Unit 57: Photography and Photographic Practice

Research of other photographers work (P1, M1, D1) Lewis Dunn

Photographer: Iain CrawfordPaste 6 images here include the name & date of image

Theme or focus of images

When I observe the creative photographs from Iain Crawford’s photography its clear to me that he likes to shoot women models but to add more effect and make the photos more interesting he throws materials such as paint, glitter and other coloured type liquid. I like how he uses this method because its unique and unusual which I like in photography and besides starring at a common day model with make up on and a fancy dress he gets messy and uses these materials. I don’t know exactly when he took theses photos because it didn’t say but on his website in his gallery there is a album from the year 2011 which includes these photos so that clearly states that they were taken in the year 2011. The photos were taken in a studio not exactly sure where about but looking at the

background of the photos im certain they were shot in a studio.

Composition

All these photos which I’ve chosen all seem to have been taken up close or zoomed in I think he does this to exclude the background as much as possible and focus more upon the models he is shooting at. As some of the photos have been taken so close it is difficult to figure out how exactly he has took the photo for example the woman with the gold paint seems as if she is lying down as the paint is poured on top off her which would mean that the photographer would be standing above shooting down at her. Also some of the shots the photographer has been creative and has shot it from all different angle like one looks to be shot from underneath looking up to the woman’s face catching her hair and eye lashes which looks good because the colour stands out and is really an un peculiar photograph. In the shoots the photographer must have zoomed or even cropped the picture so that the people throwing the materials won’t be in the shot and ruining the whole shoot. So the photographer must have cropped them out the picture. He has framed these women to show the shoot is all about them by doing this he has made the background blank either black all white this also brings out the colour and shows that the main object in the shot are the women themselves.

Techniques used

In some cases in these photos he has really upped his shutter to capture as much light intended for example the gold paint photo is really dark and would have been hard to capture the colour of her face with the deep dark colourisation of the gold paint as well as the woman. But as it is in a studio there was probably a lot of light on the women so the shutter speed wouldn’t of had to be open as long because the photographer wouldn’t of had to capture that much light as there is already lot in the room. Considering the ISO I think he would have adjusted that quite high on some shots because again there might and might not have been a lot of light in the room and by having both the shutter and ISO higher this would have bring out the bright colour and shown the models off a lot better in some of the photos. But the top picture looks really bright so I think there was already a lot of light in the room so he wouldn’t have needed the ISO to be on so high because it could have left the photo to over exposed adding light that isn’t needed in the shot. The shots are taken from quite close up so he wouldn’t have used a lot of depth and field, I think the he would have used it to bring out the model to the point where she is perfectly clear on the photo and diming the background. But because the backgrounds dark anyway it wouldn’t of needed to be blurred out because its already so bland and wouldn’t of had much effect.

Strengths & Weaknesses

What you do and don't like and how it can influence your work

There is much what I like about these chosen photos I mainly like how he has used his artsy side by using materials to colourize the photos and to add more brightness into the photos. I like his technique of using materials because not many studio photographers do this and its unique and unusual and captures your eyes when gazing through these photographs. Also using no expression on the women’s face I like because there acting like its normal and daily to have paints and glitter thrown over them but in my point of view it’s just out of the ordinary. What I don’t like about these photos are possibly the angles using the gold paint photo I think would have looked better from a different angle and maybe include more of her body besides focusing on just her whole face.