PROJECT
1: Portrait, Scale and setting.
As I commence this course for People and Place I am awaiting the formal assessment of the Digital Photographic Practice module. This latter course has been enlightening in terms of digital workflow through to enhancement and even alteration of images to achieve a desired aim.
This first project in the People and Place course is looking at portraits where the subject knows that they are being photographed and seeks to demonstrate how one would expect a viewer to react to each photograph. The reaction they have to the weight and attention to different elements. The face in the first three images will be the main attractant and within the face the eyes, according to the brief in the course notes.
The four photographs to do are:
1/ Face, cropped in close
2/ Head and shoulders
3/ Torso, taking into account arms and hands
4/ Full figure.
I have chosen to produce the portraits indoors in studio conditions using flash and a tripod to fix the position of the camera, however in doing so I have not been very successful in the final image of full length. This is due to an incomplete set up where I have insufficient backdrop material and space.
As an entry level set of images I hope these start the course off well but I expect to learn a lot more about camera angles and resolutions to portrait problems as I go along.
The set up I chose was to have a simple white paper roll backdrop which is limited to 4 feet wide. I normally use the paper for still life images in a light tent. So I had to improvise. I am using this paper backdrop for a reason where I want to experiment with bouncing colour off the backdrop to vary its intensity. Lighting the backdrop according to the study reading book ‘Light Science and Magic’ means that the subject becomes isolated from the backdrop and they have a crisper edge detail.
In the past when I have tried to colour the backdrop I have never been very successful.
Whilst producing these images I continued to struggle colouring the backdrop as the main light source was to bright and cast light on the backdrop paper over riding the purple gel on the flash directly lighting the paper from below.
I also found that where the flash lighting the backdrop was very close to the paper at the base as it is located on the ground, it caused brighter almost white reflected light until its intensity reduced higher up the paper away from the floor. About 2 1/2 feet up. To resolve this I could bring the flash back three feet and locate it behind the subject’s feet, but this I could not do as there was insufficient room space.
After doing these images though I did go back and experiment with other smaller flash units, the result is at the end.
1/ Face, cropped in close
This is the first image that I have chosen from the ones taken. I took a number of different shots; however, this was the one that grabbed my attention:
Nikon D200 Focal length: 200mm. ISO: 200 Exposure: 1/60th sec Aperture: F11
Having researched on the internet about catch-lights and also looking at many images of other photographers work, it appears that the norm is to have catch-lights to the top of the subjects Iris, some say preferably at either ten or two o clock position.
Other information I have learnt indicates that the main light is often positioned above and to one side of the subject at 45 degrees. The nose shadow is then cast down below the nose to touch the top lip. If the nose shadow is too harsh it can be unattractive and distracting. All these images have been taken with the light to the right and above the subject at 45 degrees for the main source.
This is because the subjects face has the narrower side to the right.
I know this is because I took an initial mug shot straight on to the subject and then in Photoshop created two mirror images and compared them to the original.
The first image below was a mirror image of the left side of the face when looking at her. The second image below is obviously the normal; the third is a mirror of the right side of the face.
Left side
mirrored
When you look at these three images the one on the right shows that it is the right side of her face that is the slimmest and therefore the side I chose to light. You can see in the resulting images above and below that the main light source was placed at 45 degrees to the right. The light was sufficiently high enough to place the highlight in her eye at the 2 o clock position and on the edge of her iris.
To finish the portrait of Face cropped in close, I then added a layer above the background layer in Photoshop and converted this to a soft Gaussian blur. After doing this I chose the eraser tool to remove the layer to reveal detail in her hair, nose, eyes and mouth. The remainder, when the layer was flattened, is rendered soft which gives the skin a glowing soft character.
Finally I selected the eyes and once done used the shadows and highlights adjustment to increase the colour and lightness in the eyes. This lifts the eye detail sufficiently and if done delicately enhances the appearance well.
2/ Head and shoulders
After taking a number of pictures at this focal length which was obviously wider than the one above I chose this shot as the best:
Nikon D200 Focal length: 98mm. ISO: 200 Exposure: 1/60th sec Aperture: F7.1 As with the first image, this picture has been treated
the same with the post processing of Gaussian blur and then lifting of the
eye colour and lightness. The skin is appropriately soft and the features
are well defined. I have deliberately left the front of her clothing
blurred and the front of the skin on her chest the same. This is so as not
to distract. The Logo on the front of her T Shirt has also been cropped
out. Although her head is raised and slopes to the right I
don’t think that it does anything other than aid the composition.
After attending a professional training course on portraiture with Richard Davenport several years ago, he taught me about the portrait grid in a frame. Further more that a well composed image should not be absolute to the portrait grid just used as a guide. In this instance it is, never the less, close and gives pleasing shape to the picture.
Her joy, laugh and overall expression are absolute to her character and it capture’s her well. She does have a cheeky side which I all kids have!
The grid I am referring to has been used by artists and photographers for years and the lines that follow in the diagram are lines where the portrait should sit as a guide. You can use arms and hands in the alignment to the grid or the axis of the eyes as I have above, but only roughly. When you get it absolute the composition does work really well, but I find even when you roughly get it right even with a crop, it still works well.
The grid is as follows and I try to get subjects to fit to it using a number of techniques with my hands and fingers attracting their attention and modelling them. This I do from behind or beside the camera and well away from the person being photographed so as not to touch the subject. If I touched a person I did not know well their sense of personal space would be invaded and I could lose their respect and credibility.
The Portrait Grid
Based on the Rule of thirds this grid is dynamic in shaping a torso or head of a portrait along the main diagonal axis. Then by positioning eyes, arms and or hands where the short lines are to the corners gives a great and aesthetically pleasing image.
It looks like the following:
Portrait Grid Rule of Thirds Grid
Notable are the intersections of the lines. These intersect at 90 degrees in the portrait grid and at the same point where the nodes occur in the Rule of Thirds.
To show this further I have doubled the
grid in the frame on the right by showing
the portrait grid both ways. Look at the
position the four points/nodes
occur. They occur at the same points
where the Rule of Thirds intersect in the
diagram immediately above.
Nodes
The idea of the Rule of thirds is to act as a guide in landscape or general photography. It does not have to be followed all the time, merely as a guide to aid composition.
The portrait grid happens to have intersecting points in the same place but the mathematical diagonals that should occur in the grid at 90 degrees, should lead to the corners and offer a good guide for portraiture as well:
In summary in this picture (2 Head and Shoulders) my sitters head is tilted to the main axis line leading from top right to bottom left. Her eyes line up to the diagonal that leads to the top left from the main axis. Her shoulder leads a diagonal to the bottom right corner.
It is a good guide to follow and offers interesting possibilities; in the past it would often be used as a cropping guide to produce prints in rectangular format from a square negative in medium format films.
Not absolute there in this case, but the sitters left eye (or right as we look on) almost touches the point where the lines intersect. In the rule of thirds that would be at one of the four points of interest (nodes) where the artist/photographer would seek to place a key element of the image.
3/ Torso, taking into account arms and hands
The attention span of younger persons is shorter than others and to carry on taking lots of pictures can often be problematical if they are getting bored. Any bribes only last so long! Therefore to get the remaining two shots I had to work quite fast. This image that took into account her arms and hands was zoomed out further than the two above as gradually I am having to either move back or zoom out to get the required images for this project.
Nikon D200 Focal length: 58mm. ISO: 200 Exposure: 1/60th sec Aperture: F7.1
The portrait grid is only just in play here and it would have been better to have kept the camera at height rather than lower it as I have. Tilting the axis of the sitters head back further with a higher camera angle would have given a nearer compliance to the portrait grid. Never the less, it is again roughly in line and the leg, arms and hand angles are an extension to the lower diagonal that leads the eye to the bottom right corner from the main axis that leads from the top right to the bottom left roughly in line with her torso.
The post processing is the same as the ones above but now the logo on the T shirt is very apparent. Unless I had introduced a shawl or asked her to change into a plain T shirt I was not going to loose this distraction. With time and attention span short, I was not going to achieve that and therefore during processing I have left the T shirt logo blurred. It is still distracting.
Overall I like the image and I like the backdrop which I am working on, but the actual composition should have had more angles in the sitter, she looks a little too slumped and round shouldered. Never the less this was the best of this short sitting and it still succeeds for me because her facial expressions show how relaxed she is. Yes, as Dad, I am extremely proud of her to!
An issue I have been struggling with is the light on the backdrop. The light on the backdrop is deliberate to increase edge detail on the subject and separate them from the background.
I have consistently found this hard to light and get control of the colour that falls on it. I have been trying all sorts of combinations of thicker gels on the light source, different angles of lighting and also different light sources. All were not reacting the way I expected and the backdrops were becoming to light or much whiter than expected.
I originally conceded that it was because all the walls and ceiling in the studio were white. I thought that if I had all black walls and ceiling with minimum reflection this would enable me to control the light; however, this seemed extreme.
Realising that it was reflected light from the main source light on the backdrop that was causing the issue, I decided to introduce large sheets of wood that I had to prevent the light from the main source hitting the backdrop, this would then mean that the secondary flash lights would colour the backdrops with their coloured gels more effectively.
After some trials it worked and the colour of the backdrops increased in saturation; however where the source light was to close to the backdrop it still resulted in less colour saturation, if not appearing as a white.
My growing understanding of this means that the backdrop light needs to be a similar distance away from the backdrop as the main light does from the subject. The light scatter from this strobe means that it must be fairly (or as near as possible) ‘flat on’ to the surface of the backdrop paper.
I will seek to improve on this going forward as I still have a gradient on the backdrop with the colour becoming more saturated higher up the backdrop than lower down.
4/ Full figure.
In some respects this is where you can say this project went horribly ‘Pear Shaped’ in planning. I have now zoomed out and realised that the setting is now uncontrollable and is certainly not something I have the physical tools to deal with in the space I have in a back room.
Two images were all I was left to choose from bearing in mind that the attention span was now slim but that does not excuse bad planning! My fault entirely that the surroundings are completely insufficient.
You can even see the Snooker table that I have used on the right to block light reaching the backdrop! Curled up paper on the floor where the backdrop paper is not flat enough.
The strobe light white light spilling on the floor and as it is so close to the backdrop paper at the base, you can see how it is turning the paper reflected light white. Higher up the colour behaves and turns into a nice soft purple as I wanted!
Nikon D200 Focal length: 32 mm. ISO: 200 Exposure: 1/60th sec Aperture: F7.1
All in all, the subject succeeds, she does everything right. Weight on the back foot and her left big toe turned out, her waist is twisted to show off female curvature and her face and stance is relaxed. Her hands if she had been directed so, could be better shaped. The Photographer though has failed here! He should have a better backdrop to fit the full length portrait of a person standing and the Snooker table being used as a ‘Gobo’ should not have been in the image.
Furthermore as the paper is curled up at the base trying to repair this in Photoshop would take too long.
For a better result I should have cropped at waist level leaving the rest un-seen!
Maybe using the Rule of thirds as a guide would have helped, as the subject had no real shape in this picture, it would then look something like this:
She is aligned to the right hand vertical on the rule of thirds but still far too static and flat. There are no dynamic diagonals. Not, I hasten to add, the subjects fault! After all this is also how I have tried to crop the image and apply rules from a poor starting image!
Improvements could include a better angle next time and removing that green clothing detail at the bottom left of frame.
1/
Succeeds because:
The weight of the eye is strong and draws the viewer’s attention. The catch light that is at the 2 o clock position adds to this increasing the weight of this feature. The focus and detail of the eye is the strongest part of this close up image. The composition chosen is fairly static; however, her hair shape, creating a diagonal, relieves that tension and draws attention to her more hidden eye. The remaining features of her mouth and nose are attractively soft and whilst are more subtle than the weight of the eye still draw attention. Having erased the Gaussian blur from the top layer to reveal the actual features of the lips, nose and her hair it leaves enough detail once the reader looks there.
2/
Succeeds because:
For all of the same reasons as picture 1, but moreover because of the dynamic modelling to the portrait grid. It also reveals more of her happy fun loving character.
3/
Succeeds because:
Again it reveals her character and is pleasing to look at with a little shape. It only just succeeds as she could be viewed as sitting a little too slumped.
4/
Succeeds because:
I managed to get her full length in the space we were working in, however, as a picture it obviously doesn’t succeed! The gobo to the right that was improvised was there to prevent the light from the main light spilling onto the backdrop coloured light. This worked as you can see the backdrop has turned purple; however, it is obviously wholly inappropriate to have this and the light on the floor in the picture. Obviously the backdrop itself is to narrow!
For all four photographs though, it does show that as the field of view becomes less welcome for portraits the wider the angle of view becomes. For this project past 58mm and towards 35mm or wider, the lens starts to have a negative impact on the subject and their features. As the angle of view becomes this wide the features distort and a subject may not thank you for the results.