Assignment 3 - Portraiture

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Light Quality, Environment, Portraiture and The Self Portrait

It’s essential to become more aware of the expressive nature that different qualities of light have, and to develop an understanding of the portrait process.

1. Window Light Portrait. Find a few indoor locations with window light. Choose a patient person who's willing to spend a more than a few minutes to serve as your photographic subject. Position the person so that they are facing about 45 to 90 degrees from the window (the light is coming from their side). Ask them to slowly move their head from side to side and look at how the light changes across their face. Don’t include the window in the shot, as its exposure will be much greater than the rest of the room.

Meter using a gray card (place it in front of the subject’s face) and use that exposure. Or meter directly off the highlight area of the face. When photographing lighter skinned people, you can meter off the highlight and open up one stop of exposure (either shutter speed or aperture, say going from f8 to f 5.6 or going from 1/125” to 1/60”) when there are soft highlights (where the shadows on the other side don't appear too deep). For brighter highlights, open up two stops. When photographing dark skinned people, use the reading when you meter off the highlight side of the face in soft light, and open up one stop from the meter reading off the highlight when there are deep shadows being cast. Bracket your exposures.

Plan on having a tripod and cable release for this assignment. Depending on how bright the light is coming in, your shutter speeds may be too slow to hand hold the camera, particularly those of you using the slower zoom lenses (3.5-4.5); then use a tripod (from check-out) to stabilize the camera. Remember to consider the necessity of stopping action (shutter speed choice) and depth of field (aperture choice). By having your subject hold still and your camera on a tripod, you can use a smaller aperture to achieve a greater depth of field, if you want.

Try making a number of exposures as your subject changes their position relative to the light. Make additional exposures as they alter their expression, as they vary their body language. Move your camera closer and farther away to vary your framing and how much of the person to include in the viewfinder. Go from a wide to a very tight shot. (using different focal length lenses, if you have them).

Change your perspective by moving the camera lower and higher. Use props, if you want. Exhaust your possibilities!

2. Environmental Portrait. Also try some “environmental” portraits, where you carefully position your subject in a room (not necessarily next to a window), and using deep depth of field (small aperture); you photograph the person in relationship to part of the interior. Take some time looking for rooms that have character (quality of light, interesting wall hangings or architectural features, etc).   But remember that an environment is more than just a room.  Try to be aware of how the subject relates to the environment visually speaking.  Why did you place the subject in the exact spot that you chose?  How does the environment give us more information about the subject?  Use the creative controls of your camera to do make the image more interesting.

Be sure to produce portraits from at least 2 portrait sittings. Try photographing in both diffuse (flat) and direct (contrasty) light. With direct light, take advantage of the strong shapes that shadows produce. Look at how differently objects are defined (shape, contrast, line, texture, depth) in varying qualities of direct light. Walk around a subject and see, as you move, how differently your subject looks as the direction of light changes. Remember to commit more than one negative to every subject you choose.

3. Self Portrait. There is a rich tradition of self-portraiture in photography.

Look at the books on self-portraiture on reserve at the library. Notice the range of approaches, from the document of oneself at a particular time and place, to more theatrical and fantasy-like images.

You'll also need a tripod for this part of the assignment. You may have someone stand in for you so you can focus, or you may place an object in for focusing purposes. Most cameras have self-timers that you can employ to make the exposure. If your camera doesn't have one, you can get a long cable release bulb (checkout has one) or from a camera store ($10) or, if absolutely necessary, have someone else press the shutter. I would prefer that you not have another helping you-- it usually inhibits one's creative process.  Also, they are making the decision as to when to release the shutter, not you, which muddies the question of authorship.

Assignment due: March 12th.  For the entire assignment, shoot at least 3 rolls of 36 exposure film and TURN IN at least 3 contact sheets and 3 final prints. Make sure your prints are from all 3 parts of the assignment.