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

Selecting Final Images - Products

When I started this course I decided early on that I would cover product photography, as I felt that this would be one of the more marketable types of photography.

The style of the product photography is based on those taken by Chris Collins, Marin Wonnacott, and some of the others that I have looked at during this course, but in some cases I have added my own twist.

 

Amarige Shutter 1/6 Aperture f 5.6 ISO 200 Metering Pattern	This looks to me a typical product shot of a ladies perfume, like the one’s that you would see in a magazine or catalogue. I liked how the light was reflected through the perfume onto the set. The image is in focus and the exposure was set for the liquid. This image was lit using a window from the front, just above the camera position, with a white background reflecting the light back through the liquid.
Amor Amor Shutter 1/4 Aperture f 5.6 ISO 800 Metering Spot	I was very happy with this product shot, as I had included the box and tried to make it look like an advertisement that I had seen in a shop window. Because of the reflective silver surface on the box I could not risk using flash as this would have been reflected back and destroyed the image completely This image was lit using a window from the front, just above the camera position, with a white background reflecting the light back through the liquid.
Pretty in Pink Shutter 1/3 Aperture f 5.6 ISO 200 Metering Pattern	This image, of one of Lou’s perfumes, did start out level, but after adjusting the levels and increasing the saturation, I tried tilting the image, on more of a diagonal.  This made the rather ordinary image look more catchy.  This image was lit using a window from the front, just above the camera position, with a white background reflecting the light back through the liquid.
Addict Shutter 1/2 Aperture f 5.6 ISO 200 Metering Pattern	This image I like for its simplicity of the perfume bottle. This bottle I liked with the almost pear shaped appearance and the contrasting dark blue and gold colours. Like the Activist range, below, this bottle is opaque and therefore the only light is from the front of the bottle. But I wanted to capture this with existing light as opposed to flash, as I feel that although flash provides the necessary light to capture a subject, or scene, it can also destroy some of the elements of it.  The more gentle light here captured the contrasting textures of this bottle which might otherwise have been lost through the use of flash photography.
Activist Shutter 1/60 Aperture f 16 ISO 100 Metering Spot	This is one of the images from my first product photo shoot, in which I brought a number of items that I thought would be marketed via product photography. I liked the different shapes, and how together they matched, but also were very different. With the products being black, with white text this was also a challenge, both at the moment of capture, but later in the post production stage.
Obsession Shutter 1/2 Aperture f 5.6 ISO 200 Metering Pattern	This image of a man’s aftershave I chose because of the lines of the bottle and the different textures and tones. Like the ladies perfume, at the top of this selection I liked how the light was reflected through the aftershave onto the set. The image is in focus and the exposure was set for the liquid. This image was lit using a window from the front, just above the camera position, with a white background reflecting the light back through the liquid.
Quality First Shutter 1/60 Aperture f 11 ISO 100 Metering Spot	This image I like because of the shape of the group of bottles and how the J2O bottle is arranged in front of the other unnamed bottles placing it in the centre and in the viewers eye.  Again this image is one that I sketched prior to the photo shoot, and like the image below, I had already decided on a name for this image. I was happy with the photograph from the photo shoot, but I wanted to add something to catch the viewers eye, so I looked at adding a background to the image.  Adding the background was the easy bit the making it show through the bottles was the fun bit, but I think it works well and gives the impression that the bottles were, in fact, photographed against the artificial background, which adds to the appeal of this image.
Head and Shoulders above the Rest Shutter 1/60 Aperture f 11 ISO 100 Metering Spot	This image I liked because of the shape and symmetry formed by the three bottles of J2O.  Prior to this product shoot I had planned how this shot might look, and the title for the shot, and I am very happy how the photograph came out. Although I was happy with the actual photograph, I wanted to add something in the post production stage to lift the finished work off the page.   I feel that the finished work is something that could easily be seen in a magazine promoting the J2O product line, especially at this time of year (summer) with the predicted weather.
J2o Storm Shutter 1/60 Aperture f 11 ISO 100 Metering Spot	This image is based on another of Chris Collin’s work. I like it because how the bottle stands out against the artificial background, but at the same time they both look part of the same image. I particularly like the reflections on the bottle which you can only get with glass and the contrast between the shiny surface of the glass and the more matt finish of the labels on the bottle. This image nicely contrasts with the previous image of the sunny atmosphere of the Head and Shoulders above the Rest image, depicting the J2O bottle against a stormy sky.
Let it Pour Shutter 1/60 Aperture f 11 ISO 100 Metering Spot	This image I particularly like as there is a nice diagonal from the bottle, through the glass, down to the hand. The reflections on the glass and the bubbles in the liquid look effective as the liquid was poured. This image was inspired by an article in Digital Photo magazine, and although the original image, in the magazine, was against a black background, I feel that this interpretation of the idea worked better with the white background and lighting illuminating the liquid and showing the bubbles created in the glass as the liquid was poured better than in the magazine.
Corkscrew Climbers Shutter 1/60 Aperture f 11 ISO 100 Metering Spot	This photograph started off as a simple product shot of a bottle of ‘wine’. Having seen some of Chris Collins’ work I though that I would add something new to this product shot.  One think with this wine is a screw cap, which I thought is very handy for us, but might put the humble corkscrews out of a job, so with this in mind I worked on this image. I am very happy with this image as it was exposed for the liquid, and I matched up the artificial background to match this. This image has been selected for an exhibition at the Burton College.
Run Free Shutter 1/60 Aperture f 11 ISO 100 Metering Spot	For this image I had a number of ideas, but after exploring some of them, I opted for this one based on the work of Martin Wonnacott.  One thing I like about the finished work is the surreal look of it where the trainer is shown as if running, but without it’s wearer ! Images like this catch people’s eye and hold their attention longer that some other adverts, and it is this that can make the difference. The background was taken near Catton and motion blur added to create the atmosphere of the action.