In this thesis, the focus was on the field of studio portrait photography, which was explored from both theoretical and practical perspectives. This genre was chosen because it combines technical knowledge from photography and studio work with the artistic aspect of photography.
The aim of the thesis was to create strong portraits that tell a story. We achieved this using simple tools that we either made ourselves or found in everyday life. In doing so, we presented the workflow in a photography studio, from the initial idea to the final execution.
For the photography, we used a Canon EOS 6D camera and two lenses: a Canon EF 24–70mm f/4 and a Sigma DG Macro 70–300mm f/5.6. All photographs were taken in the photography studio of the Department of Textiles at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering. To achieve the desired effect of hard shadows, we used a reflector with a very strongly directed beam of light in all photographs. For post-production, we used Adobe Photoshop to convert the images to black and white and to make slight adjustments to brightness and contrast. All photographs were taken in RAW format and later converted to JPG format for final use.
During the shooting process, we found that a black background works best for this type of photography, particularly when playing with shadows. Initially, we intended to take some photographs with a white background, but quickly realized that black was the better choice. We also encountered some difficulties with certain objects used to cast shadows onto the model, mainly due to their size. The smaller the object, the closer it had to be held to the model in order to produce clear shadows on the skin. However, this often caused the object to enter the frame. After several attempts, we solved this issue by instructing the studio assistant to hold the objects at a different angle in front of the model.
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