Exercise 8

What: The main brief of this exercise was to take a number of portrait photographs
Where: At home, Outdoors
When: In the afternoon, just after about 4.pm. when the sun was high enough in the sky to provide adequate light
How: before we started Lindsay who was acting as the subject and I sat down and looked through a number of magazines, including photography magazines, nation geographic as well as a number of books including one of posing which was called 500 poses for photographing women.

Perkins, M (2009). 500 Poses for Photographing Women. Buffalo, NY, USA: Amherst Media. All.

I did not really find the book that much use, and on reflection is a good reference, but at the time I was a bit lost and lacking in ideas it will not always generate a lot.

Other books I examined were

Photographing People
Hicks, R. Schultz,F. Larg, A. Wood,J. (2006). Photographing People. Switzerland: Rotovision. All.

Digital Photography Masterclass
Ang, T. (2008). Digital Photography Masterclass. London: Dorling Kindersley. p258-p270.

The Portrait Photography Course
Jenkinson, Mark (201). The Portrait Photography Course. London: A&C Black. All.

I did visit the photographer Rankins website and selected a number of his images which I was then able to use as reference. I also managed to view a TV program where he was reshooting classic Hollywood images and I found that listening to his instructions to the models was very helpful as it gave me an idea of how to guide someone quite simply and the terms of reference to use.

Another reference site I visited was the PhotoArts.com forum Benji. (2008). The Rules Of Portraiture. Available: http://photoartsforum.com/benjis_tutorials_the_rules_of_good_portraiture-t966.0.html. Last accessed 4th July 2012. where I had a good look at the rules of Portraiture by a member called Benji. Again this was a good reference as it clearly demonstrated some techniques, principles and ideas that I had not encountered.

We made a number of notes on what we wanted to try out and have a bit of fun with. As we worked through the poses we discussed how comfortable she felt as it looked at times as if she did not like the pose.
I discovered that a number of ideas we had discussed did not work out right either because of the limited locations and positions we could obtain as well as some of the ideas from the books not working due to the models having a bit more intent skills.

We started by having Lindsay sit on the wall, I stood across the sunlight so that it would not flood into the lens and so that we could have a better suite of backgrounds rather than the limited hedge and fence.
I sent a bit of time directing Lindsay on her hands as I had read an article in a magazine about positioning of models hands and I used that information when directing Lindsay on how to position herself.

As we moved around the garden I had Lindsay move from sitting to standing to lying down so that I could obtain a number of differing poses; Sometime just getting her to move her hands or her gaze one direction or another helped to make the image more or less interesting. I also moved the camera from position to position, sometimes looking to break my own preconceived rules by using ideas like Dutch angles and deliberately getting in close to her face with the lens.

DSC_0042
Nikon D80,Exposure Mode Manua, focal length 46.0mm (35mm equivalent 69mm), aperture f8, speed 1/180 second, ISO 250, Shade white balance, Spot metering, tripod mounted camera, 18-70mm lens,



DSC_0047
Nikon D80,Exposure Mode Auto, focal length 70mm (35mm equivalent 105mm), aperture f8, speed 1/350 second, ISO 250, Shade white balance, Spot metering, tripod mounted camera, 18-70mm lens,


DSC_0059
Nikon D80,Exposure Mode Auto, focal length 50.0mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f8, speed 1/180 second, ISO 250, Shade white balance, Spot metering, tripod mounted camera, 50mm lens,



DSC_0065
Nikon D80,Exposure Mode Auto, focal length 50.0mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f8, speed 1/750 second, ISO 250, Shade white balance, Spot metering, tripod mounted camera, 50mm lens,



DSC_0067
Nikon D80,Exposure Mode Auto, focal length 46.0mm (35mm equivalent 69mm), aperture f8, speed 1/125 second, ISO 250, Shade white balance, Spot metering, tripod mounted camera, 18-70mm lens,



DSC_0069
Nikon D80,Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 27.0mm (35mm equivalent 40mm), aperture f8, speed 1/350 second, ISO 250, Shade white balance, Spot metering, hand held camera, 18-70mm lens,



DSC_0072
Nikon D80,Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 27.0mm (35mm equivalent 40mm), aperture f3.8, speed 1/1500 second, ISO 250, Shade white balance, Spot metering, hand held camera, 18-70mm lens,



DSC_0081
Nikon D80,Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 27.0mm (35mm equivalent 40mm), aperture f3.8, speed 1/4000 second, ISO 250, Shade white balance, Spot metering, hand held camera, 18-70mm lens,


DSC_0083
Nikon D80,Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 27.0mm (35mm equivalent 40mm), aperture f3.8, speed 1/350 second, ISO 250, Shade white balance, Spot metering, hand held camera, 18-70mm lens,



We had a bit of fun with this, but I did find one important lesson which was that although I may like an image and think that I can use the same pose it will not always work due to lighting/simple positioning or the way the model holds herself.

I have also spent a few hours a week looking over a number of websites at the photography on there.

The sites include;

Laessig, Gavon. (2012). 2012 World Press Photo Winners. Available: http://www.buzzfeed.com/gavon/2012-world-press-photo-winners. Last accessed 19th June 2012. http://www.buzzfeed.com/gavon/2012-world-press-photo-winners Stopera, Matt. (2011). Every World Press Photo Winner From 1955-2011. Available: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/every-world-press-photo-winner-from-1955-2011. Last accessed 19th June 2012.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/every-world-press-photo-winner-from-1955-2011

Richie. (2010). 50 INSPIRING EXAMPLES OF EMOTIONAL PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY. Available: http://richworks.in/2010/06/50-inspiring-examples-of-emotional-portrait-photography/. Last accessed 15th June 2012.
http://richworks.in/2010/06/50-inspiring-examples-of-emotional-portrait-photography/

Google. (2011). Google Art Project. Available: http://www.googleartproject.com/. Last accessed 2nd July 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/googleartproject?feature=inp-rs-art

Taylor, Alan. (2012). In Focus - Not Where They Hoped To Be. Available: http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/06/not-where-they-hoped-theyd-be/100320/#. Last accessed 29th June 2012.
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/06/not-where-they-hoped-theyd-be/100320/#

A lot of these sites reminded me that I should focus on the person as well as the context, compositon and framing.

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.