The last 2 assignments for my portrait class were pop-culture and beauty portraits. At first I had no idea what I was going to shoot for pop-culture but when I started looking at some photos on the web I started to get some really fun ideas. I did several shoots for this and we kinda just did whatever struck our fancy. I had some really great models that I want to thank (Amy, Angel, Sam, and Pem) and without whose help I would have not had the success that I did with these projects.
At the end of this post is my final portfolio which I turned in for a grade. Not sure what my final grade is yet because we were allowed to redo some of the assignments, but my professor really liked my presentation. I hope you do too.
Pop-culture: The basic idea for the pop-culture was to do something that was trendy and popular and could be fashiony. I took a lot of these photos outside, but also had a few great sessions in the studio.I really enjoyed taking the photos and had so much fun doing it. I got a lot of really great shots and it was hard to choose the finals
Amy and Angel : loved this one because it is like a manga or cartoon. It was a fun shot to take but it just didn't feel portraity enough to turn in for a grade.
Amy: I Loved this one and it really did felt like a magazine cover -- and could have worked for either pop culture or beauty, but there is a tiny bit of motion blur that you can see when you blow it up really big. I will probably use it on my website but because my professor takes off for that kind of stuff, I didn't turn it in
Amy: loved this pose and the colors on this one, it feels really angsty to me. However once again its not quite as sharp as it could be. I learned to really pay attention to my focus after doing (and having to redo) some of the sessions for this assignment.
Pem: this was taken in studio against a white wall. Loved the colors and the shadows and the attitude in this one but I had a few that I thought were more interesting that ended up making the final cut.
I love the pose and the lines and even the reflection in this one, and though it is a nice portrait, it just did not scream pup culture as much as some of the other ones that I had taken.
Erica: these were done in studio. the background is a tapestry that looked like a grafittied wall which one of my classmates brought in for us to use. I especially loved how the colors reflected on the floor and personally like this shot a lot (it will probably go on my website) however when my professor looked at it, he told me that I needed to get closer to her and have her fill the frame more....
I love the way she is looking up in this one -- again so angsty (its all about the attitude) and I love the jacket and the purple. This one was really close to being in the final portfolio, but the one I chose has a more interesting pose / and is a bit tighter shot
Sam: we had soooo much fun shooting these and he was a real trooper. I had the vision in mind and the hat, jacket and shirt are actually all mine. I loved the brown wall behind him ....
This is in front of one of the rock walls, we realized he had a chain that just complimented the outfit and the pose is a lot of fun, I do love this shot, but we also took some with him behind a fence/ gate that won out for the final presentation.
Beauty: I had a few ideas of the things that I wanted to capture when I did my beauty shoots and I really am grateful to Amy S for being such an awesome model. She came with ideas as well and we kind of went with the flow. Some of these are again outside in natural light --though we did use a reflector to get the light right on her face (Thanks Sam for being a great assistant) -- and some are in studio...
I really really loved this shot but the focus was more on the reflection in the water than on her face. I want to try and do more of these type of shots in the future, but did not turn it in because of the lack of overall sharpness. It was around 7 pm when we shot this so were losing the light -- if we had taken it earlier in the day, I could have used a smaller aperture and more of the image would have been in focus...
This was done in studio -- I love the pose on this and the colors really work for me. I did some retouching -- upped the vibrarnce (which made the background a little more blue) and reduced the clarity (which makes her skin a little more smooth ) . I turned in a shot where she is in the same pose, but which is a tighter head and shoulders crop.
I have all this lacy fabric that we were playing around with and I like the effect of it overall but think I would have liked it a little better if it was off of her left shoulder....
For this one we were trying to come up with some different looks and I like the way her hair jumps out, but in the end, I was drawn to her hair more than I was to her face and I also found the little bit of pink that sticks out under her chin very annoying.
More playing with fabric to try and get different effects. We used lace in the background and over her face -- which I liked and I love the makeup in this one. The pose was fun , but it bothered me that you could see her armpit and none of her shoulder . Also the fabric -- though it was pretty was just a bit too busy for me . Okay in theory but not quite right when we shot it....
I also tried my hand at a male beauty shot. I really liked this one of Sam and think it could have worked as a clothing ad, magazine cover -- the pose is fun and the colors are nice, but the photos I chose of Amy just had more of a beauty feel to them so this one did not make the final presentation....
And here is my final portfolio. Thank you for viewing my blog and my photos. The next class I am taking (which starts October 9 and lasts for 7 weeks) is product photography. I am looking forward to it and hope I have as much fun and learn as much in that class as I did in the portrait one. I will post some of the projects from that class as we do them.
No comments:
Post a Comment