Creative Media: Studio Portrait Practice

 In class, we looked at various portrait photographers including, Annie Leibovitz, David Bailey (as below), Terry O'Neill and some images from Life Magazine. Today we completed our studio shoot, this included a high-key set-up with a white backdrop and that was a four-light set-up.  We also did a low-key set-up with a black backdrop and two lights.  We used Billie H as the model and she completed a series of poses for us to shoot in both set-ups. 

Mick Jagger by David Bailey (1965)

For the high key set-up, we set our cameras to 200 ISO, a wide aperture of F4.0/5.6 and this was 0 exposure compensation.  For the low-key, we began with 400 ISO, a wide aperture of F4/5.6 and I began with -1.5 exposure compensation which I dropped down to -2 to compensate for low light.

I will begin by showing a couple of shots from the high-key set-up we did a few seated portrait shots and then we used a sitting on the floor pose a little like this one by Terry O'Neill.

The shot I chose from these shots was the one below.  I liked this shot as it is high key, so nice and bright which works well with the model's pose and colourful hair against the pale dress,  The pose works well and the landscape gives a full-length pose and breathing room so the framing makes for a good composition.  The settings of F5 and ISO 200 are good however the shot is not as sharp as I would like as the shutter speed was just 1/40, I should have probably either adjusted the ISO to 100 or overexposed slightly using exposure compensation. 

I chose this shot from the same pose I like this one as I felt it was sharper despite the lower shutter speed so I must have had a much steadier hand in this shot.  The skin colour the look into the distance and the hand gently resting do make this shot work quite well.

The next shots are all low-key and so are more challenging to as we are working in lower light.

Phillipe Volgenzang

Above is the reference pose we used for the next shots - as can be seen here the light is even and bright and the background is slightly grey.  We used a black background and the shots were as below.  I thought the pose here is very good and matched the reference pose almost exactly.  This was on a really slow shutter of 1/13 so not as sharp as it could be and if I had been doing this alone I probably would have set up a tripod for some of the low-key shots.  However, this has an almost dreamy quality and light is working well within the image, a good rule of thirds.

The next image we used as a reference was this David Bailey image below

David Bailey 

This shot I did not think the pose worked as well the idea is there but I think the positioning of the hands and body is not quite correct.  The light is good and the image is fairly sharp even though the shutter speed still quite slow.  Overall this is not my favourite shot but we had a go at this and I just think other shots worked much better.

The next shot was based on the Annie Leibovitz image here, this works well with the model all in black, the rule of thirds and the very white skin against a black background make this a high-contrast image that has a good impact.

Annie Leibovitz

In this image, it is not the exact pose but very much reminded me of images of Jerry Hall, with the hair over the shoulder and leaning into the side.  This image worked quite well in the studio the dark and light contrast is good and again good rule of thirds, The image is fairly sharp but again I would have improved the sharpness with more time and longer session here. 

   

Jerry Hall (2005) Getty Images                       Jerry Hall (Image site unavailable)

The last image I will be sharing is based on this pose by Annie Leibovitz, I really liked this with the black dress leaning backwards and I do think this was one of the most successful poses of the session.

Annie Leibovitz

In this image, the light is bright and even and the black dress works very well against the black background the light does glint off the slightly shiny dress and the model pose works well.  considering the slowness of the shutter speed, without a tripod this is quite successful.

Reflection

Overall a good shoot, it is difficult as a whole class as we have limited time with each shot.  On the low-key shots I would have set up a tridop and spend more time adjusting the lights for each shot if I was doing this as a photo-shoot of my own.  However, in the time given and as a practice there are some decent shots that work well and certainly ideas that could be developed for a more in-depth photo-shoot.