Portraits Round 2

Since my last post I have been working on some more natural light portraits, corporate/ business portraits and editorial/ narrative portraits. I have had a lot of fun getting my friends to model for me and finding different locations to shoot in. I love being able to work outside in natural light but for some of the shots I had to work indoors with fluorescent light or studio light. In this post I'll share some of my favorites and the challenges I had with some.

Natural Light Portraits

this is my friend Erica-- I loved the way the light fell on her hair in this one and she has a nice smile, but I think was a little too low to take this shot. The angle of her chin looks uncomfortable... 

This was my absolute favorite shot of her. We were having fun and the light was just beautiful. She is relaxed and her hands and shoulders make a nice shape

 

This is my friend Tracie -- we used the same location as Erica's shot -- its just right outside the library. I love the angle of Tracie's chin and the shapes that her elbows make. 

This is the one I turned in for class. I loved the angles and the way the colors and light brought out Tracie's eyes. One thing that would have made it just a little better is to have had her bring the right arm forward a little so we could see the shoulder and the fingers -- but still love it. 

Editorial Portraits

(these are supposed to tell a little about the person) 

I loved the lighting and composition in this one. The thing that really tells me a little about Erica is the soft smile and the denim shirt -- she is a country girl and loves the outdoors

Tracie works in the library with me. I actually had to get down on the floor to get the top of the shelves and I had to crop her feet out to make it work, but I thought it was fun. 

This is my friend Mark who also works at the library with me. When I told him that I was taking and editorial portrait, he wanted to get one in front of the sign. Our first try had him standing to the right of the sign -- but there were too many people crossing behind us.I liked this pose much better and loved the reflection in the windows behind him. 

This was the money shot. These flowers are right in front of the library. Mark said he wanted to stop and smell the flowers and we went with it. I got on the ground in front of the flower box to get this angle. We both loved it ...

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This was the first editorial shot that I took. This is Fiona. I took this originally thinking it would work as a documentary shot, but the having the climbing wall in it tells us something about her.  I loved the light and how happy she looks. 

This is my friend Sam.  We saw the caterpillar and had to get a picture on it. Sam is fun loving and works with kids so I felt this was a perfect editorial portrait.

Corporate Portraits

These have been by far the most difficult portraits for me to compose and shoot so far. The first few I shot using the available fluorescent light (and some help from friends to hold my background material). The last and sharper ones were done in the studio...

At our business meetng, we took an imprompto group portrait. I was up on a chair and had to use a wide angle lens. Surprisingly everyone was looking at me. For the most part I like this shot a lot. If I had the chance to do it again, I would have moved the chair on the left a bit so that we could see the entire banner ...

This is my friend Maureen. The light and the background worked well and I loved the pose, unfortunately with only 1 fluorescent light as my source, it didn't turn out quite as sharp as I was hoping -- but this was a good learning experience for me...

This is my friend Brenda -- we used the same lighting and same set up. I think her having the blue gave the camera a little more to focus on -- so this is sharper than some of my others..

This is Megan. I shot this at the same location as the above portraits and was using overhead fluorescent lights as my source. One thing I learned from taking this portrait, is if you have a dark haired person, using a dark background washes them out unless you have more lights. In studio or with a reflector I may have been able to correct this. I like this shot -- we took it as an impulse trying something more relaxed and fun and in front of a light wall and it worked ... 

                 

Took this shot of Mark against a wooden door in the library. He looks a little too relaxed for a corporate portrait, but this was the best one I got with the again fluorescent lighting. I also should have removed the name tag, but not too bad for a 5 minute session....

These two portraits are of my fellow classmate Chelsea. We took these in the studio where we could control the light. Its amazing how much more professional they look. And believe it or not its the same fabric  as in the shots above of Maureen and Brenda

These last 3 shots are of Marissa -- a model who came into the studio for out class. I had her move around to get the different angles of her face and shoulders. We used a soft box to the right and a small light on the ground to the left to get the light on her face and arms. Loved it and was very pleased with how these turned out. 

That's all I have to share for tonight. I 'll share more when I work on my assignment for next week which are beauty and pop culture portraits. Thanks for sharing my photos with me... 

Practicing for my portrait class

For the first half of this semester (until the beginning of October) I am taking a portrait photography class. I've been doing a lot of shoots over the past week. Our first assignment is documentary and natural light portraits. I've been having a lot of fun doing it and am getting a lot more comfortable taking people shots and directing my models. I'm going to share a few of my favorites.

Documentary portraits were described to us as capturing the persons facial features so they can be shared with future generations. The background should be simple and the person should not have a facial expression. I converted most of these to black and white so they look more like an old fashioned portrait

My friend Brandi in front of a sculpture outside of the library -- almost felt like a senior portrait but I love the black and white

took this in color first and I love how it turned out ....

but it looks so much more documentary in black and white

and then horizontal -- she looks so intense in this one -- I love it 

my friend Sam in front of a brick wall -- I love the colors but the red takes away from him a little ...

so here it is in black and white

this is a little close for documentary but I love it except for the fact that he is squinting a bit 

loved the intensity in this one 

NATURAL LIGHT : our second assignment is to take natural light/ open air portraits. So we actually get to pose people and can use whatever setting we want as long as we use the natural/ existing light.  

My friend same again -- this was around 5:30 pm -- love the lines and the sunglasses just made it fun.

I loved the way the light dappled through the trees on this one and his expression is just priceless

I had him lean in the Adirondack chair ad love the way the light just tipped the edge of his hair and he looks pretty relaxed in this one  love it.  

we tried a lot of different places -- this is leaning against a huge sun dial -- loved all the different colors

this one was at about 7:30 as the sun was starting to set. I loved how the light was highlighting the water and pretty nice the way it fell on Sam too 

this was one of the last shots we took and was totally for fun but I absolutely love it and how the light just touches his shoulders 

My friends Jeff, Elli and Fiona -- I was planning on this being documentary but they had such nice smiles on their faces and the lighting was pretty sweet so it became natural light 

We wanted to show Elli's pregnancy -- the light on these trees behind her was just so beautiful

looking through the window in the covered bridge -- love it 

this is my one of my absolute favs -- they were walking through the bridge and I was behind them and just snapped at the right moment

across the stream. I loved how the highlight in Fiona's hair

One of the last pictures I took -- love the expressions on their faces and the dappling in the leaves 

I will be doing many more portraits over the next few weeks and will share some more of my favorites. Comments are always appreciated. Thanks for sharing with me

Out and about

Its been a while since my last post due to some health issues. I've been itching to take the camera out and do some shooting and finally did yesterday afternoon. As usual these shots are of the great out doors.

this was on the sidewalk and I had been looking at them for a couple of days -- it looks like a horseshoe and I loved how the blue came out in the stone

more of the horseshoe leaves 

this was the moon at Tussey Mountain a few weeks ago. I love how it came out reflected in the clouds

Same night at Tussey Mountain, I overexposed it a bit and it made the sky bluer -- love it

loved the texture of the clouds in this one

took this yesterday between the rain showers. The sun coming through the clouds made interesting highlights on the tree. 

love how this one is shaped like a bell and its orange so of course I was drawn to it

another view of the bells

water lily -- I loved the color of this one and the clearness of the water around it 

in the same pond -- loved the yellow

loved this one -- think it might be a lotus flower 

there were lots of fish in the pond -- this is one of the best shots I got

loved the shapes and textures of these 

this one is all about the color and they almost look like they are spreading raising their heads to the sun 

fell like this butterfly posed just for me 

loved the banana leaves and then the purple flowers just seemed to compliment them well 

loved the shapes and the texture of these blooms 

this was too beautiful to pass by 

loved the blend of colors and the way the light hit these

and then I saw the bee ...

again loving the banana leaves -- very nice landscaping which caught my eye

Thanks for sharing my latest photos with me. I hope to be posting more regularly  over the next few months