Eye contact and expression - photography

As planned, I took a sequence of self-portraits in which I changed the direction of my gaze, and experimented with role-play with and without the use of a handphone. I selected some of the better photos and record my observations below.

I have cropped theses photographs close to the face in order to focus on the facial expressions. I wore a dark sweater and used a black background to make my face stand out prominently.

Following my comments on the photos, I have included a brief description of the flash lighting set up and what I learnt from this.

Portrait 1

Nikon 18-200 at 75mm: Iso 200 f6.3 for 1/60th

My eyes are turning to look to the side of the camera glancing down just a little. My head is tilted so that the eye line is just slanted. I look as if I am thoughtful and at ease.

Of the various test photos that I took during the preliminary steps of arranging the lighting, I particularly liked this one:

Portrait 2

Nikon 18-200mm at 62mm: Iso 200 f4.8 at 1/60th

Whilst my gaze is similar, my head position is at a slightly different angle. With this change, I look more attentive, as if I was listening to someone standing besides the lens.

This pose seems familiar from studio portraits and school photographs when I was young. There is possibly something inherently pleasing or flattering about this pose.

Portrait 3

Nikon 18-200mm at 75mm: Iso 200 f6.3 at 1/60th

In this photo, it looks as if I am looking directly at the camera. In fact, this was a photograph where I was looking down at the tripod head, but this slight downward glance is not noticeable.

With my face filling the frame, this direct gaze seems slightly intimidating. My expression is neutral, but, as a viewer, I feel that the subject is rather too close to me.

Portrait 4

Nikon 18-200mm at 75mm: Iso 200 f6.3 at 1/60th

I needed to look down quite obviously, as in this photograph, for my downward glance to be noticeable. The effect is to make me look as if I am deep in thought or alternatively feeling sleepy. There could be some feeling of unhappiness, but this does not seem particularly strong.

This picture is significantly less engaging as a portrait compared to the other pictures.

Portrait 5

Nikon 18-200mm at 75mm: Iso 200 f6.3 at 1/60th

I am looking to the other side of the camera away from the light and slightly upwards. It is interesting to compare this with Spencer Murphy's portrait of Peter Crouch exhibited in the Photographic Portrait of the Year competition that I referred to in my preparation for this project. The head position and gaze are somewhat similar, but the visually impact is quite different:-

• In Murphy's photograph, the eyes are far more prominent. They appear bright and translucent. Whilst this may be partly a result of the shade cast by my spectacles, it is clear that lighting the eyes is important and needs thought. In his photograph, the light is falling more onto the front of the face whereas in my set up, the strongest light is on the side of the head (see below for set up description). I did use the "iris enhance" brush in Lightroom, but this cannot compensate for inadequate lighting when the photo was taken.
• Peter Crouch's head is slightly angled forward, whereas mine is slightly angled backwards. A backward angle seems to convey a feeling of passivity whereas a forward angle seems to convey a more edgy/active posture.
• The background and shirt colours in the portrait of Peter Crouch match and accentuate the blue colour of his eyes. His pale skin and hair colours seem quite pallid creating an overall cold tint to the portrait as a whole. Looking through Spencer Murphy's other portraits on his website, I noted that he uses a blue or cool tints in several of them. In others, such as the portraits of Rowan Williams, Gael Gabriel Bernal, the colour palettes are harmonious and must have been carefully selected. In my self portraits the skin colours are warm and reasonably saturated. I should see if lower saturation levels would be more striking visually.

Portrait 6

Nikon 18-200mm at 75mm: Iso 200 f6.3 at 1/60th

Looking upwards, the area around the eyes is better lit and hence more prominent. I appear to be active and interested in something, but the picture seems to lack charm or character as a portrait. The upward position of the head seems a bit like chinese or soviet pictures of "workers striding into the future".

Role-play portraits

Whilst I took photographs imagining that I was feeling various emotions (sadness, anticipation, exasperation), the resulting photographs were not distinguishable from the other photographs that I had taken. Either I was not expressive enough to portray such emotions, or the visual effects were too subtle to capture.

Hand-phone portraits

The idea for using a hand-phone as a prop occurred to me from a photograph I took a few years ago. I had been trying to take a photograph of a tour leader on a group holiday a few years ago. My best photograph was taken in a quiet moment when she was chatting to her kids on her mobile phone. Her face lit up as she listened to them seated comfortably on a bench. I thought that this may be a useful idea to try for a subject who is not experienced as a model.

I therefore tried a few self portraits pretending to use a hand phone. I have included them here even though they are more of an active portrait in character.

Portrait 7

Nikon 18-200mm at 75mm: Iso 200 f6.3 at 1/60th

Portrait 8

Nikon 18-200mm at 75mm: Iso 200 f6.3 at 1/60th

The subject can be in more exaggerated poses than would be the case if the person were doing nothing.

Techniques

I decided to use flash for this project as this would be a good refresher in using photographic lighting. I hardly ever use flash for my general photography and this is the first time I have used my own flash unit to create a portrait lighting set up.

I was using a Nikon SB600 flash unit linked by cable to the Nikon D200 camera. I used a cable shutter release with the camera set to autofocus. I used a black mounting board as the backdrop, which was big enough for the close to the head framing. It would have been a little restrictive for head and shoulders photos at these focal lengths.

I spent a couple of sessions reading the manual and guidance which came with the flash unit and experimenting with different flash positions. I had the idea of attempting to create a moody picture with dark shadows and hence opted for a low sidelight rather than bouncing flash off the ceiling. Having reviewed the photos, I think it would have been better to have moved the set around so that the light direction was more on the front of the face. In addition, the reflected light on the shaded side of the face was not strong enough relative to the bright side of the face.

I tried a large wall mirror and a piece of flat polystyrene as reflectors. The mirror gave a stronger effect, but it was heavy and difficult to hold in place. The polystyrene was far more practical.

Acting as the model, I noticed how useful it is to find something to fix ones gaze on in the various positions. Mentally, it is useful to have some thoughts in ones head of various poses.

Conclusions

This project has provided valuable ideas on various matters:

- some ideas for directing subjects/models

- some ideas for better presenting photographs - stronger lighting of eyes and lower colour saturation of skin.

- some ideas of how to use camera flash to light a portrait.