Studio Photography - People

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