I have always struggled making convincing portraits and my personal success-o-meter in this genre has always felt behind the rest of my work, and inconsistent in performance.
I have focused much more upon candid photography, whether the subject is completely unawares (as in my street photography to date) or that my unfortunate friends or family know I am there but are not posing or really paying me any attention at all (perhaps distain) or expecting to receive a photo afterwards - only occasionally in this way would I take a portrait I was really happy with.
So I have decided to force myself to get better at portraiture, and in particular posed photoshoots in a studio environment. This will I hope make me able to make better candid photography, as I do love the style and will continue to work on it, but also to undertake formal photo shoots (perhaps even for clients - who knows :), and also help me feel more confident in my ability so I can start asking strangers to take their photo.
This would involve learning how to use my light rigs and flash properly and creatively, pose subjects and have the confidence to make my model (and myself) feel at ease and relax. Being creatively in control and calm and comfortable, whilst also being swift and efficiently taking hundreds of shots, was something I really struggled with when doing the two weddings I did previously (here and here), and I found especially challenging with the subject of this post, my first formalised photo shoot.
I asked out around friends to help me by giving their time as models that I could do a shoot with, and use the time as an experimenting ground for myself without the pressures of time and quality that would be demanded of any paid shoot or for that matter shoots with actual models.
I also wanted to learn from the bottom up how to pose and direct models, and to do it my way - not the way that a trained model might impose onto me. I am more interested (at least currently) in being able to capture the essence of someone's personality when they have no experience at all posing for a camera. This actually puts more creative pressure on me I feel but that is kinda the point.
So I have received lovely answers from lots of friends and these are the results of the first shoot.
I have at time of writing done a second shoot - I will write about the experience and what I learned between the two in the next post, suffice to say this first one (two hours long) was fun but utterly exhausting!
The lovely model for this shoot was Maria Magro - a 5th year erasmus student at Bath Architecture school. Thanks Maria!
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I have focused much more upon candid photography, whether the subject is completely unawares (as in my street photography to date) or that my unfortunate friends or family know I am there but are not posing or really paying me any attention at all (perhaps distain) or expecting to receive a photo afterwards - only occasionally in this way would I take a portrait I was really happy with.
So I have decided to force myself to get better at portraiture, and in particular posed photoshoots in a studio environment. This will I hope make me able to make better candid photography, as I do love the style and will continue to work on it, but also to undertake formal photo shoots (perhaps even for clients - who knows :), and also help me feel more confident in my ability so I can start asking strangers to take their photo.
This would involve learning how to use my light rigs and flash properly and creatively, pose subjects and have the confidence to make my model (and myself) feel at ease and relax. Being creatively in control and calm and comfortable, whilst also being swift and efficiently taking hundreds of shots, was something I really struggled with when doing the two weddings I did previously (here and here), and I found especially challenging with the subject of this post, my first formalised photo shoot.
I asked out around friends to help me by giving their time as models that I could do a shoot with, and use the time as an experimenting ground for myself without the pressures of time and quality that would be demanded of any paid shoot or for that matter shoots with actual models.
I also wanted to learn from the bottom up how to pose and direct models, and to do it my way - not the way that a trained model might impose onto me. I am more interested (at least currently) in being able to capture the essence of someone's personality when they have no experience at all posing for a camera. This actually puts more creative pressure on me I feel but that is kinda the point.
So I have received lovely answers from lots of friends and these are the results of the first shoot.
I have at time of writing done a second shoot - I will write about the experience and what I learned between the two in the next post, suffice to say this first one (two hours long) was fun but utterly exhausting!
The lovely model for this shoot was Maria Magro - a 5th year erasmus student at Bath Architecture school. Thanks Maria!
As always cutting criticism and comments via email (tomglendinning.photography@gmail.com) or facebook, are hugely helpful and welcome.
For the geeks.
My studio set up for this shoot was:
Canon 50D
tamron 17-50 (I reallly want a 24-70 now)
White sheet backdrop (yes I know I need to get some smooth roll of plastic or something)
2 Lamps with umbrellas to light backdrop
1 lamp with umbrella to light model.
Speedlite on camera with rogue flashbender modifier (for some but not all) shots, coupled with diffuser at times.
Edited with Aperture and Silver Efex Pro2.
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