Portraiture #2 - Test Shoots
SHOOTS & EXPERIMENTS..
For the current project, I want to reflect the historical, Pre Raphaelite painting Ophelia in to my portraiture work. After having a group tutorial with Peter Renn, I realised that I didn't want to recreate the painting exactly but instead recreate my own version. I began by choosing a very flowy, simple yet elegant grey velvet dress from the charity shop. I thought the clothing was a very important aspect as it really pulls the character together. I originally wanted an old fashioned lace dress with a colour, however, due to the limited time i gave my self I had to adapt my idea. Much like Millias, the dress inspired me more...
KEY FEATURES:
SHOOT #1
I then had the idea of trying it in a lake nearby; Frensham Pond. However, this idea was proven very problematic! Due to the time of the year and the horrendous weather, when we did a quick shoot, the water was extremely cold so we only managed to get in for around 5 minutes. I felt as if the photos were rushed because of this and wasn't at its fullest potential. However, this was a good learning curve as it taught me to plan more thoroughly, think of every aspect of the shoot but it did show me what I could achieve in such circumstances. It was taken before sunset and was outside so I used available light. If it was warmer, I would have liked to play with the shutter speed and the movement of the water around her and explore the natural lighting reflecting off the water.
I shot on a Lumix25-400 as it was the only one I had available to me due to such a short notice of the change in weather. This was interesting, as it was my first time and I had to figure it out very quickly.
I wasn't too keen on these photos as I didn't frame it very well and I did not utilise the nature around me in this shoot. I did attempt to put some flowers around her but they quickly sunk.
However, the last two photos I
took, I rather liked because they were from a different angle. I also really liked the reflection of the foliage on to the water. It would have been nice to have a pop of colour to the photographs as the dress becomes one with the water and its all very bleak, muddy and
grey colours.
I wanted the water to be darker with less light reflection on the surface. This was because, I wanted her skin to stand out and glow to show her recent death, the remaining warmth left on her.
. 
ADJUSTING:
Over Exposed:
I thought I'd push this shoot a bit further and I started messing around with coloured lighting, I had blue fairy lights in my room which were quite strong and I had a smaller Lamp which I covered with yellow gel and i began moving these around and shooting to see the effects they would create. In addition, I added some fairy lights to the foliage and around my model, creating a dream-like effect...
SHOOT #3:
For my final shoot I did it in the bath, using the available bathroom light as it was too much of a hazard to include the bowens flash head. I wanted to take a different approach compared to the last two shoots.
I filled the bath, put some soap in it to make it cloudy and got my model to lay in it and I placed flowers and foliage around her. I thought it would be interesting to have a different angle of Ophelia:
I really like this shoot as its very floral which was a passage in Hamlet. I Particularly like the one where the model is looking beyond the camera and not straight in to the lenses, hinting at her looking in to the after life. It took me multiple goes adjusting the shutter speed and adjusting the white balance until I was happy.
The two photos that really stood out to me were these:
By doing so many test shoots in such different settings , I was able to explore different ways of capturing the character of Ophelia
For the current project, I want to reflect the historical, Pre Raphaelite painting Ophelia in to my portraiture work. After having a group tutorial with Peter Renn, I realised that I didn't want to recreate the painting exactly but instead recreate my own version. I began by choosing a very flowy, simple yet elegant grey velvet dress from the charity shop. I thought the clothing was a very important aspect as it really pulls the character together. I originally wanted an old fashioned lace dress with a colour, however, due to the limited time i gave my self I had to adapt my idea. Much like Millias, the dress inspired me more...
"To-day I have purchased a really splendid lady’s ancient dress- all flowered over in silver embroidery-and I am going to paint it for ‘Ophelia’...it cost me, old and dirty as it is, four pounds."
John Everett Millais
I wasnt sure how I wanted to stage this photo so I thought it would be a good idea to strip it all back. I did a very quick exercise where I looked at an image of the painting and then gave it 10 or so minutes. I then did a quick skecth of everything I could remember. This then showed me what the most important features of the painting which I would need to show in my staging:
KEY FEATURES:- foliage in foreground
- flowers in water
- flowing hair
- flowing dress
- willow tree
- surrounded by nature
- placement of arms
SHOOT #1
I then had the idea of trying it in a lake nearby; Frensham Pond. However, this idea was proven very problematic! Due to the time of the year and the horrendous weather, when we did a quick shoot, the water was extremely cold so we only managed to get in for around 5 minutes. I felt as if the photos were rushed because of this and wasn't at its fullest potential. However, this was a good learning curve as it taught me to plan more thoroughly, think of every aspect of the shoot but it did show me what I could achieve in such circumstances. It was taken before sunset and was outside so I used available light. If it was warmer, I would have liked to play with the shutter speed and the movement of the water around her and explore the natural lighting reflecting off the water.
I shot on a Lumix25-400 as it was the only one I had available to me due to such a short notice of the change in weather. This was interesting, as it was my first time and I had to figure it out very quickly.
I wasn't too keen on these photos as I didn't frame it very well and I did not utilise the nature around me in this shoot. I did attempt to put some flowers around her but they quickly sunk.
took, I rather liked because they were from a different angle. I also really liked the reflection of the foliage on to the water. It would have been nice to have a pop of colour to the photographs as the dress becomes one with the water and its all very bleak, muddy and
I wanted the water to be darker with less light reflection on the surface. This was because, I wanted her skin to stand out and glow to show her recent death, the remaining warmth left on her.
The Two That I Thought Were Successful:
By doing this first shoot, it made me realise that I felt restricted due to the short time period of shooting due to the coldness. I needed to execute a more practical shoot that I could get more out of. I do however really like the glossy stillness of the water. It shows that she, Ophelia, had been there for a while and had essentially become one with nature. It also makes her look like she is suspended, just touching this silky surface of water.
SHOOT #2
The second shoot was inspired by removing the element of water from the image. I decided to create a set in my room. This would give me complete control of the mise-en-scene. Using a grey bedsheet as a backdrop. I put pillows underneath to create some texture and height differences in the foreground and back ground to give the feeling of a natural ground. I gathered a lot of fake and real plants and placed them in areas that I thought nature was memorably prominent. From here, I then looked at a photo of the painting as reference and I rearranged them to where I thought was best fitting.
EQUIPTMENT:
- NIKON DSLR D3500
- Bowens Flash Head
- Lightmetre
- blue lights
- yellow gel filter
- soft box
- Tripod
. 
I wanted a dark back ground as the water in the Millias painting was very dark. The area that stood out most in the painting due to lighting was Ophelia's skin. I really liked this and wanted to replicate this look in my photographs, but more dramatised. Furthermore, I wanted her to almost blend in with the back ground through the dress, but have her skin and the foliage rather prominent. To do this I had to do some experimenting with the placement of the lights, ISO and shutter speed.
- Begun by moving around the lighting to find best position. I found that to have the soft lighting on the side of her face acting like sunlight was much more flattering. In addition, it was much like the painting's composition of light
ADJUSTING:
Over Exposed:
Under Exposed:
How I wanted it:
FIRST OUTCOMES FROM SHOOT#2:
SHUTTER SPEED WITH LIGHTS:
SHOOT #3:
For my final shoot I did it in the bath, using the available bathroom light as it was too much of a hazard to include the bowens flash head. I wanted to take a different approach compared to the last two shoots.
I filled the bath, put some soap in it to make it cloudy and got my model to lay in it and I placed flowers and foliage around her. I thought it would be interesting to have a different angle of Ophelia:
I really like this shoot as its very floral which was a passage in Hamlet. I Particularly like the one where the model is looking beyond the camera and not straight in to the lenses, hinting at her looking in to the after life. It took me multiple goes adjusting the shutter speed and adjusting the white balance until I was happy.
The two photos that really stood out to me were these:
By doing so many test shoots in such different settings , I was able to explore different ways of capturing the character of Ophelia
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