Excercise 6 - Scoring a Portrait Session

What: The main brief of this exercise was to take roughly 20 portrait photographs in one sesion and while shooting give each image a score. Then open each image later and score the images again looking at them on a larger screen. Compare and review the scores given.
Where: At home, Indoors
When: In the afternoon, just after about 2.pm. when the sun was high enough in the sky to provide light into the room but not directly and it was cloudy enough that the light was diffused.
How: I used the same setup for Ali as I did for Mark. The daylight from camera right was diffused by the clouds before passing through the window and was then bounced back using a white deflector for fill light.

I positioned Ali sitting on the sofa and then adjusted the reflector and camera position until I was happy with the position and the amount of reflected light. I practiced giving directions to Ali, who having observed Mark in the previous exercise was much more ‘up to speed’ and confident at receiving instructions.

As I took each shot I gave a graded score between 1 and 5 for each one into a digital voice recorder. This allowed me to concentrate on getting Ali to listen and respond to my directions. I was hoping to keep Ali on the same position on the sofa and just adjust her expression and eye line, but I found that after 16 photos that she wanted to change position completely which meant that I had to readjust the camera position and the reflector and start again.

From time to time Ali would show the same psychological reaction to the camera shutter as Mark and would put on her “photo face”. I had then to stop and direct her before starting to shoot again. Ali responded well to the instructions and had a lot of fun playing for the camera.

After the session, I looked over the images on the camera screen and removed duplicate images where I had pressed the remote release too hard and had taken more than one photo. I then reviewed the images against the scores on the digital recorder to ensure that they matched.

My next step was to review the Jpeg version of the images on a large TV screen to get an idea of how they looked and allow Ali to see what we had been doing. I followed this up by properly reviewing the RAW images on a PC screen using Adobe Bridge allowing for white balance colour correction, looking at each individual image on its own and giving each image a score between 1 and 5 stars. I have prepared a screenshot showing a screen of the full set of images as shown in Bridge with their relevant star score.
Screenshot of Adobe bridge with scores given on review.



I compared these scores to the scores I had given during the session. In many cases the score differed; some which looked good on the camera screen were not as good when displayed in either the RAW or Jpeg format on a larger screen. I was pleasantly surprised to find a number where my score matched or was bettered on review on the larger screen.

Matched Score 4/5
DSC_0031
Nikon D80, focal length 52.0mm (35mm equivalent 78mm), aperture f4.5, speed 1/30 second, ISO 500, Shade white balance, Spot metering, tripod mounted camera, 17-70mm lens, No flash.



As soon as I felt that Ali was sitting in the right position with the right expression I took this shot and install marked it with a high score as I felt at that moment I had nailed a perfect image of Ali.

Surprise Match 2/5
DSC_0043
Nikon D80, focal length 52.0mm (35mm equivalent 78mm), aperture f4.4, speed 1/45 second, ISO 500, Shade white balance, Spot metering, tripod mounted camera, 17-70mm lens, No flash.



I was surprised by this as this was one of the last shots we did and I blew a couple of plastic bubbles into the air just for fun so that Ali could see that these bubbles did not burst when touched. Ali of course being a scientist was amused to see such a thing. I thought that the shot I took looked pretty poor and that her eyes were too shaded and her expression was one of boredom, however on review I was pleased to find that I really liked Alis’ expression and that fact that her eye line was off camera as she was focussing completely on the bubble.

Low Score all round 1/1
DSC_0026
Nikon D80, focal length 50.0mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f4.5, speed 1/45 second, ISO 500, Shade white balance, Spot metering, tripod mounted camera, 17-70mm lens, No flash.



Just as I pressed the shutter release, Mark said something which made Ali suddenly change her expression. I was not happy with this image as soon as I shot it and gave it a low score, on review I was tempted to mark it down to Zero and discard the image entirely but felt that it should stay as a 1. Ali’s expression is not pleasing and with her looking off camera it just looks as if someone has been rude to her.

Low Score on review 3/1
DSC_0036
Nikon D80, focal length 50.0mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f4.5, speed 1/30 second, ISO 500, Shade white balance, Spot metering, tripod mounted camera, 17-70mm lens, No flash.



On shooting this I gave it a mid range score, on review however I just did not like the image and marked it down accordingly.

The overall result on this exercise was not a great surprise to me as I had found on previous occasions that the smaller screen failed to show small movement blur and shadow definition.

I decided to upload the images, taken without looking through the eyepiece, where the scores either matched or showed the greatest difference.

I also find that as the camera is not a full frame sensor and the way the camera has been designed that the image presented in the eyepiece is only about 90% of what is actually captured within the frame I try not to rely on the back of the camera, preferring to stop and review the images on either a larger screen (such as a monitor or large screen TV) or on a laptop screen usually using my instant judgement on taking the shot whether I think that it is usable or not.

I try not to “chimp” and examine each image immediately after shooting it as I think this is a waste of time and opportunity.

Where I can, I prefer to shoot portraits where the camera is tethered to a PC or a laptop so that I can instantly see what the image looks like for review and re-shoot purposes. I try to ensure that the TV/PC/Laptop screen is colour managed normally using a colour management tool like a Spider so that I know that the colours shown on the screens not only are the same on each screen I use but they are closer to the final image colours than those displayed on a small camera LCD screen.

Exercise 5: Eyeline in Portraiture

What: The main brief of this exercise was to take a number of portrait photographs where the person was looking into the camera lens and also away from the lens at angles.
Where: At home, Indoors
When: In the afternoon, just after about 2.pm. when the sun was high enough in the sky to provide light into the room but not directly and it was cloudy enough that the light was diffused.
How: I started this exercise by reviewing some material in the book – The Portrait Photography Course by Mark Jenkinson. One of the points made in the book is to understand the use of shadow in portraiture, and in the case of this exercise I decided that I did not want a lot of shadow and that I really wanted to keep the image as simple as possible as I did not want to present myself with too many problems.

I had over complicated things by waiting for a good sunny day to do an outdoor photography session, but after waiting for two weeks for the right weather I got fed up and had Mark and Ali (my subjects/models) turn up and we would see if we could just photograph indoors. As Mark and Ali arrived, the weather did brighten up a little, but when I checked with a small hand held light meter I found that there was little difference in the amount and colour of the light outside compared to inside the house.

I set up the camera on a tripod and had Lindsay act as an assistant; holding a large white reflector off to the side of the seating position to fill as a fill light. I had a short shutter release cable attached to the camera which meant that I could move a little from the camera and not worry about how I was going to activate the shutter. This allowed me a little more freedom when I was photographing as I could swap hands as well as move away from the eyepiece. It also allowed me to check if the camera was positioned correctly. I did not want the portrait to be overly superior or diminutive so I took a while raising and lowering the camera until I felt I had the dominant eye in the right position.

After discussing what I wanted with Mark and then working through Lindsay and Ali to translate from English to Italian and back to English, Mark sat in position on the sofa. To begin with both he and I were quite nervous and I found myself telling him to relax, which did not help. I then stopped and had a short chat with Mark and while we talked I used my remote shutter to trigger a few frames through. Mark instantly reacted to the sound and we found that he put on his “photo” face and smiled directly into the camera. We took a short break and I asked him not to react to the sound of the shutter but instead ignore it and listen to my instructions instead. I then stuck a spare card into the camera and just randomly shot for a while in an attempt to stop Mark reacting to the shutter.

While I was instructing him, I started to talk to him about books he was reading at the moment and this helped to relax him. We spoke for a while and I gained his confidence when, after swapping to the card I wanted to use, I photographed him and then showed him the result on the camera screen. As I spoke to Mark, I moved away from the camera and tripod and went left, right, above and below the camera lens directing him to look in certain directions. I found that I could not get him to react to certain questions and directions as the translation took too long to perform and he had moved away from the expression or stance. Eventually I found a book, and had him read some passages from it as it focussed his attention away from the sound of the camera. I then continued to photograph him, while distracting his attention and used Ali as a distraction to help guide Mark, but in the end I ended up taking more photographs than necessary as every so often he would start to respond with his “photo” face again. While I was not looking for a deadpan expression from Mark I was hoping to achieve a number of natural photographs where I could get definitive shots of differing eye lines. As soon as I started to review the images I threw away about three quarters of them as they were unusable; Most of them were due to Mark reacting to the camera or moving too fast and blurring the image. While I was happy with the quality and colour of the light and the fill from the reflector I was not happy with the way the session had progressed, I found that I myself was quite nervous and in fact having Lindsay and Ali there as well was a bit of a hindrance as Mark would converse with them and not pay full attention to when I was directing him.

Looking into the Lens 1

Nikon D80, focal length 50.0mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f1.8, speed 1/750 second, ISO 500, Shade white balance, Spot metering, Tripod Mounted camera, 50mm lens, No flash.




Looking into the Lens 2

Nikon D80, focal length 50.0mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f1.8, speed 1/1000 second, ISO 500, Shade white balance, Spot metering, Tripod Mounted camera, 50mm lens, No flash.




Looking Right

Nikon D80, focal length 50.0mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f1.8, speed 1/500 second, ISO 500, Shade white balance, Spot metering, Tripod Mounted camera, 50mm lens, No flash.




Looking Down

Nikon D80, focal length 50.0mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f1.8, speed 1/1000 second, ISO 500, Shade white balance, Spot metering, Tripod Mounted camera, 50mm lens, No flash.



Slightly Up

Nikon D80, focal length 50.0mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f1.8, speed 1/1000 second, ISO 500, Shade white balance, Spot metering, Tripod Mounted camera, 50mm lens, No flash.



One thing I got out of this exercise was that it takes quite a bit of preparation work to get a good session and that with practise I should get better at directing people. I think that better notes and samples of what I am trying to achieve would also help as sometime I did struggle to find the right words and instructions when directing.

Having looked over the images and looking back at the day I have realised that I was not able to get Mark to feel comfortable and that there may be problems to overcome where the subject may have a weak chin, deep set eyes or receding hairline.