Selecting Final Images - Portraits

Below are the portraits that I have selected for my portfolio on this section of the course, which I have chosen for capturing the character of the person which I feel is very important, exposure, focusing and general composure.

For these portraits I based the idea on the work of David Bailey, who is a photographer who I heard of before any other photographer, and who’s work I have always liked, who is still today a popular photographer.

 

Eric Shutter 1/45 Aperture f 5.6 ISO 100 Metering Manual	To me this portrait of Eric is nicely composed and cropped, and shows Eric's character.  The image is catchy, with good focusing and a good depth of field, concentrating the views attention on Eric’s face, via his gesture with his hands.  Eric's eyes are sharp and I was happy that there was no reflection of the lighting in Eric's glasses, which is a common worry with portraits.  Some photographers remove the glass lenses from the glasses prior to the shoot. This image was lit using a beauty dish from the front, just above the camera position, with a white background, in much the same way as David Bailey would have taken the portrait.
Suzy Shutter 1/60 Aperture f 5.6 ISO 100 Metering Manual	I was very happy with this portrait of Suzy, with a good head and shoulder style portrait.  The image is clear and well focused, with Suzy's eyes clearly in focus with good catch lights, again with a good depth of field. I cropped this image differently to the others so that I could include Suzy's necklace with the paw print, because we know how much Suzy loves animals, she actually runs a small pet shelter, and I felt that to crop this off would do Suzy and her passion for animals an injustice. This image was lit using a beauty dish from the front, just above the camera position, with a white background, in much the same way as David Bailey would have taken the portrait.
Jim Shutter 1/45 Aperture f 5.6 ISO 100 Metering Manual	Jim is a more advanced photographer, and this pose seemed the most appropriate, with the fingers forming a frame through which we can see Jim's right eye.  This frame forms a frame within the frame of the image.  The point of focus of this image is Jim's eye, which is about centre in the frame and in clear focus, drawing the views eye to Jim's right eye.  The catch light adds more interest to the picture. This image was lit using a beauty dish from the front, just above the camera position, with a white background, in much the same way as David Bailey would have taken the portrait.
Pippa Shutter 1/45 Aperture f 5.6 ISO 100 Metering Manual	This portrait of Pippa, taken slightly to the right, shows Pippa with her sense of humour.  This style of portrait photography, where the portrait subject sits looking away from the photographer, then turns their attention to the position of the photographer is a different approach which I wanted to try.  This portrait has good focusing.  I have cropped this portrait tightly in a similar way to David Bailey. This image was lit using a beauty dish from the front, just above the camera position, with a white background, in much the same way as David Bailey would have taken the portrait.
Ruth Shutter 1/60 Aperture f 5.6 ISO 100 Metering Manual	For Ruth, I wanted a similar idea to Pippa, with Ruth looking to her left, almost over her left shoulder.  The focusing is clear with Ruth's eyes in focus, but unlike everyone else from the first portrait shoot, Ruth does not have the catch lights in her eyes, possibly due to the angle to the camera at which Ruth is facing. I wanted to capture Ruth's hair, but I was limited by the crop as to how much of Ruth's hair I could include within the portrait. This image was lit using a beauty dish from the front, just above the camera position, with a white background, in much the same way as David Bailey would have taken the portrait.
Steve D Shutter 1/60 Aperture f 6.3 ISO 100 Metering Manual	For Steve there was another approach, whereby Steve used a film back placed in front of his face and looked through the aperture.  Like the frame created with Jim's hands on his portrait, this camera back formed a frame within the frame of the portrait, with the emphasis on Steve's eyes.  This approach I thought captured Steve well.  Like Eric, Suzy and Jim, Steve's portrait was taken with the camera directly in front of Steve, pointing directly at him.  This image was lit using a beauty dish from the front, just above the camera position, with a white background, in much the same way as David Bailey would have taken the portrait.
Rebecca Shutter 1/60 Aperture f 4.5 ISO 800 Metering Spot	The portrait of Rebecca was taken at about 90 degrees to her as she posed with the lighting from the window, reflected up providing a similar effect to a fill in flash.  This portrait I feel captured Rebecca's personality.  And although I have not intended any portraits with the subject holding a camera, I felt this one worked well.  Again the focusing was good, with a shallow depth of field blurring out the background, without any post production work required to achieve this. This image was lit using a window behind Rebecca, providing a back light, but the camera’s spot metering compensated for this giving the portrait a more natural look.
Steve B Shutter 1/20 Aperture f 4.5 ISO 800 Metering Spot	This portrait of Steve is a typical portrait with the camera facing the subject and Steve looking directly back at the camera.  The focusing was good again with a shallow depth of field to isolate Steve from the white background.  The attention is drawn to Steve's eyes. This image was lit using a window to Steve’s left, which was reflected off a light coloured wall, to Steve’s right, which illuminated the right side of Steve’s face, without the use of any flash.  Sometimes I feel that the harshness of flash can sometimes ruin an image by destroying the atmosphere. Eric kindly held up a reflector to soften the light from the window, again providing a more natural look to this portrait.
James Shutter 1/30 Aperture f 5.6 ISO 100 Metering Manual	For this portrait of Jim, I wanted to get a more formal approach to the portrait, which I am happy to say that I achieved.  This I feel is a more popular and traditional style of portrait, although looking at some of the portrait photographer’s shops and stalls, more fun style portraits, like the one of Eric, seem to be more popular today.  The focusing was on Jim’s eyes and the narrow depth of field prevented anything from the background showing.  In this pose Jim stood with his right shoulder slightly nearer to me with his arms folded.  The image was lit using a beauty dish from the front, just above the camera position, with a white background, in much the same way as David Bailey would have taken the portrait.
Suzy Looking Shutter 1/60 Aperture 5.6 ISO 100 Metering Manual	For this portrait of Suzy, I wanted to capture Suzy looking away from the camera, but to a lesser degree than the portraits of Ruth and Pippa.  This angle shows more of Suzy’s hair which is one thing ladies are always very proud of. Again the focusing was on Suzy’s eyes with a wider depth of field to maintain a good depth of field to keep Suzy’s face in focus.  The catch lights in her eyes add to the interest in this image.  Also Suzy’s heart shaped ear ring adds more to the image. The portrait was lit using a beauty dish from the front, just above the camera position, with a white background, in much the same way as David Bailey would have taken the portrait.
Rebecca Looking Shutter 1/30 Aperture f 4.5 ISO 800 Metering Spot	For this one of Rebecca I wanted to take the portrait more towards the front of her, where she was hiding behind the camera. This I like because it shows Rebecca’s personality again. Like the other portrait of Rebecca, the focusing was good, with a shallow depth of field blurring out the background, without any post production work required to achieve this. This portrait was again lit using a window behind Rebecca, providing a back light, but the camera’s spot metering compensated for this giving the portrait a more natural look.

Again I would like to take the opportunity to thank all those who faced the camera from the lens side, rather than the view finder side and gave me some brilliant portraits and for their support.  After all, what is a portrait without a subject ?

I would like to have taken the portrait of Joe Fogg from our group, but he was away on the days where I could take his portrait.  Hopefully next time Joe !

As for self portraits, because someone said about not seeing my portrait, two reasons; 1)   Self portraits never look good   2)   I cannot afford a new lens