People and Place – Exercise One – Scaling and Setting – Part Two

As a photographer of natural or candid poses this exercise was more of a challenge than I initially thought.  I had to consider the composition and the weight of attention to place on the face of my subject.  Normally, I would patiently shadow a subject once placing them in a desired location and even considering the composition but posing is largely down to my subject.  I’ve always felt this captures the essence of my subjects personality better as in this portrait I shot in the Spring:

The subject was smelling the flower and it seemed like an opportune moment to take the shot when suddenly he looked up with this innocent look on his face.  His eyes are looking straight at the camera and when reviewing my photos this one stood out to me because the subject is holding my attention in his gaze.  This made me think more about What I wanted my audience to see in the photographs I take and hence taking this course.  I’m thrilled that the first exercise has me considering the elements of composition that intrigued me in this photograph.

So, I set out considering composition and the weight of attention to place on the face in four scales of portraits:

• Face, cropped in close
• Head and shoulders
• Torso, taking into account arms and hands
• Full figure

Face Cropped in Close

It seemed to me that no matter the background, composition or direction of the eyes, the focus is always going to be on the face.  To further this I asked the subject to look away from the camera but I’m still drawn to his eyes.

Head and Shoulders

I chose this background because it’s relatively neutral but the bricks and the age of them adds a nice texture to the photograph.  I wanted the background to be interesting but not distracting.  The subject is placed between two white columns of growth and obstructing a darker arrow shape which would have been distracting.  With the addition of the shoulders in this photograph the subject’s collar is visible and shows strong colours.  To take attention away from this I asked the subject to look into the camera to give more focus on the face.

‘Torso, taking into account arms and hands’

In this composition I decided to frame the subject below the torso.  My intention was to put less weight on the face and introduce more scope within the frame.  The subjects shorts are red and compliment the collar on the T shirt.  My eye is initially drawn to these especially with the addition of the colourful bands on the subjects wrists.  My focus here is the subjects clothing and styling.  To take attention away from the face I’ve asked the subject to look away from the camera and used a lower perspective.  I hadn’t noticed at the time but the subject has moved slightly in relation to the background.  This has put the subject in between sections of dark brick and this is giving some unintentional weight to the face.  I also didn’t want a heavy focus on the hands so I asked the subject to put them in his pockets which also serves to make the subject look more relaxed.  This composition would work well in fashion photography.

Full Figure

After taking attention off the face in the previous composition I asked the subject to look at the camera to give the face more weight.  Having said that I think that the red shorts are quite dominant in this composition so my initial focus is the shorts then the red in the collar and then the subjects face.  The shadows are framing the subjects head which is adding a little more weight to the face.  The light is ‘highlighting’ the left side of the body which is putting a lot of focus on that entire side.  The weight of the shadow is balanced out by the white line coming down the brick work on the opposite side.  My subject is standing with one leg raised and this was mainly so that the subject appeared relaxed.

Throughout this shoot I used a 50mm fixed lens at f\2.8 without a tripod.  The ground wasn’t stable enough for a tripod and the space was tight.  Where I like a shallow depth of field normally I had to open up the aperture slighty to allow for movement.

The first two portraits hold the most weight on the face; the first because it’s cropped so tightly on the face and the second including the shoulders because I asked the subject to look at the camera to put more attention on the eyes then the collar.  The torso and full portraits are less successful in putting weight on the face with the torso portrait being deliberate but the full figure portrait difficult to acheive.  If I was starting this shoot again to achieve focus on the face, I would change the torso and full figure portrait by placing the hand with the bands across the torso onto the shoulder.  This would take the focus off the colourful shorts and onto the face.

People and Place – Exercise 1 – Portrait, scaling and setting

It’s the beginning of a new subject and I’m approaching it with renewed vigour.  This may be because I want to work as a portrait photographer so the interest is already there.  I’m excited at the prospect of learning new things and ultimately improving my portrait photography to a professional level.

Exercise 1, Part One:

The first task for me was to read through some books or magazines and study the way portrait images are composed to echeive different outcomes.  As I’m eager to make a start even though I hadn’t received delivery of my recommended books from the reading list, I reached for some old faithful’s; The Genius of Photography by Gerry Badger and The Photograph by Graham Clarke.  I used these books for my first course ‘The Art of Photography’.

 

In the Genius of Photography there are two full body portraits by the portraitist August Sander (1876-1964) which give two very differnt outcomes which is largly due to the different backgrounds, clothing, pose and position of the camera.  I’ll explain my thoughts:

‘Young Farmers on Their Way to a Dance’

The background tells us that these men were walking to a destination as they are standing on a path and their feet are pointing in the direction of the path.  These men have been ‘stopped in their tracks’.  Their clothing is smart which suggests they are on their way to a special social occassion.  Their props, walking sticks, are further evidence of their walk.  What makes this photo so great is the almost startled look of the mens faces.  It’s as if August had crept up behind them, camera ready and stepped on a twig gaining his subjects attention.  This seems like a one of perfect moment in time.  The man to the left hasn’t even had time to remove the cigarette from his mouth.  Their position, with their bodies still pointing in the direction they are walking is natural and unposed which are the best and most intriguing types of portraits to me.  This photograph has a slightly sinister look too and I think this acheived by the placing of the horizon line running through the gentlemans necks making the top third of the photograph shows purely the mens heads which makes me think of mafia related activities.  Also the twisted heads and severe uncomfortable gaze of the eyes seem almost disapproving and sceptical. Having said that there’s nothing awkward about this photograph.  The middle man has his other hand visible in a relaxed candid manner. I’m trying to imagine where August had positioned himself and his camera.  The mens feet and bodies look slightly abnormally bigger in proportion to their heads so it would suggest the perspective is lower down than the mens faces but this is a personal view.  With a wide angle lens the closer you are to the lens the more disproportionate you seem in relation to whats behind.  This photograph has a lot to say.

‘Boxers’

This is a complete contrast to ‘Young Farmers on Their Way to a Dance’.  the background is neutral and doesn’t give a clue to it’s location although the men are clearly dressed in boxing attire and therefore we can assume there at a boxing venue.  This photograph is staged with a rigid stand up straight, feet together, arms by your side, look at the camera style.  The lighting is good on the boxers which for an indoor photograph suggests lighting was used.  The boxers are smiling and clean so it’s apparent the fight hasn’t taken place yet.  There’s no mystery surrounding this portrait, it simply is what it is, a portrait of two boxers before their fight.

Whilst looking through ‘The Photograph’ by Graham Clarke I came across a portrait by David Hill and Robert Adamson entitled,

‘Baiting the Line’

This was of particular interest to me because it’s unusual for a portrait to have the face obscurred which in this case is by the shade from the mans hat.However in this composition the mans torso and bellow the waist is included in the frame to show the hands.  The hands are well lit and are holding a piece of line which draws the eyes straight to it.  When I first started studying photography my tutor was insistant the the eyes should always be visible in a portrait to which I strongly disagreed with and this is a perfect example why.

I will now produce a portrait set of my own which will be shown in Part Two.