Exercise 1: Portrait, Scale & Setting

This is the first project/exercise in the People & Places course. It is an exercise in composition and weight of attention placed on the face and other body parts, depending on the framing. I took LOTS of photos of my subject (who was very patient) at various scales, and orientations, and he obliged by responding to my bad jokes and suggestions of where to look etc. I found focusing a little challenging; it was difficult to keep the focus on the eyes, but from looking at the results afterwards it seems that they are all generally in good focus. I used my flash through a white umbrella off to one side, and there is some fill-light from the nearby window, though next time I might try using the reflector to fill the light on the other side of his face. The four photos below are what I think the 'best' for each scale, though I have other favourites too! After doing this project I felt more comfortable with my equipment (fairly new to using external flash), and it wasn't too hard to suggest poses and to get my subject to come up with good expressions.

Photo 1: Face, cropped in close
This gives a very intimate view of the subject, and most of the attention is focused on his eyes, and also on his mouth. The lit eye is probably the feature which grabs the attention first and holds it the strongest.

55mm, f/9.5, 1/30s, flash through umbrella

Photo 2: Head & Shoulders
The eyes in this case are squinting with laughter (it was a fun photo session) and the eyes and the strong laughter lines around them are the main focal point in the photo, followed by the mouth.

42mm, f/9.5, 1/30s, flash through umbrella

Photo 3: Head and torso, including arms & hands
I liked his pose in this photo, even though the jumper is quite dark, it is an interesting way to position the arms, and suits his position relaxing on the couch. The eyes/face still hold the most interest, but the body and couch are now more important parts of the photo.

28mm, f/9.5, 1/30s, flash through umbrella

Photo 4: Full figure
This is a comfortable looking pose on the front of the couch, chosen as the leaning back look gave a strange effect to the photo. I like the way the stripes down the arms pair with the bent legs to give a kind of 'stacked' effect to the photo.

24mm, f/9.5, 1/30s, flash through umbrella