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...