Exercise - varying the pose

I've cut out several images from magazines that demonstrate different poses, positions and poses that suggest confidence, attitude, silliness, seduction, stress and emotions

I attempted to copy the poses I found in the magazines with my daugher

The magazine cutting on the left shows a pose that involves the subject in a turned away pose, looking back over the shoulder with the hand on the hip, adding the other hand to the side of the face. This is probably quite a grown up pose and one that could possibly be best suited to subjects over a certain age.

This magazine clipping is very posed, the intention behind the pose is a happy and fun, this isn't a pose to adopt easily, I needed to encourage Sophie to relax and pose how she felt comfortable.

This magazine clipping shows the subject with hands on hips, a tilted body and a non-smiling head on a tilt. I reminded Sophie to adopt an expression showing attitude, which I think she managed quite well
What I learned from this exercise was that the posture, limb positions, head position and facial expression demonstrate the 'feel' of the image and reflect what is being described or advertised. 

Exercise - focal length

Same framing on the face but with different focal lengths. The lens I used was a Sigma 17-70 1:2.8.4, as the exercise is looking at telephoto images, the focal lengths I was aiming for was 70mm, 35mm and 50mm, not much of a telephoto range but my other lens, which goes up to 300mm, doesn't have as good an aperture as my Sigma 17-70 (which I use most of the time), my other lens covers the same focal lengths so I chose to stick with the Sigma.

The proportions will be different, and in general, the longer the focal length, the more attractive the face will appear,

70mm these images were taken at the end of the photoshoot when Sophie was getting restless, I decided to change my position to get a different angle, which resulted in different looking images, if there was more of a background and the focal length longer, the background would have been more blurred. Compared to the photo's taken with a shorter focal length, the longer lens has resulted in a more flattering image that doesn't look flat and the emphasis is clearly on the person.

50mm these images, although a shorter focal length, still look attractive but not quite as nice as the 70mm

35mm pulling back to 35mm shows more in the frame but with less emphasis on the face, the photo doesn't look attractive as a portrait of the face, the eye is drawn to the surroundings and not the intended subject.

Exercise - review a portrait sequence

The shoot was set up using a tripod and the natural light of a large side window. I tilted the bracket on the tripod in order to take portrait orientated images. I placed my subject on the floor in the window with a plant in the background. My lens was a 17-17mm, had I more space I would have preferred to use the zoom more in order to blur the background, as it was, these images were taken at around 28mm.

i found that using the tripod in order to talk to the subject to avert the eyes from the camera an interesting technique as it allowed me to talk naturally to the subject and distract from the camera, the use of an automatic shutter would have been useful as it would eliminate the distraction from looking at the camera display to check the image.

Sophie is a very expressive model and quite easy to get expressions out of, also she's my daughter so she found it easy to follow my instructions. The images were taken too quickly to take notes in between frames but my thoughts were to check the subject was in the frame (especially as I'd zoomed in quite close), but also as my model is quite expressive and moves quite quickly, I needed to check that images weren't blurred by movement. The shutter speed used was 1/13 sec.

Whilst I was shooting the images I thought would be the best were:

because when I was taking the photo's, Sophie was tilting her head a little and playing with her hair, which I thought would look nice, as it turned out the shutter speed wasn't fast enough to capture this movement well enough and the angle of the image just dosen't look right with the angle of the face.

I felt the best images were:

My best photo from the selection is seen below, I created a virtual copy and using Lightroom 5, made a few changes to highlight just the face and increased the blue of the model's eyes. It's quite a stark look for a young face maybe but I wasn't altogether happy with the background:

Exercise - Eye contact and expression

There is an important difference in the overall look and character of a portrait between images in which the subject is looking straight to camera, and those in which the subject is looking away, even if only slightly.

During the photo shoot I'd asked Sophie t look at the camera and at me to the side of the camera as I was using a triopd, which I found a really good technique for getting 'away' shots. It's much easier to engage in conversation with the sitter when talking from the side of the camera, gaining more natural shots I envisage.

The images below are taken in an almost identical pose apart from moving the eyes from the camera to 'away'. It was interesting to notice the quite dramatic difference with such a subtle change although very slight but has quite a different effect on the image, looking directly at the camera suggests engagement with the camera/photographer but also shows an inner strength and an attitude. The other image of the model looking away could suggest many things, disengagement, shyness, sadness or boredom.

Exercise - An active project

For this exercise I needed to photographed my husband talking about the new iphone holder he was attaching to his bike. I took the photo's outdoors in the doorway of the garage. I set a fast shutter speed in order to capture any movement and with an aim of taking lots of images so as not to capture a mouth open expression.

Carl started to describe the phone case 

There is a little movement seen in the hands, so a faster shutter speed would have been preferable

Carl was still looking at the phone whilst talking about the new case

After I'd a few images I asked Carl to look up at me while he was talking and I got the best shot of the set, the finger pointing toward the phone case and an expression suggesting he was in the middle of speaking

I've learned that clear instructions are needed for a shoot like this when the subject might be looking down whilst describing an object they may be talking about  

Exercise - experimenting with light

4 - 6 standard head and shoulder portraits that are very different in lighting using the same subject for each photo.

This image of Sophie was taken using a reflector (silver side) and flash gun pointing straight up to the ceiling in a small room with a plain wall in the background. It looks a little washed out but I think it suits the picture as it contrasts with the blue of her dress and eyes. Using the flash gun and reflector has helped eliminate shadows under the chin.

This photo was taken in the same room as the one above but without a flash gun, which gives it the warmer tone.  The lighting was a tungsten overhead light and a reflector was used to help with the under neck shadows but there is still shadow from the hair across the right eye. 

This photo was taken using the natural light coming in from a window, the light is quite soft so the shadows are quite subtle, the shadow side of the face is clear to see so the amount of shadow is ok for this image I think

Exercise: Thinking about location

Six very different settings or backgrounds which could be used effectively and attractively for either a whole body or torso portrait.

Cathedral from bailgate - always a popular spot for tourists to take a photo where the cathedral fits into the frame. This area does get very busy so a quiet time would need to be considered.

Door way - attractive background, subject could either stand away from the door nearer the camera or casually lean against a pillar of the door, alternatively the frame could be shot a little further back so that the subjects are to the side of the door.

Arboretum walkway - I image this to be a nice spot for a photo of a couple, I suppose because the location suggests walking ahead....into the future? 

Park pool garden - a pretty scene with a couple of trees to frame the subject and an interesting background, if I'd stepped to the right a little I could also get the church spire located more to the right from behind the leaves of the tree but that also would depend on the time of year, in winter this scene would look quite different

River view - this image was taken from a suspension bridge to capture the curve of the river the the edge of the park to the left, this would be tricky on a windy day as there is quite a lot of movement in the bridge

The straits, bottom of steep hill - this again is a popular spot for tourists as it incorporates part of the cathedral and the start of the cultural area with its boutiques and cobbles. The time of day would need to be considered as there is a sharp shadow that falls right accros this scene, so a cloudy day would be required.

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.