Workshop Experience : Semester B Week 5 Portraiture
This week we went through in detail the different genres of portraiture and how the particular genre is to be shot to get the best effect. Portraiture I love but have only really played with street style portraiture - randoms stopped in the street and posed in the street environment at the time. I am looking forward to the studio style portraiture we now need to play with.
Our portfolio will need to cover :
- Environmental, where we capture not only the subject but also the surrounds to help add to the story we are trying to tell. Eye contact is critical for this genre. Check out the work of Arnold Newman to see how a legend does it
- Group, being 3 or more people. Location and capturing how the group relate to each other is key. And is probably the hardest to achieve a good result.
- Straight, being your classic head/shoulders in to the lens type portrait. Background/surrounds less important and its all about the engagement in to the camera of the subject.
We have only just started on the lighting options around portraiture as well, but I will now start using a small off camera softbox flash capability as well as a reflector - will see what the results are like soon enough!
I picked up a pretty easy to read and instructive book on portraiture as well.
©Erik Valind
What I like about this book is you start out with understanding basics and the genres and camera settings and lenses etc, and then within chapters you are getting instruction on 2, 3 4 light source portrait setups either in a studio or outdoors. Really easy to follow, great examples of before light and after light portraits, and great step by step set up instructions and ideas. A great read for beginners and intermediates and especially because it doesn't push for equipment purchase and rather lets you see what can be achieved with a minimal kit list eg. a camera and maybe a off camera flash set up with a reflector. I found it very helpful in reinforcing in detail what we are learning about in class, and the light set up instructions and pictures are worth their weight. I recommend getting a copy if you are keen.
In the meantime, check out these great examples below from some masters !
©Arnold Newman
©Dan Winters