Mano Mclaughlin

These are the shots taken when Mano Mclaughlin came into the studio. This is one of the pieces of equipment used for changing the cameras when filming. I love the low key effect of the light shining in a small area, and the buttons lighting bits around.

These ones are from the interview with Mano, a student interviewed Mano on his music and lifestyle to get a better insight to the musician's life. I like that both the journalist and Mano are in a natural state, they didn't change at all whilst I was photographing, just carried on with the interview.

This is one of my favourite photographs from the interview set, I like that Mano is relaxing, and  not expecting the photograph to be taken.

After the interview, I photographed Mano setting up before his performance, he played songs whilst people worked around him to set up cameras and sound equipment. I like the really wide range of grey tones in the photographs (mainly the black and white ones). The more contrasty photographs are the ones I prefer, especially after the blue light was added to the set, it subtly lights the microphone and the stand, making it more distinctive from the black background. Although if I reshot the photographs, I would give Mano a stool instead of a bright white chair, in some of the photographs it really stands out and draws focus from the artist.

I like the shots from this angle the most, it captures everything in the frame without having to use a wide focal length, I was able to get close up and compose the frame so that there was little room around the edges of the model.

I like the ones were the artist is in the middle of doing something, he looks really unaware that the photographs are being taken, even more so than the others.

These photographs were taken in the studio, in a similar style to previous portraits I've shot. Unlike the others, I was talking to Mano whilst he was being photographed, making him look a lot more natural.

These are all the photographs from the shoot. I didn't use a lot because of people's expressions, bad composition and being out of focus. It's difficult to work around people, so I ended up doing a lot of shooting to assure I got the right photographs. 

Features - Studio

These are some photographs shot with a macro lens in the studio. I used a single Bowens light with a soft box, positioned to the side and slightly behind the model, this creates a lot of shadows on the face. I like the amount of detail captured by using a macro lens, it really highlights every 'imperfection', which is what I'm aiming to do, focusing on a more natural approach.

These two are my favourite from the set, I love the composition and detail of the models face, and the fact that nothing about the model is obvious, having no eyes in the frame leaves a lot to the imagination, which is definitely a positive. I think I'll be doing more stuff like this, it's a lot like my photographs of skin, it's not very formally composed.

This was the only photograph I did in colour, mainly because the model's skin was really well lit and her hair stood out against her skin.

I really like this one, there's so much detail around the eye brow and around the eye. Whilst the side of the far is nicely lit, the eye is mostly in shadow which I think is a positive quality to the photograph. 

These are the rest of the shots from the set, I haven't used a lot of them because they didn't turn out as expected, the first two models suited the lighting a lot better, whereas I think the others would of been better suited another way.

Whilst making my contact sheets, these two images lined up like this, almost making a face. This lead me to think about previous work I'd done using bits of faces to make montages. I might do some similar work in future, and expand on my previous work