The photographer took a series of portrait photos inspired by the style of images in NME magazine. Specifically, they emulated the work of photographer Daniel Harris, focusing on close-ups to capture emotion, often in black and white with a simple backdrop. The goals were to draw attention to the subject's eyes and convey simplicity and emotion. Techniques like depth of field and rule of thirds were used. Areas for improvement included image clarity and more diverse locations.

1. Unit 57: Photography and
Photographic Practice
Selection of final images & review
(P4, M4, D4)
Portrait Images

10. Theme or focus of images & reasons for choice
I took inspiration for my images from NME and tried to take and edit my
photos so they would fit into the style of NME images. The images I looked at
previously were by a photographer called Daniel Harris who contracted for
NME by going on tour with bands and taking photos over the space of
maybe a month of gigs. The photos I looked at by him were of a band called
Darlia and I saw that Daniel Harris concentrated on close ups of the band to
capture emotion and often used black and white to give it a simplistic feel so
I replicated that in my work. I also wanted to take them with a backdrop
because I saw them regularly being used in NME. I created a backdrop just
using a green blanket and made it look reasonably professional. So the main

11. focuses of my images is obviously the main subject and focus is the model
throughout all of the images but the theme of the photos all the way through
was emotion and simplicity and I tried to capture all of these in my images. I
also tried to draw focus to the eyes in my images because I think in my
opinion that should be the main focal point for a portrait shot.
Techniques used
When taking the images I had to use certain techniques to achieve the
images I wanted to, for example the use of depth of field, applying rule of
thirds to frame the shot, changing the ISO to optimize the shot, shutter speed
to make the brightness of the image right, among other techniques.
On the first and third image there is a clear use of the depth of field
technique, the model is in focus and clear and green backdrop is more
blurred. I used this technique obviously to concentrate on the model and the
emotion in the face of the subject. Also in most of the images there is use of
rule of thirds to frame the shot so your eye is drawn to the subject.
Strengths & suggested improvements
I feel the strengths of my images are the simplicity and framing of the shot. I
think the simplicity brings out the emotion of the subject and the framing
draws your eye to her.
I think the weaknesses are the clarity of some of my images and I could
possibly have some more diversity and multiple locations to make the photos
more interesting.
Editing details
For the majority of the images all I did to edit them was add the black and white filter
and pick out the colour green and make it more of a grey backdrop. But for image 1
and 3 I made a separate layer just the subject’s iris and played around with the
colour balance and vibrance to make the blue of her eyes brighter. I also removed
certain marks from the subjects face on these photos.
Capture Log
Setting Shutter Speed ISO Aperture
Manual- Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Image 4
Image 5
Image 6
Image 7
Image 8
Image 9
1 / 4 second
1/60 second
1/60 second
1/ 4 second
1/ 4 second
1/ 4 second
1/ 4 second
1/ 4 second
1/ 4 second
1/ 4 second
3200
450
640
3200
3200
3200
3200
3200
3200
4.7
3.6
3.6
4.7
4.7
4.7
4.7
4.7
4.7
4.7

12. Image 10 3200