Friday at college..

Today I continued to update my sketchbook containing portrait images from The Guardian newspaper (yesterday was the last day of the seven days). It seems election fever has captured most of the media's attention as I have found that the majority of the images used in the paper are of politician or are of someone who has a so called "unbiased" opinion on who they think should be the next prime minster - it all seems to have gone a bit X- Factor for me (maybe Cowell will decide the eventual winner and we will get charged for a vote that never ever counted). The hugely sensationalised "Live Political TV Debates" have not help and with only one televised political debate out of 3 down, an idiotic journalist/newspaper (The Times) went as far to call Clegg "more popular than Churchill". Hmm....

I also spent some of the day going through the photographs I took on wednesday and picked images that best displayed the seven basic emotions that I have been studying - I chose around 18-20 of the best images which I then adjusted slightly using photoshop (basic image enhancements such as Levels, Brightness and Contrast etc.) I intend to print these images and display them upon my wall as this will then changed they way I look at the images but I will also be able to ask others what they feel has worked well and what maybe hasn't - This should hopeful improve my analysis and development of my work a lot more.

Photo shoot - Experimentation with expressions, lighting an composition...

I spent the majority of the day experimenting with ways to provoke an emotion in the sitter: This consisted of setting up a photo shoot in which I would show material as well as give the sitter a scenario that would correlate to the emotion I wanted them to express.

During this photo shoot I also experimented with the lighting to set up as I knew that I didn't want to use any complex set ups which may affect the mood of the image, i.e to much shadow would hinder an image expressing happiness etc. The lighting set up had been inspired by Martin Schoeller's series of celebrity portraits. I used one soft box light which was situated above and slightly to the side of the camera (which had been place on a tripod) and got two people to hold two large pieces of black card each side of where the model would sit as this would reflect the light back onto the model - This lighting set up was done to create a similar reflection of the light in the sitter's eyes as seen in some of Schoeller's most iconic works that I have been researching.

I also experimented with how I wanted the composition of my photographs to look - I personally felt that I wanted to frame the shot as close up to the face as possible so it would basically show just the face and very little else in the composition. The idea behind this was so that the view would be exposed to he expression and as there would be nothing else happening within the image then the viewer would feel inclined to study the face further. I found that the composition worked very well and was an easy effect to achieve using a zoom lens of around 150mm. However such a close up shot did have it down falls at times, particularly in terms of catching people's facial expressions - For example if the sitter reacted quickly and strongly to what is shown then at times they would appear of screen because any slight movement affected the framing of the shot. I think for further reference I will zoom out and frame the shot as more of a simple portrait so that I can capture all of the sitter's movement and then I will crop the image in the post-prodcution stages of the project, more than likely using Photoshop.

As for the people who I asked to model - I wanted to keep it simple and try not to photograph too many people as this would make it harder for me to experiment with ways to create a response as this was my main focus rather than who was modelling. However I did decide to ask some drama students to participate so I could see whether if I was to give them a scenario or role to play that this would help them to create an emotion which related back to the part that they were playing - (This idea has been inspired by Howard Schatz's photographic series In Character: Actors Acting, which I have researched and presented images of in my sketchbook) - The girls I asked were very nice and helpful towards my project and did in fact create some interesting facial expressions however I found that the way in which the photo shoot was directed, i.e asking the drama students to act out scenarios didn't work, this may have been because it was an open area so other people were around or it could have been because the drama students found it to hard to be in character without being distracted by the camera.

This problem that I have now noticed is interesting and may be something that is hard to get over as I know the sitter is always going to notice the camera at times - However I feel in a darkened studio environment with just lights and the camera it might be a slightly less daunting prospect for the sitter. I also feel that showing images is not as effective as showing video footage this may be because the emotion is a lot shorter by looking at images so its harder to capture. But I also feel that by showing videos then the sitters attention is elsewhere so the expressions are more natural and they are also less aware of the camera - this idea of just using video is something that I feel I want to experiment with further in the project....

Tuesday...

Today I spent most of my time updating my sketchbook which contains the portrait image cuttings from newspapers. I have decided not too rush this and not pay enough attention to the research as I feel later on in the project it will be an important part of the development of my understanding of human facial expressions:

What I have found most interesting about this area of research is how by taking the images from newspaper, it takes the photographs away from the context of the article, which at times has meant that the expressions seem to look different - for example an image could so a woman looking sad and the article reflects this as well, however if you take the image away from its context the expressions could be mistaken for anger or fear. I think to keep the experiment fair it would best not to know too much about the context of the image as this could hinder the way I analysis the image and identify the facial expression.

Weekend...

This weekend I continue to collect the weekend newspapers (including today) and I have started to cut out the portrait images which I have stuck in a separate sketchbook to the main one. I have started to analysis the images and identify the emotions which I think each person is expressing. Straight away I have noticed that I am becoming more aware of the use of portrait photography around me. However most importantly I feel that I am gradually starting to build a better knowledge on how we express emotions and I am starting to find it a lot easier to identify them.

I have also started to organise and schedule days in which I plan to take photographs or use the studio (which I need to book first) - Within this plan I have also attempted to try and decide what type of photographs I want to create, particularly in terms of what expressions I want to provoke in the sitter. This has also lead me into thinking that I need to find more external stimulus to use whilst photographing people so that it is easier to gain a response from the models.

Friday advice...more:

I also discovered a way to improve my analyse of facial expressions further, particularly as a development upon the images from magazines and newspapers that I collected and put in my sketchbook - this idea was good but I didn't write enough about each face and what expressing it was showing. So i discussed with my tutor a way of improving this idea as I felt it was something that I found interesting and enjoyable to do as well as being useful in improving the way I identify facial expressions.

After the discussion I shared with Oli I decided to buy one newspaper everyday for a week (I choose the Guardian as I felt it would have the best diversity of stories) and collect every portrait image that is shown in the paper - this could be anything from a 'wannabe Prime Minster to a wannabe Britain's Got Talent winner' but the most important thing is to collect the images and analyse each one focusing on what kind of the facial expressions they are showing. I will show evidence of this in a separate sketchbook to the main bulk of work because to me this is a separate mini project which relates to my understanding of the project but mixed together in one sketchbook would seem muddled and extremely confusing the an outside viewer.

By spending time on this research I hope to show I share a real interest in my chosen project, whilst conveying the development of my understanding of facial expressions and how they are conveyed. I feel that I will dramatically improve my knowledge of facial expressions but make my self a lot more aware of portrait photography around me and how the mise-en-scene or body language is used to convey a certain message or emotion (particularly in staged image).

Friday advice...

During my time at college on Friday morning I spent the majority of time seeking advice about the directions I want my final project to take and what I feel I want the final outcome to be. I spoke to Nick the photograph tutor as I felt that he would be able to give the best advice as my project is very much based around photography as a chosen medium. Within the dicussion I gained some invaluable advice about the direction my project was going in:

Nick felt that just creating a series of close up portrait photographs of different facial expressions was a too simple concept on its on and need to be developed further in a different direction. Even if I did decide that I want to keep just the close up portraits shots a final outcome at least by looking at different areas of portrait photography it shows that I have thought about other possibilities in order to create the best outcome as possible. We spent a lot of time discussing how I could use photography to expose each emotion, particularly in terms of showing the viewer how that emotion is conveyed in the face - Nick then came up with a photographer he felt would relate to this idea of highlighting the areas of the face that are in important in each expressions:

A link to Gary Schiender's series of portrait photographs on his website:

Schiender's portraits are created in blacked out room with a camera set on a long exposure but most important he uses a torch to control the light so he can highlight the areas of the face he wants to show. Personally I feel this will work really well in relation to my project as I feel I will be able to control the way each emotion is shown and be able to highlight the areas that are important in each emotion. I will also be able to experiment with the idea of merging the emotions that have similar characteristics within one long exposure.

A few examples of Schiender's work:

Thursday Digital and Study Skills sessions...

This morning we discussed the grading criteria for the final major project and what the differences between a pass, merit and grade levels are. I found this particularly helpful as we were given a booklet showing us the different areas of each grading criteria including research, development etc. and how we can achieve the grade we are aiming for or need to get to get into university. Personally I also feel that this will help me to keep organised as I will be able to work out the things I have done and the things I need to improve on to get the best grade as possible.

Within my digital workshop session I created a planning document for what I want to achieve during each digital session per week. This is what I have planned for the sessions so I can keep organised and not waste time:

'During the digital media sessions throughout the final major project, I intend to use this time to support the work I have be doing, this could be in the form of research, development, analysis and evaluation, which can be created digitally. I will continue to update my blog during the digital sessions to ensure that I stick to my time plan but l also so that I can analyse and evaluate my work.

I aim to use the digital software available to develop my photographs that I have taken, preliminarily using Photoshop. Also whilst developing my photographs on Photoshop I will get support rom available tutors on how I can use Photoshop to improve my work and what is the most efficient way to do this. I will also use the available printers to print my photographs off that have been developed. This will ensure that I can show other people my work and get feedback on what they think, particularly on how I can improve my photographs'

Wednesday Continued...

In the afternoon on today, I decided to experiment with a different media, this took the form of stop motion video. Within this stop motion video I decided to show the seven universal emotions that I have been studying through the use of photography and video. I have used the still camera on the video camera to shoot seven different people expressing seven different emotions on their faces. I also chose to get each sitter to right down what emotion they felt they were conveying on a small white board - this was done because I felt that it would give me an insight into how other people feel the emotions are expressed and for later to use when I can compare a more staged image shown in the video with less staged.

Overall I think the video works as part of my research into facial expressions, however I don't feel as though I will choose to pursue this idea any further, particularly in terms of development towards my final outcome. I also may develop the video further by slowing it down using either After Effects or iMovie as the expressions are slightly to quick to notice. Although in some ways I find this interesting as it makes it harder to identify each expressions and this idea of showing quick images of the different expressions part of video and asking people to identify them relates to the work of Ekman and may be an interesting idea to pursue further (this could be easily created using the photographs I intend to take).

Bernini - The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa'

I spent the morning discussing my project with one of my tutors (Shaun). From this I found out different ways that I could develop my project, particularly in terms of having a range of outcome to choose from. I also gained more information which will benefit my research in the project - I was introduced to the work of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, particularly his sculptor 'The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa'. In this sculptor Bernini shows a swooning nun (Theresa) being speared by an angel (who resemble cupid), however her facial expression does not fit the context of the sculptor - Theresa has an expression of sexual ecstasy and seeing the face taken away from the context of the sculptor emphasises this, however once seen within the scene created, is the expression of Theresa meant to represent pain? Or is Bernini just trying to convey the message that our facial expression may deceive what we our actually feeling?

First Day Back At College...

I spent the first day back at college reviewing my research with other students on my pathway whilst gaining feedback on what they thought I could improve on or any advice they had. I also spent the majority of the morning searching for relevant books that would help my project. I also ordered a book from Queens Road college which is an artist reference for facial expressions book that I feel will be extremely helpful in improve my knowledge of the different facial expressions there are.

I also continued with artist research, particularly with showing evidence of this in my sketchbook as well as analysing relevant photographs that I felt were going to influence my photographic work throughout the project.

First photographic experiments...

Using some of the external stimulus that I have found through internet, research, television news and what I've learnt through looking closer into the work of Ekman, I attempted to make the sitter feel a certain emotion that could be photograph as evidence. I found this experiment really interesting but at the same time difficult to produce a response from the sitter as they were constantly aware of the camera and at times this stopped an subconscious response from happening. I decided not to concentrate on taking the perfect photograph or using the perfect lighting in this series of photographs as I felt that this would hinder my time spending just trying to experiment with getting a response from the sitter and what worked well and didn't.

In response to the external stimulus used I felt that it was relatively simple to gain an happiness/smiling response through the use of humorous videos and pictures as well as news stories. Also disgust was created by using photographs that would repulse people but also by making them imagine the most disgusting thing they could eat or smell, in the case of the photographs shown it was the smell and taste of fish that repulsed the sitter. Surprise was mostly created by using shocking news stories and images. Also anger was created by scenario based stories and by simply trying to get on the sitters nerves. Sadness was created in a similar way as anger using scenarios, for example how would you feel if you was to lose a loved one? Fear could also be created by showing a series of images of fearful faces however this was not one of the easiest emotions to get. Contempt was one of the most emotions to captured, more than likely because its one of the hardiest to spot.

I decided that I would develop these photographs in black and white because in my artist research I felt that the black and white images worked at lot better in terms of bringing out the details on the face, which I knew was something I wanted to achieve. The photographs shown are a select few of the images I have developed and show what I was trying to achieve particularly in terms of compositional value. I feel that as a first experiment this has worked well but it needs a lot more developing and perhaps another dimension to make the images stand out more and become more visually appealing.

Artist Research...

I have spent the last few days looking at different portrait photographers, some contemoprary and some not, so that I can get inspiration for what style I feel I would like my photographs to resemble as well as what style would create the best affect for my photographs and the facial expressions.

The portrait photographs that I have looked at so far are:

Martin Schoeller
Robert Mapplethorpe
Howard Schatz - specifically his photographic series of actors playing a role
Irving Penn
Richard Avedon
Steve Pyke
David Bailey
Yousuf Karsh
Mark Selieger (couldn't find any photographs that I felt would be relevant for my project so decided not to do any further research on artist)

I intend to continue this research more thoroughly throughout the next week or so. Particularly looking to get some more books on these and other relevant artists from the library in college.

Documentaries...

I have just finished watching two documentaries that I found on the internet which I felt related to my project and would help improve my knowledge on facial expressions and body language.

The first documentary I watched was the four-part BBC series entitled 'The Human Face' which was presented by John Cleese and featured a star-studded class including the co-presenter for the series Liz Hurley. I decided to watch the majority of the series but I focused the majority of my attention on the hour special entitled 'Face to Face' which looked at the purpose of the face and how it reveals our personality. Throughout the episode Cleese looked at the seven universal emotions and used case studies, such as a couple close to divorce to show how these emotions which are displayed on our face can affect the relationships we share together. Cleese also talks to Professor Paul Ekman who talks about how to discover a liar and what details to look out for in the face that might be a giveaway. I found this episode extremely insightful especially finding out about how our subconscious emotions can affect the people around us much more than we think. I also learnt a lot more about the micro expression especially in terms of how this can be a sign of concealment or that someone is lying.

The second documentary I watched was a 90 minute special documentary originally showed on the History Channel in the US, entitled 'Body Language Secrets'. The first half of this documentary focused on human body language and how it helps when interacting with each other, for example having a open body language is more likely to help you sell something. The second half of the documentary was a lot more interesting in terms of relating to my project as it focused on the body language of the face. Initially the documentary introduced the work of Paul Ekman and talked about his experiments to discover the seven universal emotions. I found this extremely interesting as it showed video clips of Ekman's experiment. One in particular showed Ekman asking people to put them self in a scenario to make them feel hat particular emotion and then he did the same thing to lots of other people around the world and compared his findings. This is how he came up with the idea that everyone has seven universal emotions which are recognised all around the world.

I have yet to watch the ITV doc 'Tears, Lies and Videotape' but I intend to watch and analyse the episode in the near future.

Newspaper and Magazine faces...

I have decided to spend the next week or so collecting portraits and facial expressions from magazines and newspapers that I have and intend to purchase. By doing this I hope to build up an awareness to the amount of portraits we our surrounded by an often ignore as unimportant -- Perhaps we purchase these magazines with Cheryl Cole's face prominent on the front cover but do we really take note of their facial expressions and what emotions they show in the photographs unless its labelled in a large font over the image?

I was interested to see whether places all together the faces I had found in mags and newspapers were as important if they were placed out of context. I also wanted to see whether it was as easy to identify the facial expressions if the images were taking away from the stories which backed up the images. I found that collecting these images has made me more aware of just how much we see photographs or images of facial expressions whether this be through advertisement or paparazzi shots of celebs, we are surrounded by images of people.

I have also collected some interesting portrait photographs that have been used in magazines and newspaper - one of the most interesting I feel is of David Cameron and was found in Live magazine which is a sunday supplement for 'The Daily Mail'. Due to the ever nearing general election it seems the majority of the media has focused its on attention on this story. This image of Cameron has inspired me to look at the work of Martin Schoeller as it very much reminded me of his work and how this lighting effect may work particularly well in creating my own photographs.

To be Continued....................................Now:

I have continued to research into micro expressions and have found some interesting videos:

One in particularly is a video uploaded to youtube which shows an example of facial expression recognition software in action - this software (perhaps not this particular one) was pioneered by the work of Ekman and his team of psychologists. I found it extremely interesting how the software can detecting even the slightest movements in the face and how this can affect what emotion the face is expressing. The video has also made me realise that there can be only very slight changes in some expression and perhaps with out the software these emotions can be confused, i.e disgust and anger or fear and surprise.

I also found a series of videos showing slow motion shots of the movement of the face in each of the seven universal emotions i have been studying. I found this video absolutely fascinating, especially in terms of showing how at times the emotions are similar but also to show exactly how the face moves and what effect this can create.

Another video is an hour-long interview with psychologist Paul Ekman which had been uploaded to Youtube. Particularly interesting to get his opinions directly on the experience he has done, what he had found and why he decided to do it -- (links to the videos watched are in the useful link section, right)

I have also start some simple sketches of faces from magazines cuttings that I found interesting - I have enjoy using some different materials so far as part of my research and I feel by drawing more faces I will learn more about the movement of the face as well as proportions.

More documentaries...

After some intense research via the internet to find documentaries focusing on human facial expressions and body language, I have finally had some success in finding suitable videos/docs:

First video I found is entitled: Body Language Secrets, originally aired on The History Channel on October 13th 2008. (Need to wait to watch for video to download - intended time: 18 hours)

Second video: BBC's The Human Face, a four-part series presented and written by John Cleese (first aired 2001) (downloading series may take up to 2 days to finish all four episodes)

Finally the third video: Tears, Lies and Videotapes aired on ITV 8th May 2009 (found on a website online via google search)

In all of the videos there is either an interview with Paul Ekman or an extremely close relation to his work, which is why I intend to watch, analyse and make notes on all of them.

Documentary and video research cont.

Initially I found it extremely difficult to find videos/docs on facial expressions and human body language on the internet as all I could find was short clips of videos that actually weren't very relevant to my research and discovery of human expression. I then discovered a series of body language shows on Sky1 entitled 'Body Language Revealed', however I found that this show focused more on how you can get what you want through the use of body language, for example it gave you the best tips on to sell your car using welcoming body language. I found that this show was insightful in terms of how to use body language but it didnt tell me enough on the background of it, such as how we detect certain emotions and how that makes us feel as well as the person viewing the expression. I decided to continue to watch part of the series on Sky1 that I had recorded however I didn't find anything inspirational or interesting enough to watch the entire series or concentrate on taking notes too much (hence why I have decided not to record it in my sketchbook).

After not having much luck with this series I have decided to continue to find other documentaries, specifically ones that explore similar ideas to what Ekman talks about in his book...

Research...Continued:

In order to understand human facial expressions and body language more particularly in terms of how it can express our emotions and reactions, I intend to spend the day searching for documentaries and videos on these specific subjects...

Internet research - DISCOVERY...

Whilst using the internet to research further into micro expressions and the seven universal emotions I found an interesting website which is meant to train you to identify the seven basic emotions that everyone displays (mostly subconsciously):

The url is http://www.neurodiversity.com/nvc/game.html -- the game which shows images of certain facial expressions allows you to guess what the facial expression the image is showing. Some were difficult mainly the images of two similar emotions such as disgust and anger, however I found that the majority were reasonably easy to identify. The test/experiment was very interesting but at the same time enjoyable to play. I also feel like spending quite a lot of time on this experiment has improved my knowledge on what each emotion looks like and has made it easier to identify them which will help when photographing the emotions in my development stage. The website also has some interesting facts on what areas of the face are important giveaways to what particular emotions that person is feeling, for example in an anger emotions the main give-away in facial movement is the eyebrows which will be lowered and drawn together showing a sort of frowning expressions with a very focused stare. I found this website particlarly interesting and helpful for my research and I intend to go back and look at this website again if I need help on identifying the emotions...

Research...

I am going to start my research first of all by looking into micro expressions more, which was a pioneering discovery by Paul Ekman who is my main inspiration for this project. I intend to look into these expressions further by first of all using the internet to do some basic research via search engines such as google. I will also use the internet to gather images of all of the seven universal emotions: surprise, fear, anger, disgust, happiness, sadness and contempt. I will also look at the photographs of facial expressions in the book 'Unmasking the Face' which should hopefully make me more aware of the differences between each emotions and to help identify them better.

I will also find out more about Paul Ekman himself, in the hope that I can find more about how he set up his experiments and what he found. As I feel this will help improve my own experiments but also maybe give me more inspiration as to what I hope to find out by doing my own experiments.

Paul Ekman's Book - Unmasking the face... (Initial research)

As part of the main inspiration for my work I have got a book by American psychologist Paul Ekman who was the pioneer of discovering the seven universal emotions: contempt, anger, disgust, sadness, happiness, fear and surprise. The book is entitled 'Unmasking the Face' and focuses on what these emotions look like and what feel like when you experience. It also explains how to identify these basic emotions and develop a keener awareness of the way our face reflects the emotion we our feeling.

So far the book seems a very interesting read and I will continue to read it throughout the project. I will also refer back to it whilst creating photographic experiments particularly when I will try to use external stimulus to make the sitter feel a certain emotion. As I feel this will be especially useful for this as I know Ekman has created similar experiments to determine these emotions.