Friday 20 September 2013

Photograph 3 - Assignment 3: Monochrome

With this photograph I paid attention to detail regarding both the clothing/props and the lighting. I decided to go a step further with the clothing/props however.

   I replaced the pen and paper the lady was using in 'A Lady Writing a Letter' by Johannes Vermeer (c.1665) with a laptop. This was in order to show the viewer once again how times had advanced, while filling the frame nicely too. I asked my model to sit straighter in the chair than the 'leaning over' lady in Vermeer's painting. This was to suggest how times have changed besides technology - that women are much more assertive now.

   Other touches were that I asked my model to look out of the window but with the canvas in between the window and herself. This created the illusion that she was also looking at or daydreaming about the drawing on the canvas; adding further information to the frame. I was satisfied also with the clothing worn. The fur coat she wore (the lady in Vermeer's 'A Lady Writing a Letter') was present and also, more prominently, the hair garments, which I thought worked especially well as they caught the light. Lastly, I waited until my model had a relaxed and thoughtful face, with the hint of a smile appearing.



Photograph 3 for Assignment 3: Monochrome


   I incidentally lightened her earring (similar to 'Colours into tones 2'), which made it stand out more. Also because I was working in black-and-white I took advantage of lightening her skin (mainly by dragging the orange slider in Adobe Lightroom's 'black and white mix' box to the right, without greatly changing much of the rest of the photograph.

   Another point was that I found the canvas to stand out especially well against the black backdrop behind it; isolating it effectively so that it was more apparent within the frame. It was again (similar to Photograph 2 for the assignment) a fairly low-key photograph, although this time I had purposefully made the background dark. This was to improve form in terms of the woman's face and make obvious the most important parts of the photograph.

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