I knew from
the beginning of quarter that I wanted to use my daughter as my model for this
project. She has recently been
struggling with some depression and anxiety, but is trying hard to overcome
this. I was hoping that this project
would help her more with self confidence and anxiety, as well as to provide me with a great subject for
photographing.
I
researched various posing ideas for teen girls.
I had several things in the back of mind along with several screen shots
and pinterest ideas as references. I also planned on mainly using low-key
lighting just as I did for my still life.
People photography is a bit harder for me, I worry about how to pose
someone and how to make them comfortable with me so that they will be at ease
with photographing them. Small talk is
not something that comes easily for me, so knowing that I was going to be
making images of my daughter eased some of my anxiety about this project.
After
setting up the lighting and finding the chaise lounge I had my daughter sit on
the chaise so that I could get the lighting set up on her. I was having a very hard time getting the
lighting right, I thought I was close, but when I asked my instructor to come by and
help, we completely moved the lighting to a new position to better highlight
the left side of her face. We had to
pull the chaise lounge out from the wall even more than I had already had it so that the lighting would fall off better
and make a darker background. I thought
I had this low-key stuff figured out a bit better with the last project, but I
had a much harder time this time.
(first images I made for my class, for final submission see below)
I ended up
scrapping the ideas that I had in mind to go more simple. Originally I had wanted to incorporate books into
this image because my daughter loves to read and these would be a good prop. The books weren’t working with what I had in
mind, so we just put them aside.
Victoria has so much raw emotion in her face that that was what needed
to be showcased more than the books.
My classmate assistants and I finished up this photo shoot by having my subject pose in a few different
ways so that I would have several to choose from. We went to lunch and came back to the studio
and the second person that was shooting was running behind so I decided to try
something else. In the back of my mind I
wanted to do something that showed my subject’s eyes more. She has beautiful clear blue eyes and I
wanted to come at them from above.
We took the
chaise lounge back to the small portrait studio. I left the lighting where it was and placed a
small board on the floor for my subject to sit on. This allowed me to raise the camera up to a
higher angle so that I was above her.
This also simplified things and I did most of the work on my
own for this part of the shoot. These
images were more of what I had been thinking of but not producing earlier. I loved these.
They were simple, showcased her alone, her eyes and just the raw emotion
that she has. In the final image that I
selected for submission, I feel like you can look at her and see that there’s a
story there, something that makes you want to know her more. Her eyes draw you in.
Final submission for assignment
Post
production took me a little more work. The
floor was seen in parts of my final images, so to make this image work better,
it was easier for me to cut out her image and place her on a new adjustment
fill layer that was all black. I really
did want the focus to entirely be on her and the tiled floor, what little could
be seen, was distracting to me.
These final
images were more dramatic to me, and yet simpler. I felt like the earlier images I was making
were more “forced”, although there were a few that were good, they weren’t what
I had in mind and didn’t seem to work as well for me. But these images that were not propped, or
thought out, had a much more genuine feel to them.
I feel like
I am taking better images now; not always, but more often. I am learning the little things that are
needed to make sure an image is carrying all the right technical aspects. I know that I need to make sure I am focused
on the eye closest to the camera lens, how to make sure the lighting is correct
on a subject’s face/neck so that shadowing isn’t too much, or lighting too
much. In my image of Victoria, I tried
to keep in mind that I wanted more lighting on one side of her face, but more
shadowed on the opposite side, while still having some lighting across her eye
on the other side. I feel that what I
ended up with was somewhat of a Rembrandt lighting. I accomplished this little bit of added light
on the shadowed side of her face with a fill card directly in front of
her. This also helped pull some of the
harsher shadows off her neck.
I think
that what is hard for me with people photography is not only making the subject
comfortable, but also making sure I get the right image that they are looking
for. We aren’t often on the same page as
others, so ideas can get convoluted and not be what the customer is looking
for. I am hoping that this also will
get better as I learn more.
Lighting/Camera Info
Main light:
power 6.0
height: 38”
· distance to subject: 24”
· metered on check 5.63
Back light:
power: 4.0 with 7” reflector & 10 grid spot
· height: 48”
· distance to wall: 50”
Subject to background: 92”
Camera height: 53”
Camera to subject: 42”
Camera info:
Canon Rebel T6i
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter: 1/125
Color Mode: Adobe RGB
Exposure: flash
Focus mode: manual
