Project 9: Commercial and Fine Art Portraits

Throughout the course of Project Nine, we have been learning the difference between fine art and commercial portraits. We learned how various poses, lights, and backgrounds capture the artist's mood in fine art portrait. In contrast, commercial portraits are supposed to have less of a mood and are supposed to capture the feelings of the model rather than the artist. The end result for this project was a magazine cover and multiple edited fine art portraits.

Fine Art Portrait: Green Light

Fine Art Portrait: Contrast

Fine Art Portrait: Vampire

Above are my fine art portraits. I tried to use the lighting system in the theater to effectively capture various moods in the picture. I also did this by having my model strike various dramatic poses, and telling her to do serious facial expressions. I edited these all differently, but I think that all of the various ways I edited them captures different elements of my personal ascetics.

Contact Sheet: Commercial and Fine Art Portraits 

This is my contact sheet. Shown, are all of my commercial portraits and my fine art portraits. I have displayed both the original photo and the edited photo. The top three rows of the contact sheet contain my fine art portraits, the first picture that appears in the unedited one, and the one following is the edited version. The bottom three rows are my commercial portraits.

Fine Art and Commercial Portrait: Pre-Work

Fine art portraits are photographs in which the photographer uses their personal aesthetics to capture the face or body of a person. They often use neutral backgrounds and heavily edit the photo so the face of the person in the portrait stands out. Magazine covers, or commercial portraits, are pictures that attempt to catch the eye of a passerby. These photographs sometimes include a object or prop. These pictures can be taken either in a studio or in the real world. 

Steve McCurry: I like how the use of color in this cover emphasizes the girls face. The neutral blue background gives the picture certain mood, but does not take anything away from the face of the girl. It effectively draws the eye to the magazine. I also really like the emphasis on the contrast between her dark hair, and the red head scarf.

Martin Schoeller: The digital editing done to the eyes of the man makes the green in the eyes pop out. It gives a otherwise plain photograph a eye catching effect. The way the mans eyes are open wide and the blank expression on his face also gives the picture and interesting and mysterious look. 

Emma Daly: The pose that the man is in, and the black and white editing gives the man and the picture, Benedict Cumberbatch, a very intelligent feel. I really like the simple editing with the words and the border emblazoned in red.  

Kimmy West: I really like the use of the models eyes, it gives the photo a very quirky and flamboyant feel. The plain background and the orange hair also gives the photo a interesting look.

Meghan Camerena: I like the use of the colors blue and yellow in this photograph. Also, the models hair in the photo nicely frames her face, giving the face an angled look. The use of color gives the photo a very happy and carefree feel.

Darren Smith: The darkness in this photograph highlights the man's face and upper body. The photographer nicely edited the photo and effectively used lighting to create a completely black frame. This makes the man stand out, but his dark jacket simultaneously blends him into the background.