New vision
These days, during the time of COVID-19, people face numerous struggles and hardships. I want the audience to believe and understand “hope”. For this set, I will experiment with lights to show the message of never giving up.
Artist-Robert Bergman
From these photographs, I noticed that Robert Bergman likes to use face to reveal one’s identity. He depicts people that have different ethnicity and skin color. By the reflection of lighting, it shows a sense of “hope” in each photograph. He utilizes facial expressions to convey the idea and expresses tone to the readers. Moreover, different colors of lightings and simple plain backgrounds are found in his photographs. I will utilize these backgrounds and lightings in my set. In addition, elements of “out of focus”, “get in close” and “Sharp eyes” are noticed.
I have chosen this photographer because of the use of background, lighting, and using face to represent one’s identity. Like in his photographs, I will use a simple plain background and lightings to show the idea of “Hope”.
Favorite
This photograph is my favorite photograph from Robert Bergman, because of the lighting. The main subject of one’s face is clearly shown by the element of “Get in close”; the details like the curly hairs, the bones, the blue-colored eyes, and the dots on the face can be seen clearly. The background of this photograph is what I like. It doesn’t show any information about the time or the setting. It is simple and the lighting attracts my eyes. Even though the subject has an unemotional face without any posing of their body, from my standpoint, the lighting gives a sense of hope. The red, pink, and purple color is bright enough and shine behind the main subject. The subject seems very skinny like he/she has faced poverty or any hardships. However, the lighting and the red flower on the subject’s shoulder seem like there is still hope behind the subject’s life. When I first saw this image, my eyes were drawn to the main subject because it was covering my whole frame. However, I focused on the details, the lighting, the hair, and the red clothes. There is a similarity between these details. The colors of red, pink, orange and purple are all bright enough to catch my attention. The colors are emphasized and stand out because the incarnadine color of the main subject fills the frame. It seems dull and plain by the color, but adding these brighter colors makes it unique.
Least Favorite
This is my least favorite photograph from Robert Bergman. The main subject of one’s face is clearly shown by utilizing the element of “Get in close”. However, the lighting in the background doesn’t fit well with the subject. From the lighting, it seems that the character is facing some pain. It seems like he misses someone of something but there is no hope for him. The lighting is dark which makes the tone of the photograph dark. Moreover, the image doesn’t show any information about the setting of the time. It makes the image unattractive to the audience and depressed. When I first saw this photograph, my eyes are drawn to the main subject’s face, but particularly the left side of the face. The reflection of the light seems a bit interesting to me. It shows a contrast between the skin color and the light. Bergman might want to show an idea of “equality” through contrast and lighting. However, the lighting wasn’t unique, it might be better to have a color change in light.
Planning my shot
Set 2 Blue Shots
These photographs are my 20 chosen images for my blue set. These photographs all link with my artist, Robert Bergman. Even though I didn’t blur and out focus the background as what Robert Bergman had done in his photographs, I was inspired by his lighting skills. In these blue shots, I have experimented with different colors of lighting with different light intensity, warmness, and different angles. I have chosen the blue set by the variation of posing, different colors of lights, and how it links with my artist. All of them have a theme of “hope” by using different posing and using the prop of “mask”. By having photographs that the subject wears masks and does not wear a mask, it shows that hope of ending covid-19. Some posing shows the concept of “never give up”.
Set 2 Green Shots
I have narrowed my photographs down to 10 for my green set. First, I have chosen these images by eliminating the repetition of posing from my blue set. Moreover, I focused on the lighting. I have chosen photographs that are showing a contrast of darkness and warmness or images that show a complete warmness.
Set 2 Red Shots
The idea behind this set of photographs is “hope”, specifically “hope for the end of a pandemic”. I have chosen these 3 images by posing, lighting, lighting placement, and variety of lights. The lights I have used include yellow, white, blue, and red to show the idea. They tell a story through lighting and the mask. The lighting of red and blue represent sadness or hopelessness. On the other hand, white light and yellow light presents hope and warmness. In addition, the mask the main subject is wearing is obviously symbolizing the covid-19 pandemic that people have been facing. By using two colors of hope and hopelessness. It shows that confronting a pandemic is hard, but there is always hope to face it and fight for it. It shows a desire to eliminate the pandemic with the idea of never giving up. The strengths of these images include the use of different elements, tones, and experiments of lighting. In these photographs, I have included the elements of “getting in close”, “Quality lights” and “putting dominant eyes in the center”. I have achieved this through utilizing editing skills like cropping. Moreover, the lights are chosen well; it expresses different emotion and tones to the audience. By looking at these three images, audiences might feel warmness or hope through the photograph with yellow lighting. In addition, people might feel a bit depressed through the photograph with blue color lighting as the background. But also feel a feeling of hope through the small strong white light coming out from the side of the subject’s body in the image with blue lights filling the frame. I have learned to use different lighting to better express the idea and the tone of the images. It is interesting and attractive to others. Something that works well about these images is the tone and the show of my idea through lighting. The color choice of lighting worked well to present the idea of “hope”. Something that I need to develop further is to use different emotions to strengthen my idea. For my next set, I am looking forward to using the same idea of “hope.” It was hard for individuals to go out and travel during the pandemic. I will depict photographs that show a person hoping to travel to a place. Unlike this set, I will be using and developing my editing skills in Affinity software.
Critique
Favorite
This photograph is my favorite of the whole set. There are multiple elements included in this photograph, “Get in close”, “Quality Lights” and “Sharp Eyes”. It would be better to spread out the lighting more so that more lighting comes out from the side of the main subject. The lights might be a distraction, but that was intended to show an idea of “hope” and a “positive future”. When I looked at this photograph, my eyes were drawn to the mask and the lights coming out from the side. The exposure is right and intended. I have utilized the element of “Quality of Lights” and when taking the photograph I have used higher ISO to depict my character clearly. The blue light is correct because it was intended to show the concept of hardship and sadness. In addition, the small amount of bright white light coming from the side of the body is also intended to show the concept of hope. Even though I have used the element of “Get in Close” for this photograph, it would be much better to use a longer focal length to depict the details on the face. The background is simple, it is just a combination of two-color lights, blue and bright light. As mentioned, these two colors symbolize different tones and different concepts. Dark blue shows the concept of hardship and provides a tone of depression to the audience. On the other hand, the small white light coming from eh side shows the concept of “never giving up” and “there is always hope”. It gives small courage to the audience. The element of “Quality lights” are taking up the most. This photograph mainly focuses on light and the prop of masks. They both show universal meanings. It might be better to strengthen the quality and the quantity of the white light. The choices of color are definitely correct. Before taking the photographs, I have searched up for the color that gives the audience a feeling of sadness which was the blue color. Even though yellow was the main color for hope, white was the other option. The depth of field between the main subject and the light can be closer to increase the white light intensity and amount of light. Furthermore, the photograph definitely fits the vision. The mask showing the covid-19 collaborating with the blue-colored background shows the difficulty of facing covid. However, there is always a small amount of hope behind everyone. It tells a story that no one should give up and stop confronting.
Least Favorite
`The photograph I have taken is my least favorite photograph from the red shots, because of the light choice. All of the elements included in the photograph support the main subject of my face. The elements include “Get in close”, “interaction”, and “Quality Lights and Shadows”. This is my least favorite image, because of the lighting. The choice of lighting was a mistake, it would be much better to change one of the lightings to bright white or yellow to show a stronger idea of “hope”. Still, by not wearing a mask, it shows the character’s desire to end the covid-19 era and should not give up to reach the goal of not wearing a mask. When I first saw this photograph, my eyes were drawn to the face. On the face, it showed a mixture and the contrast of the red and blue color. It makes the photograph attractive and interesting by giving two different tones. The reflection of the white light on the glasses of the subject is kind of a distracting element. It makes the audience see the subject’s eyeless clearer. The exposure is right, but the color choices of light are wrong. It distracts showing the idea of “hope”. I have utilized my photograph technique by lowering my ISO in a darker room so that it depicts the character much clearer. The color choice of red seems to make the photograph not hopeful but increases a feeling of brutality and depression. The focal length is correct and just right; I have correctly used the element of “Get in close”. By making the focal length longer it might be too concentrated on the face. The background is simple with different colors of lights showing different tones. Both a bit showing the hopeless and dangerous tone. The composition or the element of “Quality lights’ are taking the most part and frame in this photograph. It is the most focused element in it. By not wearing the mask, it shows an interaction with the audience. It might be better to strengthen the interaction. As mentioned, the color in this image isn’t correct. It might be better to change one that shows warmness and hope. The depth of field between the subject and the light is just right. Unlike my favorite photograph, this photograph doesn’t need to close the depth of field due to the different placing of lights. It does show my vision through the mask but not really by the lights.