Project #10 - Portrait Photography

Fine Art Portraits:

In creating this piece, I first did a simple profile shot against a tiled wall in soft light. Then in Photoshop, I introduced an inverted pattern beneath the original layer and cut out some of the tiles. to give the illusion that the two layers have dimension, I stretched the edges of the tiles surrounding the openings to increase depth. I finished the photo by enhancing some colors and removing all the shadows. I would classify this piece as fine art because it does not glorify any particular attribute that may make the audience want to buy anything associated with the photo. It also portrays a very specific intention from the artist, something commercial photography does not do.

This next photo was accomplished by first projecting vertical, black and white lines onto the subject's face and taking a close-up picture. In Photoshop, put the image in grayscale and increased the contrast and exposure over and over again until the dark stripes appeared to cut into the skin. I believe this piece is also fine art for the same reasons as I classified the first. 

Commercial Portraits:

This photo of choir teacher Mrs Riffel was taken in her classroom in front of a piano. I later applied a small vignette, some color enhancements, and greater intensity highlights. This photo does not show the artist, but rather the teacher and her class, promoting the audience to take choir themselves. The inviting nature of the piece glorifies what it advertises, making it a commercial portrait.

Like the second picture, this one was taken by applying a pattern on the projector (in this case, a vertical rainbow pattern) and taking a picture of the subject with her eyes closed. I replaced the colors in the photo to follow a popping pink color scheme. The lowlights too have been edited, but they have been given a teal tinge to increase the candy-like feel to it. I believe this picture is an example of commercial photography because of how it appears to have no message apart from "this character is happy in this environment". That message can be interpreted by the audience to mean that if they buy the associated product, they may feel like the photo.