Thomas Zed Phillips-Hall 9255 Unit 1 : Back Of Head

Image Bank - Back Of Head Portraiture

Here are some photos of the back of peoples heads. Back of head photos are when you take a photo of the back of someones head. The reason that people do this is because it takes focus away from the face and focus of actually taken a photo of the shape of the head. This makes taking a photo of the front of someone easier because you can get the correct position for their head and then you can focus on the face.

Here we see the photographer has taken a photo of the back of a person on a white background and has decided to take a section of the hair and have that on the left side, keep a bit of shoulder and have a blurred background as to add to the interest of the hair style.

Here wee see the photographer has taken an image of more of the back of a person and has included a green tint. We also see that they have starched their arms up and that we can see quite a bit of their back.

In this image we see that the photographer has taken some photos of the back of someones head at the sea-side and has made the background look grainy.

In this image we see that a person has shaved their hair and then decided to get a tattoo of a barcode on the back of his head. This gives the view a point of interest on which they can focus on.

Here we see the photographer has taken a photo of a woman with curly blonde hair and what looks like at the bottom a wedding dress.

This photographer has taken an image of a girl in a forest and decided to change the tone of the image to black and white to match the background.

Work Dairy - Portraiture Back Of Head

Evaluation:
In this section I liked trying to get a blurred background. It was hard to achieve this without my normal camera because the college cameras do not have the same setting as my camera. When I was editing the photos it was strange to do because it was the back of someones head which is an odd photo to take but I think I managed to edit some of the photos correctly.

In this image I like how the back of a persons head is in focus but the background is out of focus

In this image I like that the background is still blurred but you can easily identify what is there and you can still see the individual objects and they haven't all blurred into one cloud like the one above.

Progression:
If I were to continue to do this then I would like to take photos of people who have interesting heads and different hair or no hair.

What makes this image of a bald man so strong is the use of light to exaggerate the shape of his head.
I think this was lit from behind and low down to do this.

Sometimes you can't tell who people are from behind especially if its just a head shot.
But some people are so famous its obvious. I also like the side lighting on this.

Work Dairy - Studio Portraiture Back Of Head

Evaluation:
The thing I liked about this section of my photography A level was taking photos of people from the back. Just using different backgrounds can give a totally different feeling and mood to each shot regardless of the person chosen.

In this shot I choose a reddish pick backdrop. The colour complimented the models hair and gave a warmth to the image that I would not be ale to achieve otherwise. I achieved this by using a reflector and lighting from one side so some light would bounce back into the hair. I also lightened the shot in photoshop.

In this image I did the reverse of the first shot in that I chose a black background and had my model wear black clothes.
I only lit her hair and then in photoshop turned up the shadows to leave just the back of the head lit. This draws the viewer to the head only which I like.

Progression:
If I were to continue to do this in a studio I think I could have more fun with it like in the example below. You could make this into a series and by using people like punks, skinheads, goths and other people to make an interesting series of images without ever seeing a face.

Here is a very interesting image where the photographer has put on the models clothes back to front. I think thjis image is hard to look at as it messes with the natural order of things. This could be turned into a series.

By using people from different ethnic backgrounds we would get a great variety of hairstyles. This photographer has shot this man on a white background to emphasise his dark hair with tights curls. By showing a little of his skin we can see that the man is black. It is a bit of a boring shot from a photolibrary. But does get over that this black man is a white collar worker so is making a point.