self portrait and portraits intro
2. Play with Eye Contact
It is amazing how much the direction of your subject’s eyes can impact an image. Most portraits have the subject looking down the lens – something that can create a real sense of connection between a subject and those viewing the image. But there are a couple of other things to try:
A. Looking off camera – have your subject focus their attention on something unseen and outside the field of view of your camera. This can create a feeling of candidness and also create a little intrigue and interest as the viewer of the shot wonders what they are looking at. This intrigue is particularly drawn about when the subject is showing some kind of emotion (ie ‘what’s making them laugh?’ or ‘what is making them look surprised?’). Just be aware that when you have a subject looking out of frame that you can also draw the eye of the viewer of the shot to the edge of the image also – taking them away from the point of interest in your shot – the subject.
4. Experiment with Lighting
Another element of randomness that you can introduce to your portraits is the way that you light them. There are almost unlimited possibilities when it comes to using light in portraits.
Side-lighting can create mood, backlighting and silhouetting your subject to hide their features can be powerful.
5. Move Your Subject Out of their Comfort Zone
I was chatting with a photographer recently who told me about a corporate portrait shoot that he had done with a business man at his home. They’d taken a lot of head and shoulder shots, shots at his desk, shots in front of framed degrees and other ‘corporate’ type images. They had all turned out fairly standard – but there was nothing that really stood out from the crowd.
The photographer and the subject agreed that there were plenty of useable shots but they wanted to create something ‘special’ and out of the box. The photographer suggested they try some ‘jumping’ shots. The subject was a little hesitant at first but stepped out into the uncomfortable zone and dressed in his suit and tie started jumping!
The shots were amazing, surprising and quite funny. The shoot culminated with the subject jumping in his pool for one last image!
While this might all sound a little ‘silly’ the shots ended up being featured in a magazine spread about the subject. It was the series of out of the box images that convinced the magazine he was someone that they’d want to feature.
i like this one because it shows a man and his job and what he does for the community. i picked this one because of the simplicity and the focusing of the camera.
i like this picture because it shows where he works and what he does. I picked this one because of the colors in the background and the color scheme.
I like this picture for photography self portrait because of the colors and the use of her hair. I picked it because i really enjoyed it.
I like this picture for photography because it shows a deep side and it kinda goes in depth. I picked this picture because it was really cool and captured my eye.
I liked this picture for casual portrait because it shows her face and not anything is covering it. I picked this one because i love lily collins.
For the portrait shoot I plan on getting my friends together and having them in a picture. Each picture will be different there will be some in nature and some not in nature like in the city. I will take individuals and some of both my friends. Also a picture with my friends dog. Then for the self portrait i will tell my friends to not touch the camera and let the timer go off by itself.
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