Varying the pose

This exercise is all about varying the pose and how limbs are placed within the frame to achieve the best image.  I decided to borrow a small child who I knew would be happy to be photographed.


After all the rain we have had recently I had the idea in my head of wellington boots on the little girl and maybe an umbrella too. My thinking behind the umbrella was to use it as a prop.

This first photograph was taken at F8 1/160 second shutter speed with a daylight white balance and an iso of 200, I kept the pose very relaxed with one hand holding the handrail and her foot poised as if she was going to go down the steps. I did my post production using levels and the unsharp mask.

The second photograph I got her to squat down slightly and then peer round the newel post again I used F8 but this time the shutter speed was 1/400's with the same iso and white balance as above.  I decided to work in aperture priority leaving me free to look at shapes and poses within the body. I did the same post production.  I like the way the shadow fell across half her face almost giving me another shape.

Moving onto the decking area now I wanted her to lean against the fence, this time the shutter speed was a bit faster at 1/800 second but all the other settings were the same.

I then asked her to sit down on a small chair, I like the way her hands are relaxed even though they are together and she is looking relaxed and smiling at the camera.  Once again I used F8 but the shutter speed this time is 1/320's everything else is the same.

Alyssa said the sun was in her eyes a bit but because I liked the way the shadows were forming on the fence I asked her to shield her eyes with her hand, this works to a degree but its a shame you can't see more of her face. The shutter speed was 1/250 second.

I then asked Aylssa to sit on the decking with one knee up and her elbows resting on that knee. This is one of my favourite shots I took on the day, she looks relaxed and comfortable, I should maybe add at this point that she has had a modelling contract in the past and is very happy in front of the camera and takes direction very well, she is also my niece, which is very good news for me when I want to practise at any time. I also adjusted the contrast and brightness very slightly on this one.

From the sitting on the decking it was easy to go to laying down, I knew what I wanted from this shot I wanted her arms stretched out in front but with her legs up at the back, it was difficult to get the image I wanted without it looking like she had two feet growing from her head.

It was a simple change to the previous photograph that produced a much more pleasing image, helped in part by the toothy grin. This works much better as she doesn't look as if she has limbs growing in strange places.

I got her to stand and with the umbrella up to hold it over her shoulder giving a nice shape to the arm also her head is tilted downwards slightly. This is my favourite photo of the day.

The next three are all variations on the same theme with the umbrella. The top one she looks cute. The positioning of her limbs make it look like she is standing talking to someone.  The second and third ones I wanted the umbrella to be used almost like a cane would be used in dance.  The third photograph in particular looks makes her look very uncomfortable.

So what have I learnt from this exercise.  I have learnt how import it is to make sure that not only is your model comfortable in the position she has adopted, if she isn't it will show not only in her body language but also in her face.  The other factor that is equally important is to make sure there is no extra limbs growing where they shouldn't be, the photograph of Aylssa laying down is a good example of this.

Focal Length

This exercise had me very stressed to begin with, not because I didn't understand what to do but because of circumstances totally beyond my control i.e. the weather! Christmas didn't help either as everyone was understandably very busy with their own life's to have a lot of spare time to help me out.


Finally I decided the only thing to do was to use my home studio and do the best I could.


I needed to take the same photograph but at different focal lengths to see which was the most flattering,

The first photograph was taken at 48mm I use my 50mm lens quite a bit when photographing people so I knew where to stand to get the most flattering image.

This was taken using f8 1/160's shutter speed a flash white balance and and iso of 100.
Post production work was:  The highlights were toned down slightly in camera raw as the side of her face was just a bit too bright.  I then opened elements and created a duplicate layer and evened out the white back ground using a mixture of paint brush and levels. I then flatten the image and used the unsharp tool.

This is quite  a nice image although I admit to being slightly disappointed the extra 2 mm seemed to make a bit of a difference which I wasn't really expecting.


The second photograph was taken at 18mm. I kept to the same camera settings and used the same post production on this photograph as last time.

 

This time it is quite clear to see how unflattering this focal length is when you are up close to the subject. The bottom half of her face looks longer but also the nose looks bigger and far more prominent than it really is, deep lines are also shown in the smile line.  I would not be happy showing a sitter this photograph.

The third photograph was taken at 85mm which a lot of people consider to be the ideal focal length for a portrait.  Again I kept to the same settings and post production.

This I think is my favourite photograph out of the three of them, the features are clear but not distorted as they are in the 18mm photograph, the sitter looks more relaxed as she doesn't have the camera in her face, and there is a softness to the skin.


I tried to keep the framing consistent as much as possible, although this was difficult with the limited amount of space I had available to me for this exercise.