Having had a strong theme in the other 2 portraits, I felt it was only right for me to create my stranger portrait with the same theme running through. I felt like the mask idea was most appropriate for a stranger as this is probably something everyone does almost everyday.
The fact that my subject was someone I didn’t know at all, it’s important to gain some sort of a relationship with them before shooting as I needed her to be relaxed and comfortable enough for me to paint her face which is quite an intimate thing to do to a stranger, getting in their personal space. When I first asked her, I said I’d speak her through it all in person and if she’s up for it we can do it there. I didn’t put any pressure on her and said I can easily use someone else if she didn’t like the idea of it. We sat down, I made her a cup of tea and I showed her the other two photos I’d created. I explained the messages in the photography I was doing and explained exactly what I was going to do in regards to what sort of paint I was using, provided her with wipes to take it off afterwards. Luckily, she was totally fine and quite natural at being in front of the camera.
For this photo, I wanted the mask to be peeling away to reveal the true skin underneath, similar to the selfie except I wanted it to be a similar style to Kieron’s portrait. I used the same inspiration for this image as the previous one as the style of painting was going to be quite similar. Using the colourful acrylic paint and using the technique of dabbing the paint brush around the part I wanted to look peeled. I used a mixture of colours to allow texture and vivid imagery. As for the background, it was not important to me that it was plain or not. I’m a firm believer in editing so background tend to not bother me, unless I’m presenting the image unedited. I knew from the previous photos that this was going to have a jet black background so as long as the background wasn’t interfering with the focus, I was quite happy to have the subject sit where she felt most comfortable which in this case was my bed. Here are the contact sheets taken from this shoot.
SELECTING PROCESS
Out of the images I had taken, I chose these images as my favourite due to the same reasons as previously explained in my other shoots. I look for crisp eye detail or shots that I think tell a story or show a message. I look for good lighting or potential in the editing process. Although not great in terms of framing, I knew that these photos had the potential to look good once edited as they featured different angles and lighting opportunities
I was unsure as to whether I wanted to keep the blue on her face blue but this was going to be decided during the editing process. I used a single spotlight to light the subject as I felt this gave the face paint a good chance to look as realistic as possible. I ignored the background when taking the shots as I knew I was only using the face, I kept it simple though to enable the lens to focus entirely on the subject. As the mask was the message (and it peeling off) I focused predominantly on the right side of her face to exaggerate the message that her true self is being revealed.
I knew that I wanted the subject to look directly at the camera as the other two shots were of the subjects looking away. I wanted to show that I can get a crisp image with eye contact, hence why I chose to use the one on the bottom right.
I had the image of fading out the background to complete blackness and editing small parts of the face one bit at a time.
EDITING
For the editing part of this image, I used the paint brush tool to edit the background black. I chose black because I thought it would be an effective way of making the mask I created stand out. After this, I cropped the image to make the subject cover all thirds and to have the centre of her face as the focal point for the audience. I then adjusted the brightness, contrast and saturation. After this, I changed the hue of the image to make the colour of the mask change. I chose a red and blue tint as I felt this looked like some sort of metal. I then used the paint tool and changed it’s opacity to go round the peeling skin with a different blue colour and with the same colour, painted the left eye in order to make the mask look like it completely took the subjects identity.
FINAL IMAGE
I really love this photo, and although it was probably the most complex to put together and edit, I feel like it’s really paid off. The colours of the mask and the eye colour of it really presents to me this hard, metal mask. To me it creates a slightly surreal atmosphere but also, as an audience, makes you think. One of the huge reasons as to why I’m so passionate about photography is that fact that a simple image can tell a story, make someone think outside the box. And I feel like if I’m creating images that do just that, well then that’s a successful photograph.
Leave a comment