Portraiture

I plan on specialising in Portraiture Photography. I have a strong interest in Burlesque, I love car crash TV particularly Girls of the Playboy Mansion and I am also inspired by Dita Von Teese.

I have taken some Burlesque themed studio shots - my work is inspired by photographers P.Horst, Paola Kudacki and Mary Ellen Mark. I emulated various lighting from Kudacki's work creating shadows and feel after briefing my model she captured the subtle poses.

I plan on shooting an engagement portrait and my first studio shoot will be based on a couple who recently got engaged. Having recently got married I feel an engagement shoot is an excellent experience in getting used to your chosen photographer and to get used to the poses and interaction you have with not only your partner but with the photographer and to build a relationship with all parties.

I have also been reading a book called The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby.

There are some great tips on shooting portraits with limited equipment and using natural light - positioning of the lens, what lens to use which is recommended focal lengths of 85mm-100mm so you can stand a good 10-12ft away from your subject, how to capture

Las Vegas Trip plan

I'm going to Las Vegas and would like to tie in my specialised theme - Portraits.  I would like to capture the the essence of Vegas the glamour and glitz, vibrant lights, the overwhelming size of the hotels, gambling, luxury, show girls and stage shows plus the street characters you come across.  I will look at street photographers and night time photographers for inspiration.  These include Gregory Winogrand and Martin Parr as recommended by Steve (course lecturer) but also photographers I have discovered on the internet and in photography books such as Street and Studio (Tate edited by Ute Eskildsen) in this book I've discovered Norman Parkinson's work.  His career has spanned for seven decades and he has worked for many high profile fashion magazines including Vogue and Harper's Bazaar - his work has also appeared in the National Gallery.

Research - Engagement Portraits

Engagement Portrait Shoots: 7 Professional Tips to take your Engagement Shoots to the Next Level

by Christina N Dickson

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Today portrait photographer Christina N Dickson shares tips on how to shoot engagement portraits. Christina’s work can be found at www.ChristinaNicholePhotography.com.

Shooting engagement portraits are perhaps some of the most enjoyable for photographers. Most often, they are taken before the whirlwind of wedding planning is fully underway, and the couple is still quite enamored with one another. How do you take advantage of this time and produce incredible images? Follow these few steps to achieve real and vibrant engagement portraits.

1. Be involved!

As a photographer, you must keep your people skills sharp. With engagement photos, you have to do your research on the couple you are photographing. What are they like as a couple? What are they like as individuals? What is their wedding going to be like? How did they meet? This is going to affect the way you want to build your images and portray them.

2. Encourage affection!

Rather than posing each shot, ie, “okay, now you kiss her cheek!” encourage your couple to show as much affection as possible. Every couple does certain things to show one another love. If you want to capture them accurately, you will urge this type of interaction.

3. Be observant!

A couple is most natural when they are focusing on one another. Try to direct the shoot by suggesting they talk to one another, telling one another most embarrassing moments, or 5 things they love about each other– topics that will pull out expression, interaction, and affection.

4. Remember that space determines relationship!

If a couple is leaning in for a kiss, or walking arm in arm, you will be able to communicate a message of intimacy. Sometimes you can get sweet shots with contrast and tension in the picture by placing the couple far apart in the frame, but be sure that this is your purpose if your going to do it.

5. Tell a story.

No love story is the same. Find unique traits about the couple, and then pull this out in the creation of your images. If the couple is perfectly at ease with one another because they have been best friends for 10 years, you can create images with a laid back and contented feel. If the couple has had a whirlwind romance after meeting on e-harmony.com, it will be natural to pull out the affection and passion of their relationship

6. Be open to suggestions!

Often times the bride to be will have an idea for a shot she will suggest to you before hand. Other times her fiancé may think of an idea on the spot during the shoot. If you can integrate these ideas into your shooting, you will delight the couple, and possibly find yourself inspired by new ideas.

7. Be personable!

If you get to know your couple, and allow them to fall in love with your personality and style, you have a good chance of booking them for a wedding also. Your job is not only to take good pictures, but also to give them a fabulous time they will remember for the rest of their lives.

Read more: http://digital-photography-school.com/engagement-portrait-shoots-7-professional-tips-to-take-your-engagement-shoots-to-the-next-level#ixzz0fR3eyatH

Research - Black and White Photography

Many of the portrait and fashion photographers I have been researching such as Herb Ritts and Lara Jade work in black and white photography I aim to convert some of my files to black and white post production using photoshop by desaturating the images which will remove the colour - below is research I looked into from Photography.net
Black and White Photography
(from photographycourse.net)


There are two reasons to shoot black and white photography. One reason is because you think it looks old fashioned and it’s a cool effect. A better reason to shoot black and white photography is because of the lessons it can teach you. Black and White Photography teaches you about values. We’re not talking about ethical values but the value in a monotone sense where color is taken out of the picture and we can focus and value as a single element.

What is Value in Photography?

High value is white and low value is black, you can see below a visual representation of value scale.

Histograms break down the value of a photograph. Once you understand value you can use it to create stark contrasts or to create soft, subtle compositions. Value in the photography world really just translates to light. If you have a heavily lighted photography it is high on the value scale. If you have a low lighted photograph then it is low on the value scale.

Great Black and White Photographers

Ansel AdamsUnderstood the dynamics of black and white photography along with other essential elements and principals of design of and photography. A part of this could be that he didn’t meddle with color as we often get distracted by color and loose the value of thecomposition. To truly understand composition shooting black and white photography is something you have to try as not just an “effect”, but as a teaching tool.

Influence - Lara Jade 1.2

Whilst researching portrait photography on the internet I discovered London born and based photographer Lara Jade. She was born in 1989 and started shooting photographs at 15 years old. Like me Lara Jade is inspired by photographer Mary Ellen Mark - her work has a romantic and conceptual appeal.

I really like the pose in this shot and the texture in the background as well as the floaty light with fabric of her dress, she looks almost carefree.

She works in both black and white and in colour. In some of the shots she has used a wide aperture which has made the background slightly blurred and the colours appear to have reduced saturation which makes the foreground colour of the model stand out (ref image by pool and Mickey mouse ear shot). She has purposely shot images facing the sun, the sunlight or glare from the sun rays makes the images almost ethereal. In contrast she has controlled the light in the location shots where she has made the most out of the negative space.

Tripods - Internet Research

Below I have researched tripods and when ideally to use them.

I purchased a Hama travel tripod for my trip to Las Vegas as I was going to be taking night time shots using a slow shutter speed. I needed to use a tripod in order to avoid camera shake which I would have got holding the camera. Please see image below, taken using my tripod, I found it extremely useful and it was very light weight to take in my luggage. I also used the studio tripod.

To get good photographs you usually have to hold the camera steady. Sometimes a blurry photograph or one in motion can be desired, but most of the time it’s unwanted. The most common equipment to help counter this is the tripod, but I will also give you a few other tips to reduce camera shake in this article.

Tripod

The tripod is the classic tool to make your photographs sharp and crisp. It’s by far the steadiest method and produces great result time after time, but there are a few things to think about.

Just like everything else the tripods comes in all different shapes and sizes, not to mention price classes. It’s important to sit down and think about what you want out of your tripod — is it going to be used in a studio or outdoors, what type of lenses are you planning on using and how much do they weight, do you want a ball head or a 3-way pan-tilt head?

If you’re only going to use the tripod indoors it doesn’t have to be as sturdy and rough as an outdoors tripod needs to be. The heavier the tripod the more stable it is, and I’ve learned a ‘rule’ that says “for every 100mm focal length the tripod should weigh 1kg (2.2 lbs)“. So if you are planning on using a 300mm telephoto lens the tripod should weigh about 3kg (6.6 lbs). I’m not sure how accurate this rule is, but it can work as some kind of guideline. Do keep in mind though that high-end tripods can be both very stable and light, but rather expensive.

If you do not need to have the tripod set up at full height, extend the upper parts of the legs first since the lower parts are thinner and thereby not as stable. Some tripods have the ability to raise a post in the center to maximize the height even more — do not use this feature unless you truly need to since the center post is more unstable.

The choice between a ball head and a 3-way pan-tilt head is simply personal preferences. With the 3-way pan-tilt head you can easily change just one axes, such as panning or tilting, without affecting the other axes. The ball head gives you more ability to move the camera around and is much faster to change, but ball heads are often more expensive.

A personal tripod recommendation would be the Manfrotto 055XPROB legs with the 488RC2 ball head. I have an earlier version of the legs, but the difference is minimal. This combination would land somewhere in the mid-range of prices, but the quality is very high and unless you have very heavy lenses (in which case you might want to look at Gitzo tripods) this is a perfect solution. This tripod is not the lightest, but it’s steady and at a great price.

If you’re tall this is also a tripod to consider, since it stand very tall even without the center post raised.

Monopod

A monopod is a great alternative to tripods and handheld. You can’t have a shutter speed of 1 hour on a monopod like you can on a tripod, you can most likely not even have a shutter speed of 30 seconds — but that’s not the target market for monopods. They are a more mobile tool to help you stabilize your shots without having to carry around a tripod, and monopods are far more simple and quick to set up.

It can take some time getting use to a monopod, and the most effective way to use it is to have its foot placed against your back foot. Do not just have the monopod stand in front of you; this will not give enough stability to help you very much. Try finding a good posture where you can hold the camera as steady as possible.

Hand held

This is the most common way to take photographs and most of the time it will do just fine, but there are ways to take advantage of your surrounding and changing your stance to help you with stability.

Always hold the camera close to you, inhale and hold your breath for the duration of the shot. Don’t just tap the shutter release button — you want to press it down and hold down the finger a short while before lifting it again to minimize camera shake.

If you’re using a telephoto lens or other lens that is somewhat heavy or long place your left hand under the lens and grasp it — do not hold the camera body with both hands if you’re using a heavy lens.

Keeping as low profile as possible is a great way to increase your stability. If possible, lay flat on your stomach with both your elbows on the ground. Not as stable but another good stance is with one knee on the ground and the other one at a 90° angle.

Leaning against a tree or wall is another great way to take the stability of something else and help it make you more stable. If possible, place the camera against the tree/wall to maximize the stability. The same goes for rocks, logs, railings and more or less everything you can find to rest your camera on. On many occasions it can be more helpful to rest your camera on a rock than using a monopod.

One last trick I learned from a friend of mine; take your left hand and place it on your right shoulder, take your camera in your right hand and place it on your left elbow/forearm — this might take some time getting use to but the result is a very stable stance that works great with telephoto lenses.

There is a general rule in photography that says that your shutter speed should be at least equal to your focal length to minimize unwanted camera shakes. This means that if you use a 100mm telephoto lens the shutter speed should be at least 1/100s, if you use a 300mm lens the shutter speed should be at least 1/320s.

A warning about the previous stated rule is crucial. Most Digital SLR cameras do not have a sensor with the same dimensions as 35mm film (which was used at the time the rule was made). In most cases the camera has a crop factor of 1.5 or 1.6, this means that a 100mm leans is actually a 150 or 160mm lens when translated into 35mm film sizes.

If you’re using a camera with a crop factor of 1.6 and using a 200mm telephoto lens you should have a shutter speed of at least 1/320 (200mm * 1.6 = 320)