Portrait, scale and setting - execution

My approach to taking the photographs was slightly different to that suggested in the notes as I intended to take photographs of my wife in three different positions. Of the positions that I tried described above, I decided to use three: seated in a chair well inside the doorway, standing in the doorway, and seated sideways on the floor in the doorway.

Also, I found it easier to start with a full length photo at first and then to move closer with the subsequent photos, rather than start with the face cropped in close.

In the space of half an hour, I took a sequence of almost 70 photographs including each of the four framing stages (face, head and shoulders, head and torso and full length) for each of the positions. Subsequently reviewing the photos, I chose the two best "face" photos, the two best "head and shoulders" and so on, for each framing position. Finally, I picked the best of each pair,and made an A4 size print of each one. My comments on the final photographs follow below.

Face, cropped in close

Nikon 18-200 mm at 170mm: Iso 160 f5.6 for 1/5th second

This photo was taken from the first sequence with my wife sitting on a chair inside the room away from direct light. I preferred this over a similar pictures taken in the doorway as the light is softer with only the slightest shadows.

Observations

Her eyes are, naturally, the points that most strongly draw the viewers attention. They are framed by spectacle frames of a similar colour and sit roughly two-thirds of the way up the vertical frame. The spectacle frames enhance the strong attraction of her eyes.

Unlike photos I have taken of her previously, her expression is not smiling, but she has a neutral, slightly questioning expression. For me, the departure from the convention of a smiling face has resulted in an image with a stronger visual impact.

I find that my attention drifts from time to time away from her eyes to her earrings (which have quite strong catch-lights), her hair and other parts of her face, but it returns to her eyes before long.

The original photograph was horizontal format, with slightly more space beneath her chin and above her eye line. I deliberately allowed some extra space so that I could fine tune the cropping in the computer.

The shaded daylight is coming from behind the lens. The sides of her face are shadowed leaving a narrower bright area in the centre of her face. Unlike the photograph taken in the doorway, the spectacle frames cast virtually no shadow on her face, which results in a "cleaner" area around her eyes. In addition, there are no significant shadows on either side of her mouth below her cheeks in this lighting, nor around her eyes.

Head and shoulders

Nikon 18-200mm at 70mm: Iso 160 f5 for 1/40th seconds

This is one of the photographs where my wife was sitting sideways in the patio doorway. I chose this photograph over another one from the first sequence where she was sitting inside the room because I wanted reasonable variety in the four chosen photographs. The other one was too similar in character to the first photo above.

Observations

In this photograph, her eyes are less demanding for the viewers attention. Her eyes are smaller in the frame, they are in some shadow and the spectacle frames are less prominent. The bright areas of her hair and the lower half of her face are able to compete for attention.

We can also see a part of the clothes she is wearing. These are greys and bluey greys which I feel complement her natural skin colour, drawing attention to her face, rather than competing for attention.

The matching light grey of her hair, her earrings and her scarf creates an implied frame for her face and lightens the average tone against the dark background.

The framing is as shot except for a slight adjustment to straighten up the doorframe on the left hand side of the frame. I also reduced the brightness of the white door frame so that this was less bright than the highlights on her hair and earrings.

As she is sitting in a relatively light position, I could reduce the shutter speed to 1/40th of a second compared to 1/5th for the first photograph above.

Head and torso

Nikon 18-200mm at 36mm: ISO 160 f4.5 for 1/40th seconds

I chose this position as one that is less formal than the sitting or standing poses. I asked my wife to hold a glass of water so that her hands looked natural, but they were partly concealed.

Observations

This photograph was taken within two minutes of the previous photograph with my wife sitting in the same position. The lighting on her head is unchanged, with her eyes slightly shadowed, with bright areas on her hair and face.

A viewers attention is also attracted by her hands, which are a similar brightness to her face and not much smaller in the frame. Her face is positioned in the upper left quadrant of the frame, with her hands in the lower right quadrant. Whilst there is a reasonably large dark area in the upper right portion of the frame, I feel that the position of her face and hands create a reasonably visual balance.

As with the previous photograph, the framing is virtually as shot except for slight adjustment to straighten the door frame on the left hand side. I have again lowered the brightness of this frame which otherwise was too prominent visually.

Full length

Nikon 18-200mm at 52mm: Iso 160 f4.8 at 1/20th seconds

The full length portrait was the most difficult to pose as I wanted the head, hands and feet in suitable positions. I did not select the full length photos of Val sitting on a chair or sitting on the step of the patio doors as these were less successful compositionally. Her legs appeared too prominent relative to her torso. I felt that the standing position is better as her head and torso are stronger elements in the frame than her hands and legs.

Observations

She is leaning against the door frame in a reasonably relaxed posture. Her face remains the main point of attention even though it is relatively small in the frame. Only one hand is visible, but this is simply hanging by her side and does not especially draw the eye. Her feet and legs are similar in tone and colour to her cardigan, and they are relatively unobtrusive. (In fact, I have darkened her shoes as they had bright highlights which were rather distracting. )

In this setting, the rest of the frame is largely blank. In the original photo, I included part of the glass patio door on the right hand side of the frame so that she was in a more central position. In reviewing the photo subsequently, I decided to crop out the area of patio door as this added nothing to the photograph. I quite like this lop-sided composition. I did not like the tall narrow frame when I tried cropping some of the dark area on the left hand side of the frame.

Conclusions

• The planning I did beforehand paid dividends. From a relatively short session, I ended up with a collection of four reasonable photos. Without the planning, I would surely have needed several photo sessions as I would not have anticipated some of the issues beforehand.
• The exercise was a valuable lesson in the components that need to be considered even for a "conventional" style of portrait. The responsibility for directing the subject is a departure from the type of people photography that I have done in the past.
• I printed out the final four photographs on A4 gloss paper and my comments are based on those prints. My tutor for this course has indicated that he prefers assignments to be submitted in printed form, rather than sent as digital images, and I felt it would be better to use this methodology from the beginning. I am pleased with the printed portraits, which were produced on a new printer as the previous one stopped working. I am using a general purpose home printer using premium glossy paper. I nevertheless feel that I could produce better quality prints if I improve my expertise in this area, and I should probably spend some time looking at this.