The portraiture brief was the one I took the most photos for thus far, trying out different styles, lighting, locations and subjects. I trialled the styles of most of the photographer whom I researched, taking care to get used to talking to subjects and to using the camera on a living, moving being. Here are a few shots that I took before deciding to move to the studio:
I began my project by photographing a close friend, someone I know very well, in her home environment. Here, she looks comfortable enough to not focus on the camera and makes for a nice image. However, I was not happy with the focus on any of these early shots and so I decided not to submit them as final portraits.
I also photographed my sister in the same environment which made for a very interesting set of photographs. Whilst my sister is comfortable around me, she is not comfortable in front of a camera nor was she in a familiar setting. This made for awkward and funny photos that I like, but yet again the technicals are not there in these images.
This photograph was taken on my shoot with Estera, who features in my final ‘familiar’ portrait. We began by experimenting with dramatic low lighting and a dark background, with expression to match. Estera is very comfortable around the camera and we built a report to make some good images.