisode of "Glee" and they performed a dance of the stage using spot lights and the light highlighted them and I wanted to have a go as I light the low key lighting. An example of the footage I saw and them wanted to try and recreate it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq38KDWsQ8g&feature=related

I spoke with my tutor Andy Farrington about using a spot light to create the same effect and the studio we have, the ceilings are not high or dark enough. Therefore, you wouldn't get the effect of a spot light. Andy recommend I try and use a theatre so I can use one of the lights they have. A friend of mine works at a school and she said that I could use the drama school at the high school were she teaches dance. I was able to use one or two of her pupils and asked them to dance under the spot light so I could get the outline of their body and movements and to also capture as they danced instead of making them pose.

Below are some images that I captured

After shooting these images I liked some of the shots and I am glad I tried the lighting technique but I felt that I they weren't has striking as I wanted them to be because the item has been done and I felt like the dancers could not relax and dance freely in front as me as they were shy so I feel the images looked more posed then I wanted them to be. Also the shutter speed to low. Therefore, making the images not a sharp as I hoped for.

I have decided to continue with my idea of using fabric and would like to try using high key and low key lighting or a different camera technique to develop my skills

Ideas- High Key Lighting

High key brings out the shadow on a model or subject

Below are examples of high key lighting

I would like to continue using dance and fabric. Martha Graham worked with Lycra fabric to express a form of dance and emotion. I would like to try and achieve a similar effect by using Lycra and have the dancer force the fabric out to give the material different textures. I would like to use high key lighting so that the shape of the dancer is more promenade then the fabric itself. I want to continue using fabric and instead of just using fabric that is light and flows smoothly in the wind giving the impression that dance it similar to the light fabric as it moves freely like dance. Whereas the Lycra is more constricted again again can be used to symbolise dance in the form of how dancers what to express themselves but it is not always easy to do so and they can find it constricting similar to the Lycra fabric.

Martha Graham

Martha Graham, a dancer and choreographer who was a revolutionary artist of modern dance in the early 20Th century. Graham brought a different dynamics and interpretation to modern dance, one of sharp angles and natural motion. What Graham wanted to evoke with her style of dance was a heightened awareness of life.

Information taken from http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0334208/bio

Below are some images taken from google to show the dancer using the fabric Lycra and stretching it out symbolising the restriction of the fabric and trying to break free

The footage below is an example of some of Graham's choreography and an example of the dancer using Lycra.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOdOGFtTa7A&feature=player_detailpage

As one shots... In the woods

I wanted to continue using fabric and dancers and try to make them as one. To get the fabric moving smoothly I needed it to be windy so the fabric would move freely with the wind.

I tried explaining the to the dancer how my aim was to capture an image and make it like the fabric and the dancer are as one. It was windy but compared when I photographed earlier using the fabric it was not as windy. Therefore, the fabric did fly as high but there was still a bit of lit to it. Instead of the dancer just letting the fabric flow against her skin she would keep wrapping it around her so the material couldn't be caught in the wind and on camera it looked too dark and did not have the same effect.





I showed the dancer an example of the work I did previously with the fabric and showed how if flowed from the body to the fabric. She understood more and let the fabric flow more. When photographing the previous dancer, I knew she was very flexible and could lend far back so I wanted to include her body as I had an image of how I wanted her to lean back and the upper half of her body become the material. Therefore, I wanted to try and use a different part of her body and as Sophie the dancer is flexible so she could lift her leg up and balance for a short period of time.

The image below is a final image I have chosen to use towards my project as I to me it looks like the fabric has turned into her leg and become part of her and that is what I am trying to aim for




After shooting several images and trying to achieve what my aim was I wanted to try to use different techniques using my camera. I asked the model to make a dance position using the fabric while I capture some images. I like the images so I put my shutter speed down so that the exposure would be longer. I zoomed in with my lens and has I captured the image I zoomed out as fast as I could giving the effect of the exploding as seen below



The night before the sky was light really well with the moon so I decided to go and see If I could capture any images in the dark and too see how they would turn out. I found it hard as I couldn't focus on the model and I could hardly see they dancer so I could not get her in focus properly. I asked Sophie to move with the fabric so I could get a long exposure of her and the fabric. Below it an example of what I captured. I added more exposure to the image in Lightroom so the greens are saturated



Below are contact sheets of the images I photographed with Sophie at night and in the woods

Arno Rafael Minkkinen

Arno Rafael Minkkinen focuses mainly on body parts and are all self-portraits.

The article below was taken from http://www.arnorafaelminkkinen.org/ and was written by Arno Rafael Minkkinen

Why I Work The Way I Work
_______________________________________________

I consider myself to be a documentary photographer. If you see my arms coming up from under the snow, I am under the snow.

I treat the medium the same way a street shooter does. What happens in front of my camera happens in reality. There are no double exposures, no digital manipulations.

But I also look at the world through the mind. "What happens inside your mind can happen inside a camera." It is the line I wrote as a copywriter for a camera campaign before becoming a photographer.

Instead of giving expression to the world's outer appearances and perplexities, I have wished to explore the inner world of our fears, hopes, and desires in an attempt to make communion with the one world we inhabit.

Just as rocks and trees have not changed much over time, so our bodies are not much different today than they were five hundred years ago; hands, fingers, toes, all those basic things are essentially the same.

For thirty years now I have been engaged with this single idea: to use my own body as a means of expressing our relationship to nature.

As Georges Braque put it: "Out of limitations, new forms emerge." To know what it is that we want to do, Braque was saying, we had to know what it was we did not want to do, what it was we would never allow ourselves to do. For me, it was the documentary nature of photography that provided the discipline.

After that, it was simple. "Art is risk made visible" is another line I wrote, much later in life when I understood better just how difficult it could be.

©Arno Rafael Minkkinen

Below are examples of his work.

I like the shapes he creates using his body. I would like to try something simialr such close up's on the different body parts of the dancer.