Photoshop Quick Tools

Original

Photoshopped

Quick Tools:

- Free Transform (ctrl + T)

- Polygon lasso (L)

- Lasso (L)

- Quick Mask (Q)

- Eraser (E)

- Brush (B)

- Opacity Bar

- Refine Edge (Alt + Ctrl + R)

- Pen Tool (P)

- Feather (Shift + F6)

- Cut (Ctrl + X)

- Duplicate Selection (Ctrl + J)

Portraiture - Level 3 Photography

Portraiture

In your posts you will need to discuss the journey that Portraiture has taken over its history. For example the movement from Rich and Powerful people having expensive portraits made for them to the works of Portraiture photographers depicting the inner conflicts and catching their subjects in moments when they are least prepared.

Arnold Schwarzeneger, candidate for Governor of California, New York, June 23 2003

Richard Avedon has many weird and wonderful portraits of celebrities. However he seems to  wonder into the weird and abnormal side of photography, to portray a different meaning to the picture and the character in the photo. Portraiture is used for many things, including the very famous bank note, or a celebrity family to the galleries where they are criticized for their moral values and in depth meaning from the photograph.

Techniques

Lighting: Lighting is one of the most important techniques used when doing any form of photography, but mostly in portraiture it is used to show a deep meaning to the character and bring out hidden expressions, for example the Arnold Photograph shows heavy lighting from the right side however on the left side it starts to darken, this could mean he has a darker and secretive side to him which is hidden behind a fake reality of which we see him as.

Studio Set-up: This can be very important when taking a  portraiture as if you are trying to portray sadness or show the character to be hiding something they may use a soft box to bring out shadows on the facial expressions.

Catching the model unaware is an overused technique for many photographers. This is a very clever way to catch a photograph that has meaning without actually meaning to. The model when aware will try to show a specific side to them, a fake side which they feel they would be accepted within society however when caught unaware it brings out their true expression and portrays the real them and not a fake persona.

The paper canvas can be a difficult choice when it comes to printing the final image, using a landscape orientation when capturing more than one person in a portrait can come helpful as it gives you a wider range, however using a portrait orientation gives the sense of loneliness in a way. Photographers go to that much detail that even the page layout can have an inner meaning to it.

Fashion Photography - Week 6

Week 6: Fashion Photography - 3rd Post Questions

·         When is an image a Portrait? When is it a fashion photograph? Are the two the same?

The differences between a portrait and a fashion photograph can be quite easy to identify, the use of a model, lighting setup and a specific settings, of which both forms of photography use however they are far from being similar.

It is a portrait when you are purposefully aiming to bring expression out of the model. Concentrating on the person and not the objects it is wearing. A portrait can be a painting, drawing, photograph, or engraving of a person, especially when only taking a shot from the shoulders and above. This is mainly used to bring out an emotion or portray a certain persona of a figure.

Fashion photography focuses on current trends and creates a lifestyle through clothing. They are trying to sell a product to you, and convince you into buying it. Portraiture doesn't specifically sell anything through the photography but only makes you think about the true meaning of the photo. Fashion photography is a marketing technique. If fashion photography was to be defined: “Fashion photography is a genre of photography devoted to displaying clothing and other fashion items.” Over time, fashion photography has developed its own aesthetic in which the clothes and fashions are enhanced by the use of exotic locations and accessories.

·         To what degree should an image be manipulated to go into a fashion magazine?

Magazines come very close to being illegal when it comes to photo manipulation, the reason is because they change the way the person looks so much and that it misleads the audience, for example in some spot cream adverts they actually Photoshop the models face as the cream may not work 100% which is very misleading if they say it gets rid of 100% of the spots on your face. This is why they are very careful when manipulating their advert photographs, because it can cause a lot of controversy and anger from the public if found out to be lying and making up that their product actually works. The degree of what the photo should be manipulated is to the extent of changing the shape of the model however not tampering with the product.

This also causes a false sense of appearance, and makes teenagers especially think they HAVE to look like this to be “perfect” or “beautiful” however if it was to be analysed, the truth is that it can look very fake and gives a role model body that can be impossible to achieve.