This project was done in my third semester of photography. Our task was to shoot a minimum of 5 Portraits. We were allowed to decide for ourselves what the theme or topic should be. I started off by brainstorming in style of a mind map. I wanted to create a kind of distortion of reality without editing the images afterwards (using Photoshop, for example). To sabotage them, so to speak. After a long period of research, I came across a YouTube video by photographer Jake Wangner. Jake creates a distortion of the image content with a long exposure time and the “shaking” of the camera. A movement in the image area created by hand, without any use of attached filters. I was immediately impressed by this type of photography and wanted to implement the same in my work. I liked what new worlds he created. A kind of dream world where time doesn’t matter.
So I researched how I could achieve this effect. It quickly became clear that you need 2 permanent lights for this. A light should be aligned relatively vertically above the model. The second light should illuminate the model or the object you want to photograph from the side. Ideally with a transparent colored film over the light so that an even more interesting color concept can be created. You also need a dark or black background so you don’t have any disturbing reflection.
Jake Wangner photographs with an analog camera and an 85mm lens. Unfortunately, since I don’t have a own camera and certainly not an analogue one, I borrowed one of the university’s cameras. Personally, I actually preferred this for working because I couldn’t yet assess whether I could achieve the effect myself and had to take several test photos first. Films for analog cameras are expensive.
I first had to play around with different exposure times to get the blurring of the lights in the image that I wanted. In addition, I initially only took photos with a continuous light and set the light from above as a flash. The problem I had was that when I pressed the shutter button I immediately got a sharp image of my Model and shaking the camera only had slight light distortions provided. It looked more like it had exposure effects from an action film where it is layered above the image. With both lamps as continuous light I was then able to create my desired organic blurring. I also used the tripod first, with which the Distortions were too static. So I took the camera off the tripod and was able to get better results straight away. Also, unlike Jake Wangner, I asked my model to move after pressing the shutter button.
So I researched how I could achieve this effect. It quickly became clear that you need 2 permanent lights for this. A light should be aligned relatively vertically above the model. The second light should illuminate the model or the object you want to photograph from the side. Ideally with a transparent colored film over the light so that an even more interesting color concept can be created. You also need a dark or black background so you don’t have any disturbing reflection.
Jake Wangner photographs with an analog camera and an 85mm lens. Unfortunately, since I don’t have a own camera and certainly not an analogue one, I borrowed one of the university’s cameras. Personally, I actually preferred this for working because I couldn’t yet assess whether I could achieve the effect myself and had to take several test photos first. Films for analog cameras are expensive.
Finding it
One light above, one light from the side, black background. That’s my set up.
Below you find some test photos trying to find the right exposure, light and movement. Sometime my model would move just a little, some time only the steady lights moved, some with flash – some without.
I loved experiencing.