photography as data : first images

For my first shoot I took portraits of three family groups, my stepdad and his daughter, my friend and her father and my brother, mother and myself. The images didn't turn out too well as they were taken at night with just normal room lighting and no controlled lighting. This gave the photo's a bad white balance and undesirable shadows. However, as a first shoot, they were enough for me to play around with to try and get an understanding of techniques that Ulric Collette used in his Genetic Portraits series.

These are the most successful images from my first shoot. They are of me and my brother. I feel like they worked the best out of my families shots as there were similarities between the facial structures which meant they were quite easy to match up. These images could definitely be improved by using a studio for consistent lighting and by also making sure the camera is parallel to the face for each shot, which I found was a big factor in the other images not being successful to match.

I first merged the photos together using photoshop and just adjusting the opacity of the layered image a few times. Although this technique didn't apply the same technique as Collette, I still feel that it shows the genetic similarities quite well. At each stage, the facial differences aren't too obvious, but when you jump from the first to last images they do appear quite drastic.

I then mimicked Collette's technique and did a straight half and half comparison. I think it turned out reasonably well in terms of showing genetic similarities. However, the problems mentioned earlier really bring the image down and distracting from what the image is trying to communicate. I also think that my photoshop technique to merge to put the images together really needs to be sharpened in order to pull off this technique as it is really visible to see where the images are joint.

Daughter/Father using Collette's half and half technique

Overall, I think as a first shoot it went okay..ish. It definitely showed the factors that I have to carefully control in order to pull off Collete's technique. The images definitely show genetic similarities between family members, which is what I want to explore.

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