clair obscur
My Journey In Photography
Photography From My Lens
By Kevin Nguyen
Early Photographic Works
I first got interested in Photography after taking it as an elective during Secondary School. In that class, I was introduced to the idea of Photography as an artistic medium. We were shown works from famous photographers such as Ansel Adams known for his landscape photography. In addition, we were exposed to enthusiast// professional photography equipment like DSLR cameras, backdrops, lighting, and software. Learning how to use that equipment and working on the assignments excited me. For one of my High School assignments, I shot figurines and editing effects over the image thinking it was cool. After having so much fun in that Photography class, it eventually inspired me to purchase my own cameras to pursue personal creative
works. During that time, me and my friends would just go downtown and just do little photoshoots. I was inspired by Brandon Woelfel’s photography with his work in night/lowlight photography. His vivid and dreamlike imagery really influenced my early photographs and still does to this day.
Humber Photography
After High School, I went on to enroll in the Photography program at Humber College. This is where I was able to improve my skillset and gain hands-on experience in a Photography studio environment. My first year at Humber was very challenging but fun. I was able
Photo Taken By Kevin Nguyen
to learn different lighting techniques for Portrait and Commercial Photography and improve my abilities in Photoshop. One of my favourite images that I photographed was a “Hollywood Concept” photograph. We were assigned to shoot an “old Hollywood-style” portrait featuring high contrast lighting in black and white. For my lighting set up, I decided to use rembrandt lighting for my image to emphasize the mystery of my subject.
to make the background more visually interesting. For this assignment, we experimented with modified lighting. Specifically, we used a “Snoot light” – a “cone-cylindrical shaped” kit that’s designed to shape the light very narrowly onto your subject. It resulted in a cool pattern I was able to add in the background of my image. With this image, I am still very inspired by Brandon Woelfel’s work with his implementation of vibrant colours and low lighting.
In addition, commercial photography was one of my favourite subjects to shoot in that program. Another notable image that I shot was of a figurine being lit utilizing a “cookie cutout pattern”
Photo Taken By Kevin Nguyen
Humber Photography Year 2
One type of Photography that I didn’t have much experience in was “Location Photography”. But during my second year, it really opened my eyes to how fun it was. One of my favourite assignments to shoot was an Architecture photo (something that you would see in real estate photography). That assignment required us to utilize “HDR” which is just taking photos at 3 different exposures and merging it, to have this one photo with various ranges of exposure. It resulted in this very dynamic image that I captured of my local library. While there weren’t any photographers that I took inspiration from when I captured this image, I still take inspiration when working on the post-production process. For this architecture shot and many of my other works, I take inspiration from David LaChapelle–a photographer known for conceptual fashion photography and his display of vibrant colours.
Utilizing minimal lighting from the city lights of downtown Toronto with the help of a speedlight. Additionally, implementing warm and vibrant colours similar to the aesthetic of Wong Kar-Wai’s films. During this time, we were still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, so a lot of the cohort didn’t have the luxury to spend with each other outside of class. Therefore, I wanted to capture a candid shot of 2 friends spending time together.
CLAIR
Another project that I fondly enjoyed working on was the “speedlight” project. It required me and other students to learn how to operate and use a speedlight in an outdoor location. For this image, I was inspired by Brandon Woelfel and filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai.
Photo Taken By Kevin Nguyen
Architecture Photography
“Great Photography is about depth of feeling, not depth of field” - Peter Adams
Photo Taken By Kevin Nguyen
Photo Taken By Jack Rintoul
In my last year in Humber’s Photography Program, I focused more on working in Commercial Photography skills. I wanted to improve on taking visually engaging product photography. So for one of my projects, I decided to shoot a product image of glass CocaCola bottles. The process of capturing this image was very tedious as it involved experimenting with different lighting set ups, light modifiers, and props. I had direct lighting on the coca-cola bottles and a light reflector to use as a fill light. In addition, I used a backlight with a red coloured gel to light the background and a spray bottle for added texture on the coke bottle. For this image, I mainly took inspiration from classic Coca-Cola
advertisements with their primary usage of the colour red.
Post-Graduation
After graduating from Humber’s Photography program, I now work freelance as a Photography Assistant and Image Retoucher. Those 2 years in the program allowed me to find my sense of style and improve my technical skills in the studio. Networking with other artists and Photographers allows me to continue being inspired and to shoot more.
Photo Taken By Kevin Nguyen
CLAIR OBSCUR
Photo Taken By Kevin Nguyen
