The Portrait Project

Concept

My initial response to this project was to create portraits in natural environments. I feel that studio photography can sometimes feel forced and un-natural. Instead of your stereotypical studio style background I wanted to photograph my subjects in their natural environment, in hope that they would feel more comfortable and therefore give natural poses, as in my opinion these are the best portraits, they can capture a more realistic image of in that moment in time and display emotions in the face. I experimented with day and night photography, fascinated with the types of shadows these different lights would produce on the face. I also experimented with portrait and landscape photography. Landscape photography covered more background area possibly creating more detail and more of a story to the photograph rather than just the person in the frame.

I also experimented with my subjects poses and the angle I took the photo, to see which would best suit the brief. I used a 50mil lens as it enabled me to stand far enough away from the subject, ensuring that they didn’t feel claustrophobic and crowded. This would allow natural poses from my subjects.

I wanted to tell a story through my portraits to make them as interesting as possible. I did this by experimenting with lighting, background and pose. I also wanted my three portraits to be different in style, to show a range of skills and ideas.

Influences

Before I went out and created my portraits, I looked at a range of styles. both using natural environments and studio work.

Studio Photography

Yuyang Liu Portrait Photographer

Yuyang Liu’s portrait photography particually interested me due to the black background. Stereo-typically you think of studio photography to have a plain, often white background, however all of his work has a black background. I found this intriguing as it is a very dark colour, and he had photographed families using this style. Black wouldn’t normally be associated with the typical family and has connotations of death, power, formality and mystery. This body of work is of people travelling from Guangzhou to their hometowns after studying or working for a year. This is interesting as despite them doing similar things for a year they all have different facial expressions. Possibly displaying how complicated the human race is.

The black background was my main inspiration from these images, and encouraged me to experiment with light. Technically, these images are well lit, using studio lighting to illuminate the facial features. The framing is central making the main focal point the person.

Alternative images experimenting with a black background

 

Natural Environment

This image was particularly inspiring to me due to the pose, framing and colouring. Her facial expression appears worried or anxious which could be because she doesn’t like her photo being taken. Or she could have been caught off guard, or generally worried about something. This pose creates questioning, therefore making the image more interesting. I have experimented with poses with my subjects (see final image of a stranger and other alternative images below)

The fact that the subject is to the far right of the image allows a lot of background to be present. It appears like a field which is open and vast and could replicate the fact that the subject may be feeling lost, also supported by her facial expression. Interestingly, the colours of the background and the subject are harmonious and blend well together, giving a calm soft image. This could again be attempting to reflect the girls emotions.

I have been inspired by this image because of its style and the fact that it tells more of a story about the person in the picture, whether these implications are true or false.

Portraits are more complex than just a beautiful face, or a well-staged family photo. Instead a skillfully captured portrait has the power to move us through its expression and mood. Whether they speak of happiness, sadness or reveal a distant thought within the subject’s glance; an untold story is heard. source –

http://www.proify.com/photography-competitions/portrait/#

 

My alternative images experimenting with a naturalistic background

The Selfie

A self portrait is usually a statement to represent self identity. Therefore I wanted my portrait to suggests things about who I am and the type of life I lead.

I have always been a busy person, it is a rarity that I won’t be doing anything. I love being out and about and hate being stuck inside. Since coming to University my life has been very fast paced, over the last three months I have moved out of home, met so many new people, learnt a lot on my course, how to live with people and life skills in general. There hasn’t been a day where I’ve had nothing to do and I haven’t been bored. With this in mind, I wanted to portray this busyness in my portrait and thought about doing it through movement.

About:

Zi Nguyen is a portrait photographer and has used a long-exposure technique to create the idea of movement.

 

These images are more than ‘just a picture of a person’ they create story and intrigue about the subject. For instance the top image could represent a mental illness such as anxiety as the movement and the lighting looks tense. The bottom image could be representing a nightmare, possibly super natural possession. This style of photography is creative and inspired me to experiment with movement in my own work.

However, unlike these, I wanted to have my face in focus and the background blurred, depicting movement. As I didn’t want to represent myself as anxious or mentally unwell. I experimented with moving my body but moving the camera with it. I had a fast shutter speed and the aperture setting at 3.5 to create focus on my face and a blurred background.

I thought that as well as representing the busyness and fast pace of my life, having my face in focus shows that you can’t read people by just looking at them. You have no idea what there life is like or there personality until you get to know them. In other words, the background represents the inner me.

In terms of lighting I ensured the whole face was well lit as I wanted to focus on all of my features. I also had everything lit to represent a balance as such to show that I am easy going. As opposed to using dramatic, harsh lighting which could create a mysterious or dark effect, which doesn’t really describe me.

My alternative Images

This photographer also inspired me to experiment with lighting effects. However as I thought about this idea in more detail, I felt it didn’t particularly suggest anything about who I am as a person.

  

 

I experimented with poses, being serious, smiling, pouting. However thinking about how to represent myself accurately, I consider myself as a happy person so I wanted to portray that in my final image.

The fairy lights created interesting shadows on the face. They also gave a warm glow to the image.

Reflection

This brief has given me greater understanding of portraiture, it allowed me to experiment with framing, colouring and lighting and I now know what makes a good portrait. This brief has also given me confidence in myself, approaching a stranger in the street asking them if I could take a photo of them is something that I would never have been comfortable with but it wasn’t as bad as I thought.

Looking at my images as a whole, the image of my friend looks comfortable and natural whereas of the stranger the pose looks slightly forced. This is interesting as I would never of thought that the relationship between the photographer and the subject would make a difference to the overall photo.

I feel I have created what I set out to create, portraits in natural environments with natural poses. I think the landscape images work the best as they show more background, giving the image more depth. I feel that the portraits I have created are visually appealing and work well in terms of composition, I have used the rule of thirds in each and ensured the main focus is on the subject by using a shallow depth of field.