To preface this post, I really did want to use a female model to replicate the photos shown below. However, due to health complications, that model was unavailable for the window in which I had to shoot with. Thus, I just used myself for both photographs.
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| First rendition |
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| First original |
This first image was originally shot by Robert Doisneau. My research did not show any specific time or title, so this first image is untitled. Robert Doisneau was a French photographer who lived a long life from April 14, 1912 to April 1, 1994. He was, according to Wikipedia, a "champion of humanist photography and with Henri Cartier-Bresson a pioneer to photojournalism". I have to agree, because as I was going through much of his work, he was essentially what people today call a street photographer. I enjoyed looking through his Paris photos especially because of how raw and true to the city they were. He knew how to capture moments, and what was appropriate to that moment in terms of camera manipulation. I'm assuming that the image above was on the more staged, creative side, however, I chose this photo because I did want to challenge myself for this project (though, as shown in the introduction, my plan needed a lot of improvisation, so I had to make some adjustments).
My final rendition shot focused on A) outfit and pose, B) backdrop, and most importantly, C) ghost effect. I did not have a ribbed shirt anywhere close to the outfit depicted in the original, but my white sweater did have some similarity in terms of contrast and pattern. It's not the most similar, but it's better than a black shirt or anything worse. When folding my shirt to replicate the bottom, I found it really unattractive an displeasing because the leading lines in the original played a role in making the shot nicer. My shirt did not have such lines, so I elected to not twist the sweater in that fashion. My pose was relatively the same, but I would've liked my face to be slightly more straight on instead of off in the distance. The backdrop is a simple black wallpaper I found at Fishers. Finally, the ghost effect needed some manipulation and testing, but I was able to find that an exposure time of 1.3 sec was good. The light is not exactly the way I wanted it, but my lamp could only provide so much power. I would've like the light to illuminate the shadow of my ghosted face better though.
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| BTS with makeshift stand |
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| My view when up against the backdrop |
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| Backdrop itself |
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| How I attached it to the closet door |
I don't think I did amazingly well on this photo, but I did well in the sense that I used what I had in order to make a photo that wasn't absolutely subpar.
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| Second rendition (1) |
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| Second rendition (2) |
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| Second original |
This second image was originally shot by Man Ray in 1932, titled "Tears" for obvious reasons. Ray was tied to the Dada and Surrealist artistic/cultural movements, and lived a long life from August 27, 1890 to June 16, 1976. He was an American artist in film, painting, and photography. I enjoyed much of his work as well. Some of his pieces really do reflect the surrealist movement he was a part of, and definitely created some unique photos. I actually think this was one of his more simpler photos, yet despite that, I could never grasp how he was able to create such perfectly round tear drops. Thus, I chose this photo as part of this project.
My final rendition focused on 1) pose, 2) editing, and 3) tears themselves. I knew that post-production would have to play some role here in order to make this photo, but I didn't expect to make so much edits to this photo. It's very unfortunate, how they all turned out. The tears seemed to run down so quickly down my face, because I basically had to pour real water drops onto my face, pose and refocus the camera, and shoot with both hands on the camera as my face looks up the entire time. I used post-production to remove a lot of the facial imperfections I have, as well as to brighten up the tears themselves to give them contrast. I feel that this photo could have been a lot better, because in retrospect, water didn't have to be used. Something more adhesive to skin, for example, could've been a much better candidate (like something more syrup-like and stickier).
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| The syringe-like tool I used to drop water onto my face (don't worry, it's clean) |
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| How I attempted to drop it onto my face (I used the mirror basically) |
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| The method in which I used to photograph myself as my camera does not have a rotating LCD |
Overall, I definitely could've done better and come more prepared. The biggest challenges I had during this was dealing with not having a model after planning it for that model in specific, as well as attempting to improvise. Supplies were not a struggle, but the diversity of supplies could've been better. Perhaps looking for a better dropper, or a better solution to drop onto my face that was more adhesive for the second photo would've improved the quality and realness of that photo. These images were fairly moderate in difficulty, so it's unfortunate that they turned out the way they have, but it is what it is.
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