Project 9: Two Portraits- Commercial and Fine Art

Fine Art Portraits:

Commercial Portrait Magazine Covers:

Project 9 Inspiration: Two Portraits- Commercial and Fine Art

Fine Art Portraits:

Peter Lindbergh

This is a wet plate collodion photograph.  The metallic look and contrast makes this portrait mesmerizing.  The model is in the center of the frame and is looking directly into the camera, which makes the viewer feel stared at, making this photo intense.  Not only his eyes, but his serious facial expression makes this portrait more dynamic.  This photo has beautiful textures, brown tones, intense shadows and hard lighting, which sets this apart from many contemporary portraits that have subtle and soft lighting.  In addition, the extremely shallow depth of field puts emphasis on the models face, even more so, his eyes.  

Jimmy Nelsson

This portrait has more of a modern, digital look.  The model is centered in the middle of the frame, which puts emphasis on his face.  The contrast between the white fur coat and his pink face makes this photo pop.  This has soft and smooth light, which creates sharp details.  This photo has a deeper depth of field than the portrait above to get the fur coat in focus.  An extremely shallow depth of field is not needed for this photo because there are no distracting elements in the background.  The model has a stern facial expression, which creates a neutral feeling; this photo isn't dark nor joyful.  It looks like Jimmy Nelsson took up the contrast and details when editing, but didn't over do it.

Commercial Portrait Magazine Covers:

Zachary Scott

This magazine cover caught my eye for it's symmetrical symmetry and contrast in scale and color.  This magazine has a clean layout- a creamy white background with a red trim, smooth lighting, a large title reading "TIME", a smaller sub-title, and very small font for the text above the main title.  The bigger the font, the more important the information is.  The photograph contains a young boy who looks shy, and a loud siren, which implies power, which goes with the featured article "The Power of (Shyness)."  For this reason, this makes the consumer want to buy the magazine to read the article.  The subject is in the lower third of the cover, allowing room for text.  In addition, "TIME" is a very intellectual and professional magazine, so they used a professional font, which looks like Times New Roman, and a clean and simple yet intriguing cover photograph.

 Eastman Photographer

I found this magazine in my house, and found it to have strong composition- the model, Jeff Bridges, has a serious look on face and is resting his arm on a guitar, putting emphasis on the product.  To make Eastman Guitars and Mandolins seem high quality and classy, they used a famous actor wearing classy clothes doing a classy pose.  The model intrigues the reader, as he is looking into the camera with his hand on his face, which also makes the guitar seem intriguing, making the reader want to read more about it.  The model is positioned towards the left half of the cover, making room for the main text in the upper right hand corner.  The title font is a classy cursive, which is cohesive with the classy photograph.  This photograph has studio lighting, a normal contrast level, and has instruments on the background to create a recording studio mood.

Comparisons Between the Two Types of Portraits:

The fine art portraits provide insight into the model's and the photographer's lives.  The photographer uses unique angles and makes edits they like to create a specific mood.  On the other hand, Commercial Portraits are used to make people buy the product and or magazine.  The composition of these photographs are less abstract, and usually provide more negative space for text.