Exercise 1.01 – Portrait scale and setting

Well I started off with good intentions, with a visit to see our daughter and intending to take a series of images for this exercise – not a problem until I looked at the results – nothing wrong with the subject but the background was horrendous. Too cluttered by half, with too much distracting from the subject, so it’s back to the drawing board and read up on how it should be done first.

Talking of reading up, I’ve ordered and received books on reading list sent with the course material and I’ve just noticed that the list refers to ‘The Art of Photography’, which I’ve already completed. Guess I’ll have to phone OCA to sort it out. Anyway, I found a list for this course in the Key resources of the website, so it’s something to be going on with until after the weekend.

Having spoken to OCA and they sent the latest reading list. In the meantime I’ve looked at the books I bought and they’re worth keeping so nothing too much has been lost. I ordered and received boos from the list and had a quick browse through them.

While waiting for reading lists / books etc. I looked at the National Portrait gallery site - http://www.npg.org.uk/learning/digital/interviews-with-artists-and-sitters.php for ideas. Suggestions I’ve found include:

· Interact with the sitters – make them feel at ease with the experience and tell them why and what you’re trying to achieve. This comes across from many of the artists

· Make it a personal thing, to produce an image which shows the personality, not just the physical attributes.

· Try to show what the person is really like, not how he / she would like to be seen. This may be controversial as the sitter would normally pose to say ‘This is who I am and this is what I look like’, so the proposal may not be well received.

· Direct the sitter on pose, position etc.

· Define the type of portrait that’s required – does it need to be in context with the sitter’s work or fame? If so does it need to be taken on location? Is it a close up to show character; torso / full length to show the body beautiful?

Then there’s a question of backgrounds / props:

· It seems to me that many of the monochrome portraits use a very dark background, to give the sitter’s lighter features more attention. Many of the colour portraits use a lighter background (even white), to allow the darker sitter to stand out from it.

· The background can be used to ‘tell a story’ with the sitter just a part of it.

· If the portrait is to be in context, place interesting objects within the frame, to add interest / mystery to the image.

Further reading provided other pointers (Primarily, ‘Photographing people’, Michael Freeman; and ‘Complete guide to Photography’, John Hedgecoe) which should be taken into consideration:

· Planning – Who, when, where, what and why. Generally we’d know who the subject is, but the other pointers can be used to plan the best place, time of day, the type of portrait and what the finished portrait is to be used for. That way the ‘how’ can be considered, so the subject, venue and equipment can be prepared before the shoot. And always try for a contingency, in case things change.

· Check the venue – what is the housekeeping like – does it need cleaning / tidying? Look for reflective surfaces which may impact on the image. Is it too cluttered? Are additional props needed? Consider the lighting requirements.

· Type of lens and depth of field. The subject should stand out from the surroundings, so a wide aperture may be a way of achieving this.

· Consider the lighting – generally a soft light works best, so additional lights should be diffused.

· Rapport – essential from the word go. Without this the shoot just won’t work.

· Expression – How is the subject to be portrayed and how do we get that look?

· Pose and camera position. The range is enormous, but they should be discussed and varied.

· Composition – look for any obvious distractions (lampposts protruding from the head etc.). Is the composition to your satisfaction? Is the lighting right?

· Take lots of frames. With digital cameras there’s no excuse, so take as many as you can. Personally I like continuous shooting mode, as the best images seem to be when the subject has relaxed after the initial shot. It also allows the sitter to relax, as the pose doesn’t need to be held for so long.

So with these points in mind we repeated the exercise, this time during her visit to our house.

I used the conservatory for taking the images, with a blanket over the patio doors to cover any distractions from indoors. The lighting in the conservatory was good for these images – it was an overcast day with a suggestion of light from the East (I enhanced this with a daylight lamp from the same side).

I used the Nikon D300s with the 18-200 mm VR lens (VR turned off). The camera was tripod mounted, in Aperture priority with 3 frame, 1 stop bracketing and centre weighted average metering. ISO was on automatic with a maximum shutter speed of 1/40 sec.

The first image was composed as a close up, ISO 320, 200 mm zoom, f/16, 1/40 sec. The fairly small aperture gave better focus across the whole image.

This is my favourite image of the shoot – mainly because of the detail which can be seen in her eyes. For me this is a much more personal image than the following three and shows more of the person that she is.

For the second image – head and shoulders – I positioned the camera at a lower angle.

ISO 200, 52 mm zoom, f/4.8, 1/100 sec. The wider aperture was used to throw the background out of focus.

Asking her to angle her head slightly worked well for this pose. Again her eyes are the focal point of the image.

For the third image – torso – I asked her to turn her head towards the light, then look at the camera. ISO 200, 26mm zoom, f/3.8, 1/160 sec.

A wide aperture was used so that the blanket was thrown out of focus. I changed the camera position so that it was slightly above her which I think has produced an interesting image.

It doesn’t have the same arresting eye / mouth features of the previous two images. She looks more at ease in this framing – more comfortable with herself.

The final framing – full length – was again taken with her seated and with the camera slightly elevated. The camera and lens settings were exactly the same as the previous image, but with the camera moved further away.

I think this is the least flattering image of the session. She looks more tense and obviously posing for a photograph.

Where all the preceding images make her seem at ease with the shoot, this one looks too ‘posed’ – whether that’s to do with the type of framing, or my naivety, or her being uncomfortable with the situation I don’t know. I do know it’s something I’ll have to work on.

The feet have been cut off in the framing – this was intentional, as the coloured socks would have been a distraction from the rest of the image.

I think the camera positioning could have been better here too, so that the chair is square in the frame. That’s down to not taking enough notice of faults in the setting up. Maybe the next exercise will make me take more notice of this type of error!