Connecting Essay Analysis 'Studio Portraits' -

Connecting Essay -

Studio Portraits:

Thomas Ruff Photograph:

My Photograph:

The above photographs, the bottom being mine, are linked due to the subject, style and techniques used to create them.

Some practical similarities between the photographs are based upon the setup which was employed to create the final outcome. Ruff used a variety of backdrops, technical setups and image sizes. Ruff eventually decided upon using flash, solid colour backdrops and passport size images. I used studio lighting with flash in an attempt to recreate the lighting used by Ruff.

Furthermore, the two images are both examples of portraits. Ruff was using his fellow students as subjects in his portraits and I did the same; I  used a friend from my class and attempted to recreate the facial expression featured on Ruff's subjects which has often been referred to as 'emotionless'. . For example, the background colour of the portraits is an example of a bright orange backdrop which contrasts to the 'Deadpan' facial expression of the subjects used.  Also, Ruff experimented with head on portraits and profile portraits but as most were examples of head on that was the composition I chose to replicate within my image.

Also, I chose to edit my photograph in Photoshop CC 2014 to replicate the framing and size of Ruff's work. However, Ruff's photography is very precisely framed from shoulder to head whilst my image is somewhat lengthier and as a result could be further improved by cropping it in Photoshop and editing the framing even more.

Finally, another, less significant, difference is due to the time in which the images were captured. Ruff was working on the above specific photograph featured above was captured in the 1980s whilst mine was captured in in the 200s meaning that the equipment used may have improved and varied slightly since then meaning that it would be difficult to completely recreate the outcome achieved by Ruff.