Overall comments
I was pleased with the feedback I received on this assignment. I take my tutor's point that I had taken the assignment literally and I now see that I could have approached the assignment with an entirely different, more creative approach.
Portrait photographers I had come across were Diane Arbus and Rieneke Dijkstra. I have since looked at the work of Joel Sternfield.
Portrait photographers I had come across were Diane Arbus and Rieneke Dijkstra. I have since looked at the work of Joel Sternfield.
Feedback on assignment
The main technical comment from tutor on my images was the face that I had used a large aperture and high shutter speed. In my experience, portrait photography requires a large aperture. My images had a shallow depth of field and were not as sharp as I would have liked. This would have solved this problem.
Image 1 was taken on a tripod and cable release.
Image 2 was one of my favourite images and I had cropped the image into a square as I had too much wasted space at the top of the image. I take my tutor's point about the crop being too tight. It became tighter as I rotated the image a little to make the stones of the building vertical. This is one image where a tripod would have helped me see what was really in the frame. I prefer to work without a tripod because it feels more natural to me.
Image 3 - I did not consider removing my daughter's cardigan at the time and this would have helped vary the pose/ look of the image. This was something really simple that would have made alot of difference.
Image 4 - My tutor suggested that perhaps some fill in flash (off camera) would help. I tried to recreate this scene but the lighting was different due to the trees being in full foliage. This image uses off camera flash - Alex is side lit from the right with the flash. The direction of the sun is from my left but obscured by a tree and some natural lighting comes in from the right. I think the colour temperature is more natural and I like the shadows that have appeared. What worked well in the first image was the contrast of Alex's top. This one has graffiti style writing on it so blends in with the background rather than contrasts against it. One of my personal objectives is to become more confident with flash.
Image 5 and 6 - I was pleased my tutor thought the reflection idea worked in image 5. I felt the crop in 5 was OK and agree that 6's is a little tight.
Image 1 was taken on a tripod and cable release.
Image 2 was one of my favourite images and I had cropped the image into a square as I had too much wasted space at the top of the image. I take my tutor's point about the crop being too tight. It became tighter as I rotated the image a little to make the stones of the building vertical. This is one image where a tripod would have helped me see what was really in the frame. I prefer to work without a tripod because it feels more natural to me.
Image 3 - I did not consider removing my daughter's cardigan at the time and this would have helped vary the pose/ look of the image. This was something really simple that would have made alot of difference.
Image 4 - My tutor suggested that perhaps some fill in flash (off camera) would help. I tried to recreate this scene but the lighting was different due to the trees being in full foliage. This image uses off camera flash - Alex is side lit from the right with the flash. The direction of the sun is from my left but obscured by a tree and some natural lighting comes in from the right. I think the colour temperature is more natural and I like the shadows that have appeared. What worked well in the first image was the contrast of Alex's top. This one has graffiti style writing on it so blends in with the background rather than contrasts against it. One of my personal objectives is to become more confident with flash.
 |
| original (reflector) |
 |
| with flash |
Image 5 and 6 - I was pleased my tutor thought the reflection idea worked in image 5. I felt the crop in 5 was OK and agree that 6's is a little tight.
To do
- Re-look at image 4 and experiment with off camera flash (done July 2014)
- Look at suggested websites:
(July 2014 - looked at and added to bookmarks bar)
- Research photographers - Joseph Karsh, August Sander, Thomas Ruff
- Relook at The Photograph as Contemporary Art Charlotte Cotton
This is a book which I have read periodically for previous courses, usually to gain more insight into a photographer's work or for interest. I will revisit it.
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