Exercise: Portrait - scale and setting

For this exercise I need to take a tight framing of a face with at least part of the outline of the head cropped by the frame, then to pull back for a second image to include the head and shoulders in view, pulling back again (either physically or by zooming out), to take a third image to include the torso, deciding to crop below or above the waistline, and what to do with the subjects hands remembering that these can catch the eye in certain positions, and so alter the way in which the viewer's attention will be affected, Also, does the background play a part in the composition. Finally, pull back for a fourth image, this time a full length portrait. The framing will mainly depend on whether I decide to have the subject standing or sitting.

Images to take:

• face, cropped in close
• head and shoulders
• torso, taking into account arms and hands
• full figure

When I've processed the images, and selected those I consider the most successful from each of the four subject areas, I'm to review the images and consider how a viewer will react to each portrait in terms of weight of attention to different elements. 

I plan to take the image of my daughter when doing her school homework, hoping to capture her concentration in at least one of the images.

Finding a suitably interesting and attractive setting for a portrait has delayed my starting the exercise due to the time of year and lack of natural light, and enthusiasm to go out in the cold after a long day at work and of course awful weather at the weekends. So my subject is a subject to get me started on the module, my husband would of course argue that he is of course an interesting subject.

I began with tight framing on the face in which at least part of the outline of the head is cropped by the frame:

Close up on face - no background can be seen at all, total focus of attention on the subject. Rather than wonder what the subject is looking at, the expression of the subject is more noticeable as there is nothing else to consider, this could be a good distance to capture emotion of the subject.

Head & shoulders - The focus of attention is on the subject with very little of the background seen, which is a little blurred due to using the zoom lens. It's not clear what the subject is doing or what he's looking at, maybe head & shoulder shots are good for when the subject is looking at the camera as I'm left wondering what is out of shot in the left bottom corner.

A closer crop - the focus of attention is on the background but detail is still seen on the background, it's a neither here nor there shot for me as I'm cant see enough of what the subject is looking at or what's in the background.

Full shot - the focus of attention is on the subject sitting in a room, not just on the subject, there are items in the room that can be seen clearly and add an interesting element to the image. For this sort of shot, symbolism can be used to link the subject to the surroundings creating a complete statement of the subject or situation.