Varying pose - photography

There were a number of challenges on the day:-

• The Museum of Childhood was not yet open and it was not possible to take photos there. We therefore moved on to Vyner Street where her studio is located.
• One of the commercial buildings in Vyner Street had a grey painted wall which I thought would be suitable as background. It was however raining fairly steadily and hence I did not want to stay long taking photographs. I took a few photographs with her standing against this background some with her own coloured umbrella and some with my black umbrella.
• Her studio is totally enclosed and has no natural daylight. It has a high ceiling lit with neon striplights. I decided to take photographs under this lighting, even though there could be a colour cast. If the colour cast was too strong I thought that I could convert the photos to black and white. Whilst I could have set up my flash to light the scene, it would have been difficult to set up a lighting arrangement in this high ceiling room which would provide suitable lighting for the subject. This was also would take time and make the photography more complicated.

I took three groups of photos:

• Outside with an umbrella
• Inside the studio sitting and standing
• Talking on a mobile phone

Pose 1 - Standing pose with umbrella

Nikon 18-200mm at 50mm: Iso 400 f6.3 at 1/30th second

My aim was to take a few straightforward portraits similar in pose to the photograph of Jenny Agutter in Woman & Home. Light levels were low and at first I tried using fill flash to ensure her face was illuminated. Even at a low level this resulted in pronounced shadows around the umbrella that I did not like. I therefore increased the Iso from 200 to 400 and 640 to achieve an acceptable shutter speed.

I asked Lizzie to look at the lens but to turn her face slightly to the side. I took photos from the front, as in this case, and from the side. She needed to move the umbrella back behind her head (despite the rain) to allow the daylight to reach her face.

She swapped to hold my black umbrella and I took some similar standing poses. Her pale skin and light coloured hair contrasted strongly against the dark background and I zoomed in to head and shoulders framing and closer.

Pose 2 - Head and shoulders with dark umbrella

Nikon 18-200 mm at 120mm: Iso 640 f6.3 for 1/40th second

I took a sequence of various gazes from different positions. I have selected this one as it is different to Pose 1. Furthermore, I liked her slightly serious gaze. There are slight shadows on the left hand side of the face from this position even though the daylight was very flat.

Pose 3 - seated full length portrait

Nikon 18-200mm at 28mm: Iso 200 f6.3 for 1/10th second

The studio is a large room with alcoves along the walls for each of the five artists who share it. I decided to start with a general view of Lizzie seated in her work area. I set the zoom to 28mm which is equivalent to a "standard" lens and found a position containing her seated figure, with some details of her bench and a painting around her. The light is coming from the centre of the room and I needed to ask her to look around towards the light. Her hands are not posed but she naturally rested them in her lap. As a result, they are not a feature of significance to the photograph.

Pose 4 - Seated painting

Nikon 18-200mm at 135mm: Iso 400 f7.1 at 1/10th second

I next took some photographs whilst she was working. I moved around looking for a viewpoint where her face was visible and the background was as good as I could find. The sides of the alcove prevented a camera position from the front so I opted for some photographs of her face in profile. I took some photos showing her hand which was using a paint brush and some without. I have selected this closely framed photograph as I felt it was a stronger image than the wider angle view including her hand.

Pose 5 - standing painting

Nikon 18-200mm at 26mm: Iso 400 f7.1 at 1/15th second

I then asked Lizzie to do some painting standing up in several poses. Again I moved around framing photographs from various positions and focal lengths. I felt this photo was one of the best of these as I like her expression and the side lighting on her face. Her pose is relaxed with one hand in her pocket. Her feet are outside the frame but this does not seem to be detrimental. A wider angle photo including her feet was less satisfactory visually because it also included more clutter in the foreground.

Pose 6 - talking on a mobile phone

Nikon 18-200mm at 70mm: Iso 640 at f7.1 for 1/13th second

For the final group of poses, I asked Lizzie to sit as if she was talking to a friend on her mobile phone. Again I moved around changing viewpoints and framing. I chose this photo as I wanted one portrait where she is looking away from the lens. The hand holding the phone does not seem to be a distraction, probably because we are accustomed to seeing people in this pose so much.

Techniques

Several points relating to technique arose in this project:-

• The colour cast in the studio photos was not as bad as I expected and, after adjustment of the white balance settings in Lightroom, I was reasonably happy with the colours. I did try out conversion to black and white but I was happier with the colour originals. I have read that black and white is generally suitable where there is a broad tonal range, and hence it would probably not suit these photographs where there are large expanses that are very pale and very dark.
• The shutter speeds for all of these photos were less than ideal. Furthermore, the poor light levels and higher ISO settings meant than most of the photos were quite grainy. I was concerned that the resulting lack of sharpness would be apparent when printed. I was however pleased with the photos when printed on A4 paper at reasonable size (9" by 7"). The grain was also not an issue as this resulted in smooth looking skin textures.
• I slightly desaturated the colour of her pink chair. I liked the little bit of colour, but did not want this to be too strident. I also burned in some bright areas in the background and edges of the frame.

Conclusions

I found this exercise quite demanding as I was working at an unfamiliar location and needed to adapt to suit the prevailing conditions. I was therefore happy that I came away with some nice photographs. In this, I was helped enormously by the photogenic qualities of my subject, her dress and personality.

Having reviewed the resulting photos and the guidance for this project again, I feel that I did not explore the placement of her hands and limbs enough. I liked the variety in the portraits: the different poses and different angles of view (a consequence of the techniques covered in the earlier portrait projects). I should in future think about using hand and leg postures to enhance an image, rather than just ensuring that they do not detract from it.