Photo Manipulation: Model Effect

 Photo Manipulation: Model Effect

Using Photoshop we can manipulate photographs to give them a "model" effect. Using the sharpen and blur tools we can retain the sharpness of the centre third and use the blur tool to make the surrounding thirds appear out of focus. It gives the illusion of a sort of "model village".

This is the original image before manipulation through Photoshop.

This is the image after applying the blur and sharpen tools.

Fashion Photography Notes

History

Fashion photography has been around since the 1800's. It became more prevalent with the invention of the halftone printing process in 1880. This process made translating finely shaded imagery onto printing plates quick and effective.

Cecil Beaton was considered a master of the art. He would create elaborate images of decadent beauty in scenes he would call "dream worlds". He started working for Vogue in 1927. Beaton photographed the Royal Family often, for official publication.

When is an image a Portrait and when is it a fashion photograph?

The key distinction between the two styles of photography is what the photograph focuses on. In portraiture, the photograph focuses on the subject. It tries to capture them as a person and express who they are. Fashion photography on the other hand focuses on, essentially, what the subject is wearing.

To what degree should an image be manipulated to go into a fashion magazine?

It's common practice among fashion photographers and magazines to manipulate the model and the resulting photograph. Publishers can go to extreme lengths to manipulate photographs as seen in Dove's "Evolution" video below.

Portraiture

Diane Arbus
Photographed sad, odd and surreal people. She famously photographed the Matthaei family, notably the children of the family with seemingly sad expressions. Diane Arbus died in 1971 having taken her own life. She suffered from depression throughout her life which was reflected in her photography.





Walker Evans

Most famous for capturing the effects of the Great Depression whilst working for the FSA (Farm Security Administration).









Richard Avedon
Famous for his striking portraits of the American social and political elite.









Larry Clark
A controversial photographer who took photographs of what was happening around him in his own life. His photographs often depicted drug use and nudity.

Style of Photography

Photojournalism, Portraiture, Fashion
Draft Notes


Henri Cartier-Bresson

Considered the father of modern photojournalism due to his photographic technique, which he referred to as "the decisive moment". Cartier-Bresson would go to a location and stay there with his camera ready, waiting for what he deemed "the decisive moment". He told the Washington Post "There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative," he said. "Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever." One of his most famous photographs is Behind the Gare St. Lazare (left).




Robert Capa (A.K.A. Andre Enrö Friedman)

Robert Capa was a Hungarian born American photojournalist who covered various wars between 1936 and 1954. He used a Leica IIIa camera. The Leica camera was made by german company Leica in 1925 (Leica IIIa in 1935) and was a revolutionary piece of equipment in the world of photography. It enabled photographers to take photographs instantaneously and with the Leica IIIa reduced film reloading time by utilising bulk film rolls of 10 meters, giving the photographer around 250 exposures before having to change film. Capa is famous for his striking action photographs of war. One of his most famous is The Falling Soldier (Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death, Cerro Muriano, September 5, 1936) (right). He worked for Life magazine and joined the troops in Omaha beach on D-day, photographing the events that took place. Many of the photographs taken were famously destroyed to due Life magazine rushing development.

Tony Vacarro

Tony Vacarro is an American photographer most famous for the photographs he took during his time as a scout in WWII. Vocarro chose to use his own camera, an Argus C3, as opposed to the standard military issued Speed Graphic which he deemed unsuitable for capturing photographs effectively in a war zone. The Speed Graphic was a very slow camera to operate. For each individual photograph, the user had to change the film sheet, focus the camera, cock the shutter and then press the shutter. The Argus C3 on the other hand took 35mm film, a relatively new format of film that could hold 36 exposures per roll. Many of Vacorro's photographs were destroyed by the army censor due to the graphic nature and negative light they shone on the war. He was a very dedicated war photographer and once developed his photographs on the battlefield when he found the ruins of a camera store in a nearby town. Arguably his most famous photograph, White Death (above) depicts the dead body of Pvt. Henry I. Tannenbaum after the massacre at Ottre near Bihain, Belgium during WWII.