Portraiture Project

Understand The Problem

Research and Investigate

- Artists from mood board:

- Julia Nimke: She is a lifestyle photographer based in Berlin Germany. Her website https://www.julianimke.com/about has many projects including many images on portraiture. These images are very diverse to the inspiration images I found. However, in every image, Nature has a profound presence.

- Lukas Furlan also utilizes nature in many of his images. While he doesn't have set projects focusing on portraiture, many of his projects include portraits of individuals. Many of my favorite images from his collection are from the mountains and forest. 

- Garret Byrum: Byrum is an advertising photographer based in Los Angeles, California. He focuses almost entirely on portraits in sport collections. He also dabbles in automotive photography. He has worked for many major companies including Nike.  

Successful ways to make a portrait:

https://digital-photography-school.com/10-ways-to-take-stunning-portraits/

This website helped me with perspective and lighting in my shoots. It recommends breaking many traditional rules to create interesting compositions. Additionally, many of the examples are black and white which inspired some of my editing. 

Generate Possible Solutions

- people:

   - self portrait (all self portraiture due to COVD-19 break)

New ideas will be in red due to online learning

sister, dad, pedestrian, Jordan or Blake?

- styles/inspired looks:

    - Rim lighting of swimmer, reflection from water with dark clothing, double exposure of person and city scape, person in forest, skateboarder going off of jump, swimmer diving, person playing the guitar under tree, person surfing (Hawaii), 

- incorporate plants, long exposures, color in clothes and lighting, rainy weather and street reflection, framing, rim lighting, swimming subject?, 

- light sources

    - Remote flashes, studio lights (light boxes, constant light, etc.), sun combined with city scape for double exposure, sunset, diffused light from the sun, 

New light sources:

flashes, sunlight ( wait for semi-gloomy day to diffuse light), controlled light such as flashlight, sunset. 

- locations

    - friends deck, bluffs, light studio, beach in Hawaii, yard, 

House, street, yard, garage

Select and Develop Best Solution

- Studio lighting with swimmer, Goggles and cap, water bottle to create water droplets on face? Thursday during access. Rim lighting using black canvas. 

​​​​​​​- swimmer with cap and goggles, in garage, flashlights set up on ladders angling down to subject, no water, longer exposure to absorb light (also due to lack of flashes).

- subject leaning on tree with foot in foreground. Subject in outfit that breaks up the pattern of the tree, Plad? stripes? Camera facing up, gloomy day to diffuse light. 

I narrowed down my shoots in order to develop a select few. This was important in my process as well as it helped me decide on my best option. 

Model and Prototype

After obtaining many of my shots, the lack of multiple flashes for my 1st subject proved challenging. I lacked a harsher light source and was forced to lengthen my exposure. I believe I eventually figured this out however. 

At this point I was struggling to decide which swimmer photo I liked more. I liked the side profile, yet I liked how the light hit in the front facing view. I continued to play around with contrast and light hues and settled on the front profile. 

Evaluate

Tree Image: Overall, I am very happy with this image. I believe the tree creates a natural leading line to carry the eye through the photo and subject. I am also very happy with the plad shirt against the spotted tree bark. It creates contrast between textures to make a more dynamic image. The only thing I would change in the future is the have the foot closer to the camera to make a dramatic angle. I kind of desired the foot to take up an entire third with myself in the background. Due to COVD-19 I was limited with trees. Due to these factors I think the image still turned out successful. 

Swimmer Image: I am also happy with this product considering the lack of lighting equipment I had. I really liked this idea and planned to complete it in a studio. However, the virus limited my options and I brainstormed ideas to still complete this photo. I ended up finding a successful way to shoot the photo with a bed sheet and some flashlights. In the future, I would like to get the photo to a shorter shutter. It was a bit too long and many of my shots contained movement. After picking a photo and editing, I believe the image came out successful.