The first part of the brief was to take four portrait photos of a single subject, paying careful attention to the use lighting, framing, aperture, ISO and other technical elements that might construct the photograph.  I enjoyed this project because it meant I had full creative control over the images I produced, and it meant I could experiment with other styles of photography that I was perhaps not familiar with before. For my first Portraiture I decided to begin with my self portrait photo. When making this I really didn’t know how to go about it because I never liked having my photo taken. I wanted it to seem natural so to help me I got my brother to come in to either make me laugh, smile or annoyed. luckily he managed to make me laugh a few times and smile so I picked the best out of the bad bunch and came up with this:

Self Portrait -1

 

When I was told that apart of the brief was to take portrait photo of  someone familiar, that being family or friend. I decided to ask my brother if he would be willing to let me take photos of him. I found it best to do this at his work place because they have a studio in their hair dressing salon that I could use to my advantage. With them having professional lighting it helped massively to get a really clear photograph of my brother.

Portrait -2

I really liked how this photo turned because it looks really clear and fresh, with help from the lighting that i used. I wanted to keep this one at a mid close up so you can focus on the features as much as possible. Also having the blank background puts all focus onto my brother.

For my stranger one I decided to go down the road from my brothers hair dressing salon to a boutique shop that sells vintage clothes. My brother mentioned that they had some very photogenic people in there that would help create a fun image. When I went I met a girl called Portia who instantly decided to help me out back at the studio I was working in. When we got there I wanted her to feel relaxed so I could get some neutral photos that seemed as natural as they come! Luckily Portia was very confident and a lot of fun to work with. I managed to snap these shots whilst we was having a bit of a joke around.

Stranger Portrait -3

 

As you can see the photo above, Portia my choice of stranger looks annoyed as such but she was simply telling my about a story and I caught her off guard. However I think it looks really effective. Having the lights in shot I thought made my stranger images very effective in that they seem more natural and less plastic like most of the models on the front of magazines nowadays.

Stranger Portrait -4

 

For my Final photo I decided to carry on with my stranger Portia but have her in a different environment. I wanted to take her to a cafe that I knew was quite chilled out in Nottingham so we could get some day to day like images. This one I have chosen, I thought was quite intimidating because I wanted her to be on her phone, minding her own business and me to be someone who has annoyed and or bothered her. This tends to be the reaction that you get from most teenagers because they don’t give themselves a chance to have a breather from today’s technology and have a normal conversation with someone who might be right next to them.

Portrait 5 – Cafe