Facial Expressions

Marjorie FergusonMarjorie Ferguson (1980) identified four types of facial expression in the cover photos of British women’s magazines:

• Chocolate Box: half or full-smile, lips together or slightly parted, teeth barely visible, full or three-quarter face to camera. Projected mood: blandly pleasing, warm bath warmth, where uniformity of features in their smooth perfection is devoid of uniqueness or of individuality.

• Invitational: emphasis on the eyes, mouth shut or with only a hint of a smile, head to one side or looking back to camera. Projected mood: suggestive of mischief or mystery, the hint of contact potential rather than sexual promise, the cover equivalent of advertising’s soft sell.

• Super-smiler: full face, wide open toothy smile, head thrust forward or chin thrown back, hair often wind-blown. Projected mood: aggressive, ‘look-at-me’ demanding, the hard sell, ‘big come-on’ approach.

• Romantic or Sexual: a fourth and more general classification devised to include male and female ‘two-somes’; or the dreamy, heavy-lidded, unsmiling big-heads, or the overtly sensual or sexual. Projected moods: possible ‘available’ and definitely ‘available’.

Examples

Chocolate box Invitational Super smiler

Romantic/ sexual

Trevor MiIlium • Millum comments on how the male facial expressions depicted in the women’s

ads he studied related to his typification of female expressions:

• There are fairly direct parallels with the above - the carefree, practical, seductive, comic and catalogue. The other two male expressions selected as types - the thoughtful and the self-reliant - have similarities to the female introverted and cool, though the thoughtful is far less introverted and the self-reliant more smug than aloof or reserved, but there are no counterparts to the narcissistic or kitten like. (For the latter a type boyish might be postulated, but it remains potential). (ibid., 98)

Examples

Carefree Practical

Seductive

Comic Catalogue

Lighting

Types of lighting

• High key light • mid key light• 3 point light • Back light • Chiaroscuro• Natural light • Artificial light • TUNGSTEN LIGHTS• HALOGEN LIGHT• NEON LIGHT

high key light High key photography uses unnaturally bright lighting to blow out most or all harsh shadows in an image. High key methods were originally developed as a solution to screens that couldn’t properly display high contrast ratios, but has developed into more of a stylistic choice.High key images usually convey a positive or upbeat tone. This method is perfect for a subject that is funny, lighthearted or beautiful.

Natural light Natural light is the best type of light for many photographic situations. In fact, the broader goal for many photographers using artificial light is simply to emulate the qualities of natural light. One positive note on natural light: no batteries needed. It’s available anywhere you go and, apart from the subject matter, it’s probably the quality of the natural light that drew you to the scene in the first place. In short, the one reason why natural light looks so good in images is that it is natural.

Low key light • Low-key lighting is a style of lighting for photography, film or television. It is a necessary

element in creating a chiaroscuro effect. Traditional photographic lighting, three-point lighting uses a key light, a fill light, and a back light for illumination. Low-key lighting often uses only one key light, optionally controlled with a fill light or a simple reflector.

• Low key light accentuates the contours of an object by throwing areas into shade while a fill light or reflector may illuminate the shadow areas to control contrast. The relative strength of key-to-fill, known as the lighting ratio, can be measured using a light meter. Low key lighting has a higher lighting ratio, e.g. 8:1, than high-key lighting, which can approach 1:1.

• The term "low key" is used in cinematography to refer to any scene with a high lighting ratio, especially if there is a predominance of shadowy areas. It tends to heighten the sense of alienation felt by the viewer, hence is commonly used in film noir and horror genres.

mid key light • Mid key lighting is when the highlights and shadows are both balanced and neither is too

much more dominant than the other. to do this we changed the lighting and the setup around so that the reading was 14 central, so the light meter read 60. The images that i have took for this are more subtle and blended in terms of the lighting, which is probably the best way to shoot in the studio for portraits of people. In my opinion the mid key lighting complements skin tones better, which is why I think that this type of lighting is ideal for profiles of people.