Review a portrait sequence

I am normally one to follow instructions - if a brief says "do x" I am loathe to "do y". I take it as a given that exercises and assignments are set out with the aim of maximising the learning return, therefore why play about with the instructions.

In this exercise, however, I have decided to deviate somewhat from the brief. I set out below a sequence, as required, but it is not "in a formal, structured way", it is not a "consistent setting and framing", and tripod is not used. Instead it is a sequence of images taken at an event: the launch of a book of children's poetry published by my wife. The subject is the author, and the images are taken in Weymouth library at an event organised by her; she read some of her poems to some children. I captured images of the author signing her book and reading.

Why choose this? For a couple of reasons: firstly, using an environment with plenty of distracting features demonstrated very well the need to compose well; secondly, the inherent activity made for challenging opportunities to capture the expression of the author, and, in some images, the other subjects. To be frank, I found this a lot more enjoyable than setting up a formal studio style shoot.

I had little control of author's expressions and had to "go with the flow", but this in turn helped with a skill that we have not looked in portraiture so far: anticipation. Could I anticipate what would happen next in order best to capture the expressions and poses?

The need for spontaneity and speed made the idea of reviewing in camera impossible. The review is therefore carried out in the browser only, and after some post processing.

The sequence was as follows:

  

 Next, these were ranked into the four categories of a) not good; b) acceptable; c) good; and d) the best single shot, as follows:

Not good

 Cannot see author's face

 Author is looking up and image has distraction of someone else almost as prominent

 A promising image, author has excited and active expression - ruined by the girl's eyes closed.

 Better but author's mouth is closed.

This would be have been a great image - even the background person adds to the effect with a nice smile, but author's eyes closed.

Acceptable

 Despite the shadow from on camera flash, this is a reasonable action shot of book signing with nice expression.

Better composition but expression is lacking.

The author is subsidiary to the illustrator in this image but the relaxed feel to the picture compensates.

On the cusp of acceptability, this image shows how the author developed her notes and as such adds interest to a sequence.

 

Slightly too far away, but the author takes the eye and the boy looking intently with a strong implied line to the author further helps focus the attention.

Composition slightly spoiled this otherwise good image with the roof light taking the eye's attention and the woman's hair behind the boy's left arm.

A captivating image of the author slightly spoiled by the static poises of the children and the girl not looking left.

A shot posed by a photographer taking images for the local paper. It works but everyone is looking at official photographer.

Ditto

Good

Although the author's expression is not ideal, the composition, the prominence of the book, the expression on the little girl, and on the girl behind are ideal for the aim of the image. Nice pose from the author.

OK, it's not a portrait but as part of a book launch sequence it works well.

No doubt about the subject matter. The girl is attentive. It would be the best if not for the overlap of faces.

Nearly a joint winner, the expressions are marvellous and the poses match.

Best single shot

Lovely expressions  - the boy reading from the book while the author recites to the audience works very well.

 
This was an interesting and challenging exercise. I will be honest and say that the standard of images is generally not great - I credit myself with better composition than this normally - but that is to some extent the peril of the venue - it was cramped. But I took some very varied expressions and gestures with some interesting results and gained from the experience of taking images in real time with minimal opportunity to review results on location.

Eye contact and expression

The requirement is to set up a portrait session with the face prominent, directing the subject to look both at me and away. I gave directions for the shoot.

I used a tripod and remote control for this shoot so as to be in a better place for directing the gaze.

I have not supplied technical details on each shot - all were shot at f13 with shutter speeds ranging from 1/15 to 1/30 in natural light on a dull day; no additional props or lighting were used.

There are four full body shots, four torso shots, and eight head and shoulders shots. Having completed the exercise on pose and stance, I was interested to include a few observations of the relationship between pose/stance and expression in this exercise for the first few shots.

All shots were post processed using Camera Raw - I nearly always reduce clarity to about -30 for portraits in order to soften the skin tones - this adds to the slight blurring.

 A very relaxed pose mirrors a confident expression - subject clearly at ease with being photographed.

 

Similar pose, the expression is smiling  but the sense here is not looking at anything in particular.

Similar expression but more evidently engaged with something to the left off camera.

A very relaxed confident expression, slightly dreamy gaze.

 This works less well - an attempt to look upwards to subject's left. The audience's eye is taken to the eyes only.

A very classic expression - sort of classic portrait. Leaning forward slightly, the pose matches the expression well.

Very similar to previous.

A thoughtful expression.

A classic expression again - confident air, at ease with the circumstances.

A very attractive smile slightly marred by a slight lack of focussing.

One of the best images - catch lights caught in the eyes. Very focussed expression.

A very nice expression - thoughtful and engrossed.

And again.

The eyes are caught very well in this shot - I like the quite expressionless look.

Thoughtful and warm expression.

 

Whimsical expression, the look to the left hints at someone distracting the subject.

A very useful exercise for one who is inexperienced in portraiture. Main learning outcomes:

• You can take some very good portraits in natural light - props and lighting are not essential;
• Expressions can make or break an image - a few of the above do not work, others are fine;
• Tripod is very useful so as one can direct the shoot more easily;
• Interesting to view the relationship between pose and expression in the full body shots.

Varying the pose

As the notes say, pose or stance is a body equivalent to expression. This exercise is designed to explore how variations in pose can send different messages to the audience in much the same way as facial expression, and therefore how pose and stance can be used by the photographer.

As suggested, I looked through several magazines for ideas; I don't list them here but the subject matters included cooking, women's affairs and student matters.

My subject for this exercise is my son. All the images were taken in the lounge of our house. I resisted the temptation to ask him to remove his glasses. Additional illumination was supplied by Microlite Panels.

Canon EOS 450D with EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM. f4; 1/15; ISO 800 focal length 24mm.

This is almost an exaggerated relaxed stance. Possibly the serious formal expression contrasts too strongly with relaxed stance - lesson here to get consistency between the two.

Canon EOS 450D with EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM. f16; 1/15; ISO 800 focal length 47mm

The pose was inspired by a similar image in a women's magazine. Holding a cup hints at a homely context.

Canon EOS 450D with EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM. f16; 1/15; ISO 800 focal length 45mm

The pose is more engaged - the implied line is off camera; I asked the subject to sit quite upright with arms in front to give the clear impression of listening intently to something or someone off camera.

Canon EOS 450D with EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM. f16; 1/15; ISO 800 focal length 55mm

This is my favourite of the set - a very distinctive blokey stance - and this time the expression goes with the stance; a mildly aggressive pose that sort of says "get on with it". I saw a similar image in an accountancy magazine, which probably says it all.

This exercise worked well for me; I had not really thought about pose and stance before - rather taken what I got - but now can see it is an important adjunct to expression. As important I can see how sometimes expression and pose/stance can work in harmony (as in the last image) and sometimes not (as in the first).

Focal length

In this exercise we are asked to take images of a subject using exactly the same framing on the face with different focal lengths using at least different lengths.

I asked my son's girlfriend to be the subject for this exercise. The shots were taken outside on a typical summer's day: windy and raining. The need for shelter obviated against taking some wider torso shots so I restricted to three framing sets: looking right, looking at the camera, and looking left. I used the first and second of these sets, there being no additional learning benefit from including the third.

I used my Canon 450D on a tripod. I do not include all the technical data on each shot for this exercise (the focal length is all important) but for the record, I used two lenses: 24-105mm and 70-200, moving the tripod successively further away. All shots were taken with aperture 13, and most were between 1/45 and 1/90 shutter speed.

There is a degree of post processing; I tried to standardise the changes across all images.

I set out below the first set of images:

focal length 24mm

focal length 45mm

focal length 70mm

focal length 91mm

focal length 131mm

It is clear from this set of five that proportions of the face do vary according to the focal length. It is logical: think of the effect of looking through a peep hole in a front door - the face outside is very distorted with the nose typically taking up half or more of the face. The changes in this set are quite subtle - certainly the first two wider angle images are not as good as the last three. These are better proportioned and somewhat flatter - it is almost as if the two dimensional effect requires a longer lens; what I notice here is that the wide angle effect diminishes quite quickly; the last image is probably the best but not by much.

Here is the second set of images - looking at the camera:

focal length 24mm

focal length 35mm

focal length 58mm

focal length 75mm

focal length 126mm

The general conclusion from reviewing this set is the same as above: the longer focal lengths are better images - the last is especially satisfying, albeit helped by the wind. The first two images are not satisfactory - the first is almost an "in your face" appearance. What is especially significant here is how much more pronounced the contrast between focal lengths is when the subject is looking at the camera rather than away.

I learnt from this exercise two main outcomes:

1) that longer focal lengths do work better; the facial features are more flattened and truer in relative size to one another;

2) that this is especially true of images facing directly at the camera.