WR3

Plans for Shoot

For this shoot, I will be doing research into the photographer Phillip Lorca Dicorcia and be personally recreating his work with my own interpretation. I decided this photographer on the basis that Dicorcia's work incorporates artificial light with portraiture. Due to Dicorcia's work being captured in various streets I feel his work is a combination of Billingham's eerie street photography, and Zwehl's distorted portraiture.

Research
Phillip Lorca Dicorcia
Dicorcia is an American photographer who captured people of America in the 1980s-90s who were in pursuit to follow the American dream and were not so successful. Every photo of a person was titled their name, and certain photos would be titled the person's name, age, location and price. The price was related to the fact that some of these people had to sell themselves to survive in the states. I did further research into Dicorcia's work in the blog post 'Photographer Research - Phillip Lorca Dicorcia', after research into Dicorcia's work there appeared to be no specific camera or editing techniques to the photo, but Dicorcia does use a composition technique of positioning the artificial light to highlight the subjects face as if a stage light to create a story to the photo.

Image bank

These are a few photos of Dicorcia's work.

Contact sheet
These are all the photos I took for this shoot.

Best Photos

These are the best selected photos from my shoot.

Photos that require improvement

These are a few photos that required improvement in my shoot, the issues with these photos was the composition and possibly exposure settings. In the process of my shoot, I had to use a mannequin to prepare the shoot and make sure the camera was in focus for when I was in shot. Once I set the timer, I would move the mannequin and take the position the mannequin had to then pose for the photos. With the first photo it appears I had stood too far back from the direct light source so my face was not highlighted directly and the photo appears poorly lit. This is the same for the second photo and is evident with the light on the hand, my face is poorly lit but my hand, which is placed more forward, is highlighted more intensely. What also possibly made the photos appear so dark was the exposure settings, which were shutter speed 1/250sec, aperture F16 and exposure ISO800, now in most photos the aperture was F14 which would've allowed more light into the photo, so these photos compared to the others are clearly darker in ambience.

AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.

My Ideas

My intention for this shoot was to research into the photographer Phillip Lorca Dicorcia and use this research to create my own personal shoot influenced by aspects of Dicorcia's work. From my research into Dicorcia's work I learnt that he didn't seem to use any specific camera or editing techniques, but he did always use a composition of positioning artificial light to highlight the front of the subjects to create a theatrical atmosphere to the photo. When recreating Dicorcia's work, I more took aspects from his work than actually recreated the whole composition. I took the aspect of positioning artificial light onto the subjects face to create a theatrically atmosphere. I feel I was successful in taking this aspect into my photos, I took a selection of photos that varied in poses and focal length to see what would best appear for my portfolio.

Reference to best photos

I selected this photo because it creates a theatrical and dramatic atmosphere. Like Dicorcia's work, I used the artificial light to highlight my face and leave my surroundings unnoticed. Looking up into the light makes it appear as symbolic, as though the light is my stage light and I am looking into it as though I am ready to tell my story, similar to the people in Dicorcia's photo.

I selected this photo because of its distorted composition of light. The light is directed to the left of me above, and with my positioning being stepped back a little further so I am not directly in the light, creates a cut-off of light in the centre of my face and the angling of my face creates a shadowing on my neck. By looking down is creates a mystery as to why I appear so solemn to the viewer, and the lighting would emphasize this more. 

I selected this photo because of its eerie and mysterious atmosphere. By standing further back from the direct light source I was able to only be captured from a small amount of light. This created a distorted appearance as only a small amount of me is actually revealed. What you can see of my expression appears relaxed but also powerful and this could be unsettling to the viewer.

AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.

Shoot Process/Use of Camera

For this shoot, I used the college studio and its equipment. I used a black backdrop to keep the atmosphere dark. Then using a snoot light to direct the light onto the subject's (my) face, keeping it highlighted only there, I also used a clicker connected to the camera so when capturing photos the snoot light would flash in time with the captured moment. I had to use a self timer on my camera while stood on a tripod to capture myself. I used my Nikon D3400 camera and the settings were shutter speed 1/250sec, aperture varied from F14-16, and exposure varied from ISO400-8000. Since I only took an aspect from my photographers research for my photos, I was able to highlight my face and create an eerie and theatrical atmosphere.

Experimenting

Although Dicorcia's work uses vivid and warm colouring, I wanted to experiment with making the photos black and white to create a more dramatic atmosphere.

Firstly, I pressed CTRL+J to make a copy of the original photo so I can easily go back on my work if I need to .

 Then I made another copy and pressed CTRL+SHIFT+U to turn the whole photo black and white. This is before and after from removing colour from the photo.

 Here are the layers after this process.

 Then I added an adjustment layer of 'gradient map' to change the intensity of the shadows and highlights in the photo. Since the photos are already very dark I wouldn't lower the shadows by much, for example, this photo was set to '2' on the shadows. I would then brighten the highlights to make a deep contrast, for this photo, I went to '70' to increase the details.

Here is all the layers once the photo is completed.

  This is the before and after of the photo once edited.

Here is another example of the before and after the editing process.

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

Through my research, I have further perfected my use of snoot studio lighting and general studio compositions. I was able to experiment with composition styles with the use of light and perfect exposure settings. Dicorcia has inspired me to created more meaningful and symbolic photos with the use of backgrounds and lighting compositions.

AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements. 

Here are my final pieces...

Progression

Overall, I feel Dicorcia's work is a powerful and symbolic presentation of people in struggle's stories, by the use of light to make it appear almost cinematic by presenting them as a character. By taking this aspect of his photos, minus the story line with the subjects background and title, I was able to create dramatic and mysterious photos. So, instead of making a clear story from the composition, I created an unfinished and mysterious story to my character, making the viewer question what story I have. I personally really enjoyed this shoot and how it came out, I feel the effect of a direct source of artificial light has made dramatic and aesthetic photos. I feel to take this photograph style into consideration for my final pieces since it was successful and I enjoyed it. However, moving forward,  I would like to further experiment with artificial light and portraiture, possibly with the presentation of shadows, so in my next shoot, I will be looking into a photographer that presents shadows using artificial light.