Portraiture Portfolio
This is a document that showcases all of my portraiture work in the studios, as well as self-evaluations.
Lowkey and High-key Lighting Practical
The images below are from the lowkey and high-key lighting tests, and overall I believe the images are quite good, with decent exposures and light. However, I feel that the composition could be better, as the images seem to have a fair bit below the shoulder, which for headshots should be rather limited. This is a relatively easy fix by being further away from the model and not zooming in as much. For the first attempt at portraiture I think the shoot overall was average and how it was expected to come out.
Butterfly and Rembrandt Lighting
The Rembrandt lighting was difficult, as it required a lot of communication with people to move lights and reflector to ensure we go the triangle on the models face. As expected, the photos improved as the shots went on, and the exposures were pretty good despite being a lack of the Rembrandt's Triangle, which was a problem throughout the shoot. I do believe less light was required, but overall, the first experience was decent.
Not as much to write about for the butterfly lighting, as it was pretty good from the beginning. The lighting was good and the backdrop was how we were expecting it - however, there did seem to be problems with composition, which could have been fixed by zooming the lens out before taking the photo. Overall experience was positive nonetheless.
Actor Headshots
The actor headshots were taken over a period of 3 days, for us to develop skills socially and also to get a feeling of how the actual photographic studios are run. Shots were quite good and the composition was definitely better than on previous practice shoots, which was the biggest positive considering these are finals for their (the actors) portfolio project. Lighting was just as good, perhaps a tad too dark on some shots which meant a bit of exposure adjustment on photoshop to improve this. However, overall this was a really enjoyable shoot that went really well.
Band Group Shots
The band photography was a shoot of two halves - the first being the better one and the latter being perhaps a sign that group photography is a weakness in the studio.Either way plenty of adjustments to consider for next time I do something similar to this.
The first shoot were singular people - generally headshots again but with instruments, so composition was a tad more difficult as there was more in the frame. The composition was fine with this and the use of gels helped amplify the backdrop, which I think worked nicely in both shoots. Not really much to improve in the first shoot, as everything was on par on how it was expected to come out - think the lighting was sublime in these photos.
The second shoot was one that I struggled with, especially with communication with the people on the backdrop as well as people moving lights, gels and reflectors. The composition was better towards the end as I managed to fit everyone into frame, but the instruments and 4 people on a smaller studio, it was difficult to fit everyone into the frame comfortably. I personally think a solution could have been to use the larger studio, as that would have been slightly more efficient for bands of this size +.
Self Portraits
Below are the final versions of my self-portraits. Generally, little photoshop was required, although there was a slight crop adjustment to remove a bit of the backdrop that was visible on the right side image. Also, there were a few adjustments to curves and levels, to adapt on some of the darker regions on the backdrop that looked a tad out of place. Overall, the shoot went as planned, but could have been better, as I do feel the light is still a tad too dark - an easy solution could have been to have added a couple more softboxes to help reduce the darkness and brighten areas up.
IMAGES TAKEN BY LUKE FOLAN
