New Assignment: Remake a Classic Work of Art

Hello Students,

Your next assignment is an exercise in planning, preparation, creativity with location and costume and direction of your model. The idea with this project is to remake a classic work of art using photography.

Photographic recreation of Egon Schiele's "self portrait with physalis". Photography by Jared Wilson

Remake A Classic Work of Art With Photography:

• Look through the examples and links below for clarification and inspiration
• Research and find a classic work of art that inspires you. Your final choice of artwork to remake must be approved by your instructor before proceeding
• Keep it classic, think old masters. Im not looking for contemporary artwork, album covers, fashion photography or cinematic references
• Final result is a photo only, no color correction, cropping or special effects allowed. If you do it correctly the majority of work happens before you take the picture. For this project post processing is banned
• Put all of your creative energy into the arrangement and recreation of elements. Pay attention to costume, color, light, position, framing, facial expression etc... the key is in the details. Take shots and look at them closely, if something isn't right than re-shoot.
• Elements of your choice of artwork can be re-imagined of course. Strive for recreation of details with whatever you have available and at hand

Grading:

This project will be evaluated on your ability to meet the requirements as well as the intention of the assignment. Your work should show careful planning and execution. You are the artist with a vision and it is your responsibility to direct your costume, scene, model and props to achieve your desired results.

High performing student work: This is a lovely recreation of Daniel Hernandez Morillo's "woman carrying firewood". The student photographer, Gracie Thomas, took great care with costume, pose, light, props, setting and composition for spectacular results.

This is an example of low performing student work. The student grabbed a bike, a blanket and a model at the last minute and took a snapshot. Little care is put into setting, light, costume, pose, composition.

Links:

Example - Old Master paintings recreated by photographer Josef Fischnaller

Example - Famous painting recreated

Student Work Samples:

Advanced Portrait Study

Hello Students,

This assignment is an advanced study in portrait photography. You will have to find a volunteer to model for you. Your task is to take a series of portraits as outlined below. The challenge with this project is to coach your model to position themselves in a way that shows their best look. A standard roll of film has 36 exposures. Take at least 2 rolls worth of film, or roughly 70 photos over the course of this challenge, create a Contact Sheet and choose your final 7 images from them.

Advanced Portrait Study Assignment Part A:

Your client (who is a famous model, celebrity, or actor, or millionaire executive, okay maybe they are just your best friend, but let's pretend for now they are a VIP) has just hired you to shoot a series of portraits for an upcoming magazine ad/article/brochure/book/event/etc. Your job is to get them to open up and show their best side to your camera. You must coach them, break them out of their comfort zone and follow your directions to show their best look.

Required Reading:

6 Tips for Better Portraits from Peter Hurley, professional photographer for celebrities, actors and executives

• Find a volunteer to act as your model. You will be shooting many shots so they must be committed
• Shoot a series of images for each of the techniques listed below. Upon completion you should have over 70 images to choose your final 7 from
• Final deliverables: Contact Sheet and 7 final images posted to blog with image enhancement

1) Alter Your Perspective:

A photographers instinct is to shoot at eye level, try an extreme angle from different sides. Try to position yourself around the subject, not vice versa. Try multiple angles and take a shot or two from each one.

Photo by striatic

2) Looking Off Camera/Off Frame:

Have your subject framed at different distances and looking off camera. Have your model focus on something unseen or seen, off in the distance or closeup. This helps create an air of mystique. Shoot multiple shots from different distances.

Photo by monicutza80

3) Looking Within The Frame:

Have your subject looking at something within the frame. Consider what they are looking at. If it is a snack they might seem hungry. If it is a cell phone that is ringing perhaps they look annoyed.

Photo by paulbence

4) Experiment With Lighting:

Try shooting indoors with no lights except our studio lights. Try looking for a single light source, or anywhere with deep shadow or shadows that can cast a pattern on the models face. Try light sources from the front, back, sides. Shoot multiple images.

5) Get Your Subject Out Of Their Comfort Zone:

Ask your model to get out of their comfort zone by doing something active such as jumping, spinning, dancing, riding a bike, sprinting, stretching, doing kung-fu etc. Shoot as many action shots as you can, make sure to adjust your exposure settings to reduce motion blur. Make sure they are doing something they may not normally do.

6) The Candid:

Ask your model to go about their business and pretend you aren't there. Follow them around, shoot images and try to capture those natural moments.

Photo captured by Christopher Rye

7) Get A Smile:

While you are taking pictures, at any time, tell a joke and try to make your model laugh a genuine laugh. If you time it just right and anticipate their laughter you can snap a shot at the right time.

8) Make A Contact Sheet Of All Images:

A contact sheet is a great way to view all your images at once. That way your client can see all the images easily and pick the best ones.

Advanced Portrait Study Assignment Part B: Left, Right, Front...

Your next assignment is another exercise in portrait photography and this time we are testing a theory that a persons left side of their face shows more emotion that the right side of the face, and that viewers find the left side more aesthetically pleasing. Read through the 2 links below. Take your portraits and write a 2-3 paragraph summary about your findings. Do you agree with the theory proposed? If not why? What are your personal findings and thoughts?

Does the left side of the face show more emotion? 

Links for reading:

 - Science Daily: Your left side is your best side

 - Petapixel: Photograph the left side of peoples faces to capture more emotion

Assignment Details:

• Pick 1 person (doesn't have to be the same model from part A) and take 3 pictures of them each showing their face from the right, the left and straight on.
• Take multiple shots (like a professional) and choose your best example to show the left, side and front portraits
• Post your 3 images to your blog when complete, post processing is encouraged to enhance your portraits, try B&W, cross-processing or basic color enhancement.
• Write a 2-3 paragraph summary of your findings. Do you agree with the theory proposed? If not why? What are your personal findings and thoughts on this theory?

Left

Front

Right

Have fun!

 - Mr.W

 This project is due Friday. - Mr.W

Create A Comic Book From Photographs

Hello Students,

Your new assignment is to create a comic book with a comic book cover using photographs. Check out the guidelines and follow the filter process to create cool comic book styled art from photographs. You could also use the warhol style to give your photos an artistic look. Your comic should tell a short story or at least be the beginning to a longer story. Use exaggerated facial expressions, camera angles, word ballons and different panel layouts to give your comic that air of authenticity.

Comic Book Assignment:

• Brainstorm a short comic book story that will fit into 2 pages of 6 to 8 panels
• Sketch or storyboard your scenes on paper, create 1 full page cover image complete with title artwork and 2 comic pages with 4-6 images per page
• Your comic book story could be an action scene, a dramatic scene, a scary story, a dream sequence, a slice of life or a funny story with a punchline... use your imagination. Use this comic to tell a joke, recreate a story or recreate your favorite superhero comic
• Check out the comic book panel layouts below for different page design ideas
• Research comic books, look at how the people are posed, color usage, angles, and try to capture that style in your images. The more exaggerated the camera angles and facial expressions the better. Don't limit yourself, super powers and special effects can be added in photoshop
• Get your models together, pose and arrange them and shoot your panels
• Lay your photos out and crop/resize to create your comic book panels and cover
• Post the comic book cover and pages to your blog when complete

Comic book pages can have lots of different panel layouts, here are 8 different page layouts

How To Style Your Photo Into Comic Book Art:

You have lots of options to stylize your artwork to make it look like a comic book illustration. Use different filters, half-tones, bright colors, warhol style or other filters. Try the process below and see if you like the results. You could even print your photos, trace them with a felt pen and scan them to make your artwork if you wanted too. Use your imagination and experiment for the best results.

• Open photo in Photoshop
• Go to Filer > Artistic > Poster Edges
• Adjust sliders for desired effect

Due Tuesday, have fun!

- Mr.W