Portfolio Vol. 2: Continuing to Grow
Golden Hour - Emma Charbonneau
Development Throughout The Second Semester
In the first semester I had developed a style and finally figured out what kind of genre of photography I wanted to do. During the second semester I began to refine my style and genre into a brand and starting my journey to making my own business and website. I have learned many new skills and I have improved a lot since my last semester! Throughout this portfolio I will look back on all the assignments I have done and how I managed to grow my knowledge on photography. Golden Hour is one of my favourite images I've taken for landscape, because it uses the perspectives I have learn from first semester. The branches are leading lines and the sun is rule of thirds.
The End of the Line- Emma Charbonneau Continuing Line- Emma Charbonneau
Speaking of perspective here are some other perspective shots I took to practice with leading line for an assignment.
Vanilla- Emma Charbonneau Tea?- Emma Charbonneau
Although last semester we touched based on some lighting still life and objects as well as some basic lighting techniques. This had prepared us for more advanced things like lighting glass and metal on an all white surface or a reflective surface. Although, taking pictures of products are not my favourite I still enjoyed the practice of this. Knowing different lighting techniques will help in the long run for certain, even if it means me photographing glass or metal for a job.
Sparkling Water AD- Emma Charbonneau
Not only did I learn how to light glass and metal properly, I also learned how to make a video and video editing to create something fun like Sparkling Water. This was really fun to film and I have so many other ideas for videos similar to this. Again product, is not my favourite to photograph but I definitely enjoy experimenting with it!
Looking- Emma Charbonneau
Learning Experiences
Looking was one of the first portrait of this semester and it was my first attempted at posing a model. This was really because we had to find an inspirational picture to try and recreate it. Not only did we have to recreate the posing but also the lighting. It was good practice to communicate with the model to get the posing that I wanted. Gave me a sense of what it would be like with an actual client. This is one of my favourite portraits I did with this lighting! Learning how to properly communicate with a model was huge for me because I am not very good with explaining what I need from them and how they need to be posed. So, this was great practice.
Business Portrait: Librarian- Emma Charbonneau
This was the first official photo shoot session that I did and it was a business portrait! I really enjoyed this assignment because we had to photograph someone we didn't know as if it was an actual client! It gave me a good sense of what it would be like with a client in the industry. For this particular shoot we learned how to use 5 lights! This was a big step from first semester! Each light had a purpose to the shoot. First was the background light which is self explanatory it lights the background so the subject doesn't blend into the it. Then theres the main light which lights the subject because with just the background light the subject is a silhouette. Then there is a fill light which fills in the other side of the subject so it's evenly lit. And there is either a kicker or a hair light or both depending on the subject and the look the photographer is going for. The kicker out lines one side of the subject slightly and the hair light lights the hair from above.
It's safe to say I would use this again for portrait shoots or business portraits again!
Early Morning- Emma Charbonneau
Challenges I Faced Throughout the Semester
There were quite a few challenges this semester because we had a lot about new lighting and expanding the amount of light we use now. With Early Morning it was the same problem I had last semester because I was in a car which was moving. But I am getting better at it because this image was much clearer than other ones I had. This was not the only problem I ran into, with the Business Portrait: Librarian, this was first major assignment that we didn't have the professor with us. And of course we had an issue with the lights. The background light would not flash when we pressed the button on the camera. And it was very stressful, so how we figured it out is that the background light was still lit so it was okay to not have it flash. And the images still turned out amazing.
Bright Rainbow- Emma Charbonneau
How my Approach to Photography and Motion has Evolved
My approach on Photography and motion has evolved a lot I think! I have learned a lot about lighting within the span of 12 weeks which I think is amazing to me. As well, I can see that my style and genre has evolved a lot. I keep getting more and more portraits and black and white photos. I have to admit that sometimes in the studio can be stressful but I still enjoy and continue to grow and learn more about taking pictures and editing. My techniques in looking for composition has also changed a lot everywhere I look now I look to see what kind of composition it is before taking the picture. Not only that my portraiture skills have evolved now too because I now have good lighting techniques that will help a lot when doing portraits for clients!
Beau & Millie- Emma Charbonneau
Overall
Overall, this was very good semester and I have learned lots and my knowledge just continues to grow. The more I go through this program the more my style and genre begin to form. Can't wait for the next two!
Beau - Emma Charbonneau
