Printing Compositions - Hair Project

Printing Compositions - Hair Project

Taking pictures for this project was fun. The whole class took pictures of two models and it was fun taking pictures of them and trying to focus on hair and lighting. I enjoyed taking the pictures, but developing the prints became pretty complicated for me. None of these pictures turned out perfectly black and white and it took a while before I finally got the correct settings.

Most of my pictures turned out this project. I had a bunch of pictures to work with, but unfortunately the luck was not on my side and the print always turned out way too grey. My contact sheet is the picture above and below. The settings for my contact sheet above are:

Aperture: 4

Filter: 4

Time: 60

 This contact sheet has most of the pictures where the model was either positioned in an angle or close up pictures. The settings are:

Aperture: 4

Filter: 4

Time: 60

 This was my first print which went fairly quick. I used the same settings for the final print as I used for this test-strip. The settings are:

Aperture: 4

Filter: 4

Time: 140

 November 2008

I quite like this angle-shot. I think it has a nice angle and  the hair is clearly visible. This was my first and quickest print. The print is a bit grey but the final settings were:

Aperture: 4

Filter: 4

Time: 140 

 November 2008

This print took forever for me to finish. This print never turned out good enough. It often turned out very grey and light. I tried many different settings, and my time often varied from 300 - 700 seconds. None of the settings quite seemed to work and the settings I used for this print clearly was not right because this print turned out too light and grey.

 November 2008

This is my close-up shot for this Hair project. I do like this picture a bit. I like how you don't quite see the expression of the model's face and the hair is really in focus. This was the print that took forever to find good settings for. The picture above did not have the correct settings and so for this print I had to change the settings a bit and luckily found settings which were good enough. Settings are:

Aperture: 2.8

Filter: 4.5

Time: 700

 I was not actually planning on using this print to, but I had to as my other print did not work. This print was the quickest to develop. It only took me about an hour. The settings for this test-strip are:

Aperture: 4

Filter: 4

Time: (from left to right) 75, 70, 65, 60

 This was my last print. It went extremely quick and I was very lucky with this print that I got it done in time seeing as the deadline was like in a few hours. What I like about this picture is that the girl to the left is smiling and looking towards the camera and she is in focus and then the other girl is looking in another direction and her hair is a bit un-focused. The settings are:

Aperture: 4

Filter: 4

Time: 99

Image Bank - Hair Project

Image Bank - Hair Project

Cristina Piza
Cristina Piza has had several exhibitions. Her first exhibition was in 1993 in Munich. Ever since she has had several galleries all over in places like Munich, Paris, London, Rome Berlin and other places. She has also earned quite a few awards. In total she has gotten 8 awards. She has gotten awards from places like New York, London, Munich, Madrid, and other places. She received her first award in 1994 at Olympus Fashion Award and her latest award was received in 2004 for the Freelens Layout Price.

Cristina Piza did a portfolio called "Havanna Dreams" and some of the pictures are of a girl getting married. I especially like this picture because I think it is a bit original and I like how it is simple and yet a very nice picture. I also chose this picture because I think it related to our project, Hair. The hair in this picture is pretty in focus and also the lighting is very good.

Anthony Redpath
Anthony Redpath's great passion for photography has helped him get great jobs with big advertising agencies. He has worked for big companies like BMW, Ford, Toyota, Microsoft and Helett-packard. His photographs have been showcased and been awarded several times and by numerous international publications. He has received several awards throughout the years 2003 - 2007.

I like this picture by Anthony Redpath. It's a funny picture which makes you relax a bit. The hair is also very focused as it is a bit odd and 'out there'.

Stewart Cohen

Stewart Cohen is mainly known for his pictures of different lifestyles. Stewart Cohen is extremely good at cathing the different ways of licing of people and theyre different hobbies. He has also done some advertising photos for like Samsung and some other companies. Stewart Cohen isn't only a photography, but also makes short motion clips. Unfortunately I was not able to find a good biography about Stewart Cohen, but looking through his portfolios show that he is an extremely skilled photography and looking at his pictures is very fun.

I think this close up picture by Stewart Cohen is really good. The hair is clearly visible and the effect of the blue-ish light gives the picture a colder feeling. I chose this picture because I like and it because it is a nice close-up shot.

Theory Notes - Hair Project

Theory Notes - Flashes

In photography a flas can be used to create an extra instantaneous light, artificial light, in only 1/1000 to 1/200 seconds. Flashes can be used for various reasons like helping to take pictures of things in motion, adding an extra lighting in the picture, and other reasons. Mainly flashes are used if the scene has bad lighting and the flash then exposes the picture with more light. "Flash" can either be referred to the flash itself or the electronic flash unit which discharges the flash of light.

Flashes can either be built in to the camera or be added to the camera. Through the years the Flash has been improved from the flash bulb, to the flash cube and now today the flash is a part of the camera.

A Flash Cube

Techniques - Flashes are often used inside as there might be missing some light sources and a
fill-flash gives the effect that the camera is surrounding the subject and that it is very close to the subject, but still adds the details in the background.
Bounce flash occurs when the flash is pointed upwards towards the ceiling or towards the flash umbrella to reflect the light on the subject.

The photographer is using a flash

Some drawbacks of using flash:

• Camera's with built-in flash will not have a low intensity of the flash and the light will not be good enough for pictures of a distant of around 3 metres.


• Often flashes give off the "red eye effect" making the subject's eyes in the picture red.

Theory Notes - Light Meters

Using the exposure correctly is important because for example the sky can be different in brigtness and so it is important to use the exposure meter correctly.

There are two types of light metering methods:

• Reflective Meters measure the light which is reflecting on the subject. You can use the center-weighted, spot or matrix metering while attempting to use the proper exposure.
  - Center-weighted takes a general metering of the image and focusing more in the center of the picture.
  - Spot metering focuses the metering on a small area of the scene.
  - Matrix metering is the newest form of metering methods. It divides the scene into 5 - 45 areas and indvidually finds the best exposure values.


• Incident Light metering measures the light over the subject. Incident light metering is easier to use than the reflective metering because you don't have to think about the subject's reflection.

The three pictures on the left show different exposures. (The circle locates the location metred on.) The middle photo is under exposured because the meter focused on the brightest area and so it was under exposured. While the bottom picture was metered on the darker areas and so the pictures was over exposured.

Diary Entry - Hair Project

Diary Entry - Hair Project

This project has not gone so good for me. Like usual, the pictures turn out extremely grey and light. I have tried a ton of different settings to try and fin the correct settings, but eventually I had to give up and move on to my next print. I have changed aperture, filters and different time, but nothing seemed to work. My first picture (the angle shot) turned out pretty grey but it seemed like whatever I did, I could'nt make it any better. I was told to leave it and move on to the next print. The next print took me a long time. As all the other times, the picture turned out too grey and I tried several different settings. At one point, my time intervals were as high up as 600 seconds. Eventually I just had to leave that picture and move on. All of the prints turned out to be very grey and even though I had very high time, the pictures still turned out to be very light. This project has not gone so well for me. Hopefully I will still get to complete it seeing as I'm still missing a print and that I will be satisfied about my project.