Renaissance

My fictional subject, Hugo Van Grüd, runs a whittling workshop that has been decently successful and wants to hire an artist to take a portrait of him. The characteristics of these portraits clearly fit northern Renaissance art, entrepreneurship, portraiture, and opportunity. As the artist, I made sure to implement the whittling knife and a slab of wood into the portraits. I also dressed my subject in a traditional Renaissance craftsman's outfit, including an apron, vest, top hat, button-down, and gloves. I made sure each of the compositions, views, and lighting were all unique. I wanted to incorporate a Rembrandt triangle under the eye of my subject. I positioned my subject sideways and told him to look at the camera with no emotion. I took the photo from the hips up so I could clearly display that my subject is sideways but also focus in on the Rembrandt. In my second photo I incorporated fall-off on the bridge of my subject’s nose. I believe that the shadow covering part of the face and the bright part of the face complement each other and add value to the image. I did not do many edits aside from cropping the portraits to minimize extra space above the head. During this project I learned many skills in the studio. I learned how to use the light meter, dictate lighting, choose backdrops, and the different functions of different types of lights (barn doors, soft boxes, etc.). One of the most difficult parts of the project was printing. Because my images were set in very dark lighting with a black backdrop, they printed weirdly. I had to edit the saturation and overexpose the images in order for them to print regularly.