Assignment One

Here's my final selection for Assignment 1: six portraits of the same model from six separate sessions, displayed in chronological order: the earliest first. 

This image is taken with two studio flash units plus a small flash behind to illuminate the hair, which hasn't created the complete halo I was looking for.  The backlit hair is out of balance with the rest.  I need to provide my sitter with a mirror, and also to take a more critical look at details before I shoot.  Hard lighting suits the alert expression. 

A more relaxed expression, with softer lighting.  The hand distorts the lip line.

I like the way the hips tilt one way, the shoulders the other.  The model's clearly relaxed and happy.  I should have tidied that strand of hair.  What did I say, to make her laugh?

A rehearsal shot from Suddenly At Home.  The stage lighting has flattened the image and it looks almost as though on-camera flash was used: it wasn't.  Yet there's reasonable modelling, and the distraught expression is clear.  There's a story here: what has upset her so much?

In rehearsal for my play, Katie and Peter.  Better modeling from the stage lights, a happy arrangement of crockery, an interesting pose with cup and saucer, and a quizzical expression.  I could have wished for better framing, but I wanted to crop out the actor on her left.  The story here is in her dubious response to the action to her right.

An image from my latest shoot.  Other images from this session appear in an earlier blog, but I like this pose, the interesting shapes made by the arms, and the drooping fingers.  Looking at this I find my gaze constantly moving from the eyes, down the model's left arm to the hand, where the highlight on the chair bounces it back to the index finger up the other arm to the face and eyes, and so on.  A major objective of a photographer is to get people to look at his photographs, and the longer, the better, and I think this is successful.

My problems.
Technique and technology still intrude in my studio portraiture.  I want to place more of the emphasis on the model, how she looks, how the light plays on her features, how she feels and behaves.  I have difficulty preparing for a shoot; I haven't got a satisfactory notation system to plan with, and poses tend to be ad hoc, and at the suggestion of the model.  With an experienced model this is often okay, but I struggle to direct an inexperienced or nervous one.

What I want to do.
The more I practise, the better I hope to get.  Familiarity with the equipment and situation will help me concentrate on the model and the effects of light.
I'm studying the work of other photographers, trying to understand how they obtained the effects they have, and also deepening my appreciation of portrait photography.
I intend to create a vocabulary of stock poses and lighting situations, documented in photographs, to assist in planning, and as a Plan B, for when imagination fails.
Inside and outside the studio, I want to develop more confidence in directing models and organising the session.  Practice will help here; I just have to get on and do it.

I'm very grateful to Carol, my model in all six sessions.  She's beautiful, confident and relaxed in front of the camera, which make my job much easier.   I hope to photograph her many times in the future, when my skill may perhaps improve until I'm worthy of her.