Ass 207 - Task 1b - Mono portraiture

Intentions/purpose of the photography to be undertaken :-

For this next task I am going to try and take a series of mono portraiture shots. During this photographic shoot I will manly focus on the head and shoulders keeping to a tight image crop and always trying to capture some part of the sitters personality, as with all photography sessions any opportunity that arises to capture a slightly different picture in composition, style or just a twinkle in the eye should/will be taken and can always be used or delated later on.

Reasons for selection of theme (including inspiration from the work of others) :-

I feel that the medium of black and white photography seems to work extremely well for portraiture shoots, by striping away the colour from the image the sitters personality seems to be amplified and comes across even stronger. By only working in mono for this session I will have to think harder about how the lighting will effect the sitters facial features and clothing textures “no more hiding behind colour” the use of strong or soft light will make a big difference to the final image form and composition, I will also have to think about the background colour shade and how this will impact on my final images.

One source of inspiration for this assignment has been the images of Jane Bown, time after time she seems to be able to capture the personality of each individual sitter, only ever working in black and white and just using the natural available light.


The photo imaging equipment and medium that will be used and why :-

For this studio session I will be using my Canon 500D camera with a shutter release cable and a hotshoe adapter linking the camera to the studio light, I will use only one lens my Canon 18-55mm. Also during the shoot I will use a single Barn Door light, by using the reflectors to control the direction of the light I will have a better and tighter control of light and how it falls on to the model, this also has the advantage of keeping light away from the background.

Techniques that will be used and how they will help convey the visual message :-

For this photographic session I will be moving the light source to alter the way in which the light falls across the sitters face, which I hope will alter the look and feel of the images, I will also move the position of camera from time to time to try and capture different viewpoints.


Once I had discussed and it had been agreed with the tutor we set-up a black Colorama background in the studio, I wanted to keep the background as dark as possible for this shoot so a black background was always going to be the prefered choice, a single Barn Door light source was used to illuminate the sitter, by using the reflecters I was able to control the light direction and strength alowing me full flexibility to alter the feel and contrast of the shot at any time.

During the original discussion it was decided to capture the images in colour, then at a later date when I was ready to process the shots I would only convert the chosen pictures in to black and white. During the photographic shoot I focused mainly on the head and shoulders, trying to keep a tight crop at all times, quick discussions with the model before and during the session provided an understanding about what I hoped to capture.

A few test shots were taken to make sure that the position of the light and camera were okay, I also checked the shutter speed, F-stop and ISO readings, these settings were altered and tweaked to work with the flash and give me the right amount of contrast within the image. The camera was positioned level with the model’s head making use of the studio tripod, during the photographic shoot the camera was moved around to alter the image composition, at the end of the session just under 100 images were taken.

Contact sheet of the chosen images

Once I had downloaded the images from my camera I was able to take a closer look at each one individually, all of the images were imported into Lightroom where I would be able to take a closer look at each image individual, once I started the selection process I graded the images to help narrow down my choice, the chosen images would have to meet with the following requirements; good focus on the face, balanced lighting, good posture and composition.

lightroom windows

As I viewed each image I attributed a score from 1 to 4 (4 being my prefered top choice) after my first perusal I reviewed the images once again and eventually selected just 27 images, these images were exported from Lightroom into a new folder ready for opening in Photoshop, during this next stage I would produce a contact sheet which would help me to reduce my selection further to a final choice of 10 images, these selected images would be processed and converted to black and white.

To convert a colour image to Black & White in Photoshop there are quite a few different ways for this task to be completed, the quickest and simplest way to convert the image is to change the colour mode to Greyscale (fig 1.), the Mode menu can be found on the header bar under the Image heading, once the image has been converted to mono it can be worked on further in Photoshop by using various filters, layers and any number of combinations.

The second option (fig 2.) is to use the Chanel Mixer, this is found under Adjustments, under the Image header. With this option you click the Monochrome button first and then you use the RGB slide bars to control the look of the image, the source chanels should make up a total score of 100 for the best result, once you are happy with your image you click OK and a chanel mixer layer is located above the original image, this way of working alows you to retain the colour image within the psd file.

For the third way to convert (fig 3.) you could use the Black and White layer option, this option is also found under the Adjustments and it automatically converts the image to mono, this provides you with 6 slide bars to alter the image and gives you good control on the final output, also with this option you also have some saved Prests which can be used as a starting point to manipulate the image. The final tool within this option is the Tint tool, by using this option you can convert the image to a single colour image.

Black and White layer option window

Each one of the above options will work well in converting the chosen images to black and white.

Safety considerations:-

All health and safety guidelines will be observed once the studio has been entered,I will familiarise myself and model with the fire evacuation routes from the studio. I will always keep the door clear of all obstruction, we need to find out the contact name and number of the first aider before starting work in the studio and report immediately any accident or near miss to the tutor and in general act responsible at all times and look after and tidy up all the equipment once used.

One of the images form the mono gallery