People & Place - Assignment 1 People Aware

The assignment required that I draw on my experiences in completing the opening exercises to take one person as a subject and create between 5 and 7 different portraits.  These should differ in type and style, and each be from a separate photographic session. Write an evaluation of my finished portraits and critically assess my finished work; identify and analyse the reasons for both successful and unsuccessful thechiques and consider where I need to strengthen your own skills and understanding and explain how I will achieve this.

 

I asked to take some head and shoulder pictures of my subject and also thought that some of her with her mother in their home would be good. In the end I decided to focus on Lucy alone with her jewellery and omit the extra distraction of her mother in the images.
The lighting was not good so I had to use my flash attachment which caused some problems, even when I bounced it off the ceiling rather than directed it straight at the subject.

The final image above came from the picture right, where I cropped it to remove most of the distracting background. What had seemed a good idea at the time was to feature the sun mirror in the background, but this has proved quite a distraction when you look at the image as a whole. In the final picture I have blurred the back ground in the hope that by it being blurred it wouldn’t be such a distraction. I also removed the candlestick which showed directly behind Lucy’s right shoulder in the final image as it seems to be a growth and adds nothing to the image.

Tutor Comment

Picture No 1
You’ve made a cogent analysis of the methodology you followed in creating the image.
It brings to mind these thoughts, in no particular order...

A person’s home environment can tell us as much about them as the look on their face.  However, what many students seem to do on this assignment is to immediately associate the word portrait with ‘head and shoulders’ and proceed to crop in so tight on the opening image that it’s like a passport photograph.
I think you had the right idea with the original composition of this shot; there are many objects in the environment that add to the richness of explanation about the person. The only problem is that we have a mirror growing out of her head.  This is the result of not taking control of the space. If you had previsualised her a couple of steps backward, with perhaps her right elbow resting on the mantelpiece, there would have been plenty of clear background behind her head between the mirror and the candle, with some of her treasured objects spread out along the mantelpiece to the left of her; picture right.  So the methodology in this case would be... I’m already familiar with the interior and I think a composition of her against the mantelpiece, tellingly surrounded by some of her work, would make a good composition from this angle.

In this case no part of the uncropped image appears to be critically sharp, suggesting that you are rather front focussed.  The shadows from your light are much harder than I’d expect if it was bounced off the ceiling.  What governs the quality of the shadows is the size of the light source relative to the object you are lighting. Obviously with direct flash the light source is tiny compared to the subject for most things; consequently the shadows are very hard. Turning it away from the subject to point to the ceiling, so that no direct light from it falls on the subject, means part of the ceiling effectively becomes a much bigger light source relative to the subject so its light is softer.

The expression that you’ve captured is open and expressive of character. 
It was a valiant attempt to ameliorate the distraction of the mirror in Photoshop but it would have been preferable to solve this problem before the shoot when you setup.

My Image No 2

Picture No. 2
I think you did choose the best shot of the sequence. I would have cropped it rather tighter though as I think your initial thoughts about the blown water were correct.
It is a shame that again its front focussed and having the spiky hair in focus rather emphasises that. However, although it captures our attention it does lead us up the line of the oar to the subject’s face and with the distractions further up the oar cropped out we do linger on the face rather than moving on from it.  There’s a concentration in the face that extends our understanding of it.

Tutor suggested crop

Picture 3

My Image 3

I think you’ve chosen the best composition from this set, showing the detailed work and
concentration going in to making the jewellery but I would be more inclined to go with this version of it...

Tutor suggested Image 3

 In the one you’ve chosen the face isn’t critically sharp, here it is. I’ve also sharpened it a bit. Digital images nearly always require a modicum of sharpening as the final stage in post-production.  You’ve handled the technical challenges of the situation well and I was thrilled to see you intelligently adjusting the Levels to compensate for deficiencies in the originals.



Picture 4

My Image 4

This is a simple picture that well represents the enjoyment she gets from her craft. I’m not sure about cropping through the top of the head though. It tends to draw the attention away from the face to the soft light reflection in the top of her forehead, perhaps cropping tighter to the eye brow line, while still a little uncomfortable, would be better.  This seems to direct the attention more to the face and the work....

Tutor suggested Image 4

Picture 5

My Image 5

I think you’re right that this is the weakest one. The colleague seems to be the main interest in the picture and also we’re excluded from what they are looking at. We’re being asked to look at this picture but rather rudely they won’t show us what they’re looking at.
I much prefer P2080202...

Tutor suggestion for Image 5

She’s looking thoughtful, almost pensive. The symmetry between her and the woman in the calendar, with the man almost looking out at her, creates narrative possibilities that make this the most telling image of the set from a narrative point of view, hinting at her internal life rather than portraying her activities.


Image 6

Image No 6

I think this is a very strong image, in a forensic evidential way. It doesn’t pull any punches; the light is coldly descriptive showing every bump, blemish and identifying mark.   The unnaturally even turquoise background begins to suggest mug shot identification photography. I’m torn between that and it’s natural background which perhaps suggests that life is more complicated than a mug shot will admit to.
Thinking on it I prefer it au naturel, un-retouched, and proclaim it the image of the set by some margin. My only complaint would be that it’s cropped rather tight at the top.



Conclusion
The assignment requires that you draw on your experiences in completing the opening exercises to take one person as a subject and  you’ve shown energy, commitment and engagement in the delivery of the assignment.  Well done!

The assignment evidences some areas of good technical control, while other areas need some attention, particularly focussing, so pay particular attention to that when you are shooting.  Also experiment with using your Speedlight bounced, mounted off camera. 
In the analogue days we had to shoot Polaroids to finely judge the effect of flash lighting, nowadays we have instant digital previews and histogram support. Use those facilities to optimise your lighting before you begin shooting.  Tripods aren’t just for situations where the shutter speed is too slow to hand hold; they are also used to maintain accurate framing while shooting.  You identified diverse situations to create a rounded portrait of your subject of which two I think we’re particularly successful, 5 & 6, in that they convey sub textual character or interrogate.

I think you can be pleased with your efforts and I look forward to seeing your next assignment.

People & Place - Assignment 1 People Aware retrospective

February 2011:

Now that I am nearing the end of this module, I thought it would be prudent to complete a blog for Assignment 1, People Aware.  This would keep all my work together in one place rather than have one assignment paper based and the other 4 completed using a blog. It might take a little time as I am currently working on the final assignment (5) at the same time.