Assignment one: A Portrait.

Finally I have arrived at the first assignment.After quite a delay Christmas and life got in the way I was looking forward to this assignment as portraiture is what I enjoy the most.  However I was taken completely out of my comfort zone for this, as I needed to produce 5 - 7 photographs all in different styles where as I prefer to work in my home studio where I have complete control.  Maybe I am a control freak when it comes to my photography and maybe this is something I may have to investigate at a later stage.

This got me thinking about different ideas and who to photograph, finally I settled on my husband, not because I know him the best but because there are so many sides to his personality which makes him a  good subject.
 Husband, driving instructor and dog lover being just a few.

The first photograph is a casual one taken in the garden with the dog, who always wants to be part of the photograph when you don't want her to be but is the complete opposite when you do want her in the photograph.

It was quite a bright day when I took this but by kneeling down I got a better photograph than both of us standing up with the dog sitting.  I took this at F13 with a shutter speed of 1/125s daylight white balance and iso 200.  The post processing done was a slight crop to the top as it looked a bit ragged across the top, i lightened the shadows and adjusted the brightness.

The second photograph and I am slightly back in my comfort zone, this was just a straight head and shoulders photograph, the sort used by businesses on their websites to show who works for them. As Alan is a driving instructor this can also be used on his driving standards agency badge which is displayed in his car and has a photograph on it.  I used a soft box placed to the right hand side and a second light with nothing attached to it to hi light the back drop.
The settings used were F9  with a shutter speed of 1/160's iso 100 and a flash white balance.  Post production consisted of cropping a bit off the top and right hand side to even it up slightly. I used a duplicate layer to adjust the levels around the mid tones and also carried out some spot healing to the face.
The image was then flatten and the un sharp tool used.

The third photograph and I am feeling much happier. I had been brought a book called photographing shadow and light (details on my book list) and this book was inspiring particularly the photographs of the rapper 50 cents.  I decided I wanted to try and re create one of the images and besides the obvious differences between my husband and 50 cents I was very pleased with the overall image.

This time I changed and used a piece of black material as a back drop but the lights were set up as before with the soft box slightly further forwards this time and also I used a black reflector to the right hand side to keep the shadow in place. I only wanted a small part of his face lit.  The second light was again used as a background light.  F9 1/160s and iso 100 with the white balance set at flash as normal were my working settings.  In post production I adjusted the levels using the mid tones and shadows to make it slightly darker than it was originally. I finished by using the unsharp mask.

I admit I have cheated slightly with photograph four in that it was taken in the same sitting as three, but I wanted a black and white cropped in tightly head shot and decided to take advantage of having every thing set up to take it.  As the settings are the same as the photograph above I won't put all the settings here again.

This time though I did the post production in light room three, this is something I have had for several years but never really used and I have decided its about time I used it more. I did the black and white conversion first then made a strong contrast using the point curve. Finally I added a slight vignette to the corners to draw attention to the face. 

Photograph five and back out of my comfort zone I go, As I stated earlier Alan is a driving instructor and he wanted a photograph of him in his car, it didn't need to show all the car the main part was showing the name of the company he works for, this way it can be used on the company website.  This was taken on a very bright day and I had trouble with the sun on the top left hand side of the photograph where the sky and the rear window are burnt out. I used F8 1/125 second  shutter speed with the normal 200 iso and daylight white balance. In post production I cropped the photograph to remove as much of the burnt out area as I could, before  adjusting the brightness and using the un sharp mask.

Well that's five photographs completed for the first part of this course, Now to access what I am happy with and what I feel I need to do more work on.    Over all i am happy with the photographs taken in the studio, they have come out as I wanted, maybe the head and shoulders is a bit 'safe' but it would have  a commercial use and shows a style of photograph even if its not particularly exciting.  I would like to do the ones with the hat again, not because I am unhappy with them but I would like to make further adjustments like a waistcoat and maybe a pocket watch in his hand with a chain attached.  

The outside ones are where I feel i need to push my self further. I aim to do this by taking my camera out more with the idea of taking more portrait style photographs outside, the idea time for this will be the spring when we have an abundance of poppy fields and bluebells in the woods not far from where I live.  I will also re visit one of my books on using existing light for ideas.

Well that's it time for sending it to my tutor and awaiting his comments. 

Tutor Feedback.


Well the tutors feedback has arrived and overall it is positive.  There are a couple of areas for improvement which I expected, the lighting on the head and shoulders or passport photograph is a bit flat and needs some contrast added.  He also said he would like to have seen the hat lifted slightly on photograph three but I think that is more personal preference than it needs to be done, The idea I had in my head was always to have the eyes almost hidden to give an area of mystery.