For this project i was asked to create a series of portraits which use a range of techniques and processes. We need to use a different camera and lighting equipment.

What is portraiture?

Portraiture is when the photos are mainly taken of a person, either up close or far away. When taking portraiture photos there are usually many people behind the camera setting up the lighting on the models face or telling the model what poses to do. In portraiture there are two different types, there are formal and informal. Formal is when people tell the model what to do as in how to pose, people do their hair and makeup and with proper lighting, whereas Informal photos is when you take a photo of someone unexpectedly without the person getting ready for the photo its straight on without a warning.

Formal photo example:

This is a photo I found of a formal portrait, you can see she is in a pose and she has lighting set on her face from behind the camera.

Informal photo example:

This is an informal photo, you can see in this photo that there is a person taking this without the others knowing, the people in this photo aren’t posing for the camera they are just doing what they are doing.

Expose Triangle:

This is a triangle that shows people the different settings on camera to take a good photo. A big Aperture is a small number and a small aperture is a big number. This triangle helps people to also know what settings to use on whatever topic they are doing with the photos.

Camera Sim website:

Camera Sim is a website where people can edit photos to get the perfect photo, you can take photos with the “snap photo” button on the bottom right and when you take the picture it will show you a photo that matches all your editing, the second photo is an example of this. The website will tell you what you did right and wrong and what you can improve in the camera settings, this is on the right side as you can see in the second photo above the smiley face.

Shallow DoF Landscapes Inspired by Bill Armstrong

Get in Closer Inspired By Robert Cappa

This is an example of a photo i took on the website, the settings i did for the end photo was; lighting=sunny, distance=1m, focal length=23mm, mode=M, ISO=100,Aperture=f/10, Shutter speed=1/80.

Natural Light Portraits – Gold Reflector

Each of these are different photos but with the same one light in different positionings, in the first photo the main lighting is on the the bottom right side of her face, the second photo the main lighting is on the right side of her face and the last photo the lighting is mainly behind her. For the lighting in these photos we had two people hold an object called a reflector which is how she has a golden light on her face, it was a gold reflector and people where holding it towards her face so that it would shine where we would want it to.

Dynamic lighting/Coloured lights photos:

The lighting in the first three photos were used by two lights called the strobe light, we also used coloured gel paper and put it over the strobe light to make the lighting different colours. I also used a black background to make the photos bolder with the lighting. In the last photo we used a white light from the LED wand or the strobe light and we only put this light on one side of the mannequin’s face. The last photo is more of a intense photo compared to the first three as one side of the face you cant see whereas the other side is bright and its the only part you can see. The first three photos, the lights are properly on the models faces so you can see their whole face properly but with different coloured lightings.

Photoshoot at home:

For these 6 photos, i used mainly a LED wand with different colours, but then i also did a white phone light with the wand to make the colour brighter on the models. For these photos i was focusing on different poses for the models to do. When i was taking these photos there was a person behind the camera holding the lighting either above the models or to the side of them, or the model actually holding the light with their hands like in the first photo.

Refined Ballerina

When i was taking these photos we used a black thin blanket for the background as we needed to make the background black to make the Ballerina photos more clear. The lightings we used in these photos only came from one LED light which was on the colour white or peach the whole time, i only used the white light for the ballerina photos because i wanted my cousin to be in main lighting so that in the photos you can only be able to see her as the main person. We tried many different poses in this photoshoot, for example; the first photo she was balancing on her shoes while her hands where on the floor with her leaning back. The Model and the other people who where helping out behind the camera also gave my cousin some poses for her to do.

On some of the photos you can tell what composition i am in, for some of the photos i had to lay down on the ground to get the perfect angle for her shoes, some other photos i was standing on the bed to get a high shot. For the gestures in these photos we mainly did a straight posing face as we thought it would look the best with the lighting and the poses. We also did some side profiles to get some different face movements in the photos.

Whole Project Evaluation

WWW: For this project i think what went well was the photoshoots with my cousins because i feel like the photos i took suited the topics, the lighting for the photos turned out really good as well. The natural light photos turned out well with the light from the sun on the model, we also used a reflector which made the lighting better on the Models face.

EBI: i could have done another photoshoot but making it very different to the photoshoots i always do, i could have done a photoshoot with my cousins outside.