Evaluation - Portraits

At the beginning of the project I felt uncomfortable with the brief, as I had little experience with the photographic studio, studio flash and also the history and context of the genre. The first time I booked out the studio I had two hours of shooting time; however it turned out to be half an hour, as it took me quite a while to set everything up and make sure everything was in its right place.

The first photo shoot I took of my friends, Emily and Harriet was quite difficult, as I felt quite unsure of if I was doing everything right; however, by the end I had several photographs so something must have been going in the right direction.

For my second photo shoot I took photographs of my friend Kristal which went quite well; It took  half an hour to set up and the photographs turned out successful - I think this was also down to Kristal's confidence - I felt comfortable working with her because she was comfortable with the camera.

During booking out the studio I have been researching using the internet looking at many different portrait styles and photographers not only because it's part of the project but because I find it vital to have knowledge of the historical context of a subject - even if its just a small amount of knowledge. I took particular interest in David Bailey and Jill Greenberg; mainly because I believe their portraits are striking and I really like the lighting techniques both photographers use; this is what I hope I have achieved in my final shots.

I have also read magazines and books such as Lighting for Portrait Photography (Steve Bavister), which really helped me as each portrait is accompanied by easy-to-follow diagrams and tips on how to achieve comparable results. Light Science & Magic (Hunter Biver Fuqua) which is three photographers Fil Hunter, Steven Biver and Paul Fuqua - This really did help me decide on lighting for my final shots as it tells you new information on how to work with ambient and flash lighting (and also a lot more!). 

After researching and experimenting I knew quite quickly what I wanted as an outcome for my final shots, I decided to use my sister Sherilyn and my friend Harriet. Both of them feel comfortable around me and therefore I found them a lot easier to work with. I wanted my final shots to look very natural with no strained pose and no over editing as I feel it ruins the shot. My final shots consist of four photographs of Sherilyn, two of which I feel are quite similar and if I had more time I would have changed one of them as I feel the expression is too alike. The other two photographs are of Harriet; one of these is my favourite where she is smiling - I think I have captured a natural, expressive shot that has quite an impact to the viewer and creates a positive mood - to me anyway the photograph makes me smile.
I used two lights for my final photographs - one light shining down onto the left side of the subjects face - creating a split lighting effect; which emphasises the shadows and enhances the definition of the subjects features. 

To me personally a portrait photograph is an image of a person as they are; not manipulated - and this is what I wanted to achieve; I do not believe a photograph can see into someone's soul, I believe that a portrait displays the expression or mood of a subject.

Overall, I feel that the project Portraits has went quite well and I am pleased with my six final shots when looking at them juxtaposed together; I feel the yellow tones I used to edit the photographs on Lightroom create a warm, happy mood - I am happy with the style of my photographs. However, one of my downfalls was being unknowledgeable about photographic studio work prior to the the project; I feel that if I knew more about the Hasselblad camera and how to set up a studio, I could have spent more time focusing on my portraits rather than spending quite a lot of time setting everything up - on the other hand this could be a good aspect taken from the project because I now feel confident whilst working in the studio alone.
Also if I was to restart the project I would have booked out more studio time, time management is a vital factor of this project as studio time is limited so all photography students can book it out.
My prints are landscape on portrait A3 gloss paper; I preferred this layout rather than full landscape A3 because I think the six photographs together stand out more this way but this is just my personal opinion.
I have really enjoyed the project and feel it has went really fast; I have learnt a lot in a small amount of time and feel confident about working in the studio in the future.