Yesterday we went out onto campus and with a model (Billie) we created natural light portraits. We started with setting of F4/5.6, ISO 200 as it was quite a bright day. Auto white balance and exposure compensation on zero to begin.
Before we went out we looked at photographers work from early portraits of David Octavius and Robert Adamson, to images from Life magazine, Annie Leibovitz and David Bailey.
Here is an example from Octavius & Adamson, their images poses were based on paintings, I chose this image as I thought it was a quite impactful shot that clearly has been influenced by Victorian genre painting and tonalism and there is an excellent use of the rule of thirds. This is from the MOMA in San Francisco.
I also looked further at Life Magazine images as these stories do really give a sense of the zeitgeist of the time. I chose an image from the Vietnam War. This image shows the helicopter pilot from the series 'One Ride with Yankee Papa 13' and shows the soldiers through their day. I chose both these images as they both use available light. Again the rule of thirds in this image is clear and the framing of the shot with pilot's face as the most dominant part of the image close-up really gives a feeling of connection which is what makes a great portrait.
Here are the images I took on the day, I took around 200 shots on the contact sheets. I created these on Photoshop.
I was quite pleased with the shots I managed to get, it was a good day with some sunshine and I managed to get some in black and white and some in colour. Here are some of my best shots from the day.
On the colour shots I chose two that I thought stood out and really worked in terms of sharpness, composition and framing.
This shot used a wide aperture at F5 and a fairly slow shutter speed of 1/60. it was nice and bright with no exposure compensation. The background really lightened the image and I felt this worked well in colour with the raindrop background and light just glinting of the droplets, the model's face stands out well and there is a good use of the rule of thirds.
The second colour shot, I thought the pose worked really well and was from a slightly low angle. again wide aperture of F5, ISO 200, however in this shot I slightly underexposed at -0.7 this had the effect of slightly deepening the colours.
The black and white shots I had many choices so I will just put a few here.
In this image, a really good close-up really focussed on the model's face, a good rule of thirds this was a wide aperture at F5 however the background dropped out slightly to create blur due to the focus on the model's face and a short focal length. I did not use exposure compensation in this shot.
I chose this shot as I really liked the leading line of the road and the model's pose enhances the line of the shot, rule of thirds again and as the background has dropped out again due to focal length this worked well.
This was one of my last shots and I really liked the clarity of the image, very sharp and clear and the model looking into the camera worked well the line of her body through the shot clear focus at the forefront of the image has an impact. In this image I had underexposed by -1.7 this gave depth to the darker shades and tones.
Reflection
Overall I am pleased with the outcomes from this shoot, I got some images that have impact, work technically well and if I was using this for a fashion shoot there was some good poses that really worked. If I shot this again I would have tried further poses and positions on the model and I also would have perhaps included some top-down images (High angle) as I think this would have added to the shoot.
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