Portrait Assignment

Focus on the following elements: • Lighting (direction, intensity) • Vantage point (camera direction, setting, background) • Perspective (subject distance vs. focal length) • Depth of field • Subject direction (poses, props, expression) Make an

Environmental

Portrait Portrait Environmental Portrait

What is an Environmental Portrait?

Formal portraits simply depict a person’s appearance; environmental portraits also depict aspects about the person Come up with a “theme” – what about the person are you trying to show?

Typical aspects that are shown: (essentially, why this person is interesting/relevant enough for a portrait) • Occupation/work • Skills • Physical attributes • Passions/interests Portrait Environmental Portrait

What is an Environmental Portrait?

Ways to create an environmental portrait: • Place the subject in their natural environment (home, office, classroom, etc.) • Utilize props related to the theme • Catch subjects “in action” • Make sure facial expressions fit theme (e.g. athlete looks tough/menacing, theatre troupe looks happy, etc.) Portrait Environmental Portrait

Lighting

Figure out your main subject, and illuminate it!

Lighting

Techniques: Sunlit subject, shaded background

Lighting

Techniques: Spotlights Photos by Mike Seeman (www.mikeseeman.com)

Lighting

Techniques: Light falloff from direct flash

Lighting

Techniques: Dark-colored background

Lighting

Exception: make the background so bright that the highlights clip (i.e. no highlight detail)

Lighting

Diffuse is usually good – smooth skin tones, no distracting detail

Lighting

Harsh(er) lighting can make things interesting – play with shadows!

Lighting

Side-lighting can add a bit of shadow, making images more dynamic

Lighting

Rim-lighting: light coming off-center from behind subject Photo by Skyler Reid (www.skyreid.com)

Lighting

Using different colors can add a mood, and highlight certain subjects and features

Vantage Point

Above Ground is a often a clean background Perspective distortion emphasizes the face

Vantage Point

Below Can give a sense of power/height Sky, ceiling are often clean backgrounds

Vantage Point

The face doesn’t have to be the subject

Vantage Point

Look around for clean backgrounds: solid colors

Vantage Point

Look around for clean backgrounds: consistent patterns, and/or symmetry

Vantage Point

Or look for interesting backgrounds

Perspective

Up-close – a lot of times, ugly

Perspective

Up-close – but can also be interesting, less “formal”

Perspective

Up-close – keep in mind perspective distortion – whatever is close to the camera will be big, edges have distortion

Perspective

Far perspective is most conventional, safe

Perspective

Context tradeoff – more information about scenery, less focus on portrait subject

Depth of Field

Shallow

Depth of Field

Large depth of field is needed to show the context of the scene

Subject Direction

Facial expressions

Subject Direction

Shoot candids • Good way of relaxing your subject • Scenes, props, actions of the subject are natural, realistic • Quirky moments between poses

Subject Direction

Eye contact can capture the viewer’s attention -however, you may not always want eyes to be the focal point

Subject Direction

Props

Subject Direction

Setting