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>>>MClass I. Part 1. 1) Preparations.

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twclead said:
I hope I'm not getting out of context here. My question has to do
with backgrounds when you wish to show the location such as when on a
vacation.

What guidelines should you look for if you want a portrait but also
want the area to hold equal importance? Here is an example I took
while on vacation in Hawaii. I wanted to show the area but also
wanted to have a good composition with regard to the people. My comp
didn't come out as I would have liked espcecially since I was in the
picture.

Dale
Click to expand...
My thoughts: posing like this, makes this photograph (very good itself) looking like snap-shot. Yes, we see beautiful surroundings, but...

I think that if you were BUSY DOING something, for example, one standing at the camera, preparing to take a shot and the other pointing somewhere with his hand (looking some 10-20 degrees from the line to the shooting camera).
Of course your poses are natural for snapshots, but not natural in life...
But... Dale.. We are runing a few steps forward...
Could you, please take part in our HOMEWORK #1?

Spasibo,
Yuri
http://pautov.viplast.ru
 
Yuri Pautov said:
twclead said:
I hope I'm not getting out of context here. My question has to do
with backgrounds when you wish to show the location such as when on a
vacation.

What guidelines should you look for if you want a portrait but also
want the area to hold equal importance? Here is an example I took
while on vacation in Hawaii. I wanted to show the area but also
wanted to have a good composition with regard to the people. My comp
didn't come out as I would have liked espcecially since I was in the
picture.

Dale
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Yuri Pautov said:
I think that if you were BUSY DOING something, for example, one
standing at the camera, preparing to take a shot and the other
pointing somewhere with his hand (looking some 10-20 degrees from the
line to the shooting camera).
Click to expand...
Thanks, Yuri, I like your suggestions but my question has more to do with the background because that is what lesson one is all about.

What I wanted to know is what to look for in a background when you are trying to include the location as part of the composition. For instance, should you give the background more prominance by making the figures a smaller part of the total picture or should you take closeups of the subjects to the side with the background capturing the point of interest?

And in the background should you try to achieve an overall look of the location or try to find a detail that reflects the location.

Thanks for undetaking this monumental task,

Dale

Happiness is a Barbershop Quartet
 
I'll follow this thread, would love to participate but have very little time to be out with the camera these days... great idea anyways to have a little 'cyber class' and what looks like will end up being a very informative thread!

Cheers guys!
--
( ! ) Martin ( http://www.jpgmag.com/people/mschf )
 
sharp acceptable. A large number of head shots I took in the studio with medium format cameras were like that. But watch out if the far eye is sharp and the near eye soft, no one will accept it.
--
marion aka OTD one of those Duc Klub people.

 
Kattslackey said:
sharp acceptable. A large number of head shots I took in the studio
with medium format cameras were like that. But watch out if the far
eye is sharp and the near eye soft, no one will accept it.
--
marion aka OTD
Click to expand...
...and you're absolutely right again, Marion.

That point of focus is critical with such shallow dof.

Cheers,
Jerry
 
I appreciate your willingness to share some of your experiences with portrait photography.

For our first homework assignment, you want us to photograph several backgrounds (outside & in) that could be used for future portrait shoots.

My question is, as you noted, time of day & lighting will greatly impact the chosen background. Do we have to photograph the site at the time of day it would be used, or could we simply go take the picture and note that it would be used at a different time (i.e., I photograph a bridge support at midday in harsh light, but note that I would use it in the evening). My reason for asking is that in order to do this homework in one day, I could not get out at various times of day to several different places, and I am very limited in how much time I can spend on this.

Does my question make sense?

--
Kathy
'All the world's a stage.'

 
KT Mae said:
I appreciate your willingness to share some of your experiences with
portrait photography.

For our first homework assignment, you want us to photograph several
backgrounds (outside & in) that could be used for future portrait
shoots.

My question is, as you noted, time of day & lighting will greatly
impact the chosen background. Do we have to photograph the site at
the time of day it would be used, or could we simply go take the
picture and note that it would be used at a different time (i.e., I
photograph a bridge support at midday in harsh light, but note that I
would use it in the evening). My reason for asking is that in order
to do this homework in one day, I could not get out at various times
of day to several different places, and I am very limited in how much
time I can spend on this.

Does my question make sense?

--
Kathy
'All the world's a stage.'

Click to expand...
--
Kathy
Spasibo,for taking part in our MClass.
John!
Spasibo also! I beleive in you!

Of course, we are talking about backgrounds in general.
We will discuss time of shooting a little bit later.
You can take photos of your backgrounds at any time of day.

I am sure that you will keep in your mind not only the place, but also the 'scene' itself - how you 'see' it. Some of them will be 'attached' in your mind to particular time of day and particular weather also.

The main thing - your background itself. Surely, you willbe thinking while choosing it!

Your background with some words about it. 'I will make portrait here in the misty morning.' - this might be a comment to your choice.

Look at my homework just like example.
Kathy!
One important thing: have fun! :-)

Just imagine - a movie star came to you and asked: "Can you take some portraits of me? But I have only half an hour!"
Where will you take him / her then?
Our homework must arm you - you will be ready for such a gift!

Spasibo,
Yuri
 
I did not wait for your reply. I left my house shortly after posting, and have gone searching for a few possibilities. These shots were all taken between 11am and 1:30pm.

I am not certain of the best times at any of these places.... please let me know what i am doing right and what I am doing wrong.

Yuri, I was not considering having the honor of shooting a celebrity.... I was more thinking about everyday people. lol I may have to go out again with a movie star in mind, just in case!!!

Some of these have white as a predominant color... how difficult and ineffective would that make a portrait shot?

I would envision this being early morning or just before sunset:













--
Kathy
'All the world's a stage.'

 
I really want to learn to take good portraits!!
I took many different background possibilities today.... here are two more...





Kathy
'All the world's a stage.'

 
twclead said:
Thanks, Yuri, I like your suggestions but my question has more to do
with the background because that is what lesson one is all about.

What I wanted to know is what to look for in a background when you
are trying to include the location as part of the composition. For
instance, should you give the background more prominance by making
the figures a smaller part of the total picture or should you take
closeups of the subjects to the side with the background capturing
the point of interest?

And in the background should you try to achieve an overall look of
the location or try to find a detail that reflects the location.

Thanks for undetaking this monumental task,

Dale
Click to expand...
You know Dale, I cant give you the proper answer, because its a matter of Taste. Your taste. But remember, we are talking about portraits.

And surely you yourself can recognize the border between the portrait (with a human as a main subjects) and landscape or cityscape (with Nature or architecture as a main subjects).

As for me, if there's a task to 'immortalize' my relatives during our visit to some place (Red Square in Moscow, for example), and remembering all these 'cliche' photographs with smiling faces on the foreground, I prefer to make them (my people) a part of the scene (not arresting viewer's attention).

Hope my English was not that bad and you understood me :-)
Yuri
 
Very good work, Kathy!
Now you have so many backgrounds!
I like them all, and surely, you will make good portraits with them!
The only thing I'd like to mention - those horizontal lines on the wall.
Be careful - they may become arrows going from / into your model's head.
But yes, you can blur them (lines), using DOF.
But in general - perfect choice!
My congratulations!

Spasibo,
Yuri
 
TIME PLACE and DRESS

Of course, we are talking here about the preparation period, when you have an influence on what is going on.

I prefer morning and evening time. But if the day is dull and the light comes from ‘everywhere’, it is your time for street / outdoors portraits. If I have to photograph at daytime and the sun is hot, I choose ‘shadow’ places. Big buildings, for example. If you see that there’s not enough light (overcast day), and you must use, for example, 1/50 or more exposure, just take a tripod with you. If you have a remote for your camera, take it also, because small camera vibrations can cause blurring of your final shot. Yes, you can use timer instead of remote, but in this case the model’s great emotion can fly away while your timer will count 3,2,1.

We have already talked in previous posts about the meaning of backgrounds and I am waiting for your homeworks and your questions.

Don’t know about the places you live in, but here in Russia, when women are preparing for some outing, they ask themselves, often aloud, the same great question: ‘What to put on?’ Of course, this is also the question of the model. When I have a talk with my model before our session, I ask her to avoid white dresses. Don’t know about your cameras, but white dress and hot light is a killer for my SONY R1 with its dynamic range.

Yes, we can make portraits with white dresses (wedding photography). But if you have any chance not to do this – just take this chance.

Now I will tell you a secret: “The more ordinary dress your model will have – the more your portrait will look like a snapshot!” Ask your model to take several kinds of garment. I often even use naked shoulders of the model in the photograph (cropping dress afterwards) to make the portrait unusual.
I also ask my ‘models’ to be modest with their make-up.

And so, with all this knowledge, are we ready to find a model for our portrait work?

Yuri
 
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