Consider your idea of a portrait photograph. Now do just a little research on the following artists: Annie Leibovitz, Platon, Alec Soth, Gregory Crewdson, Kyle Thompson, Loretta Lux, Shirin Neshat, Lauren Greenfield, Scott Rhea, Sandy Skoglund, Richard Renaldi, Dorothea Lange, Bieke Deeporter, Erwin Olaf, Zoe Strauss, Cindy Sherman, Mary Ellen Mark, Jeff Wall, Richard Avedon, Nicholas Nixon, and Martin Schoeller. How does your new idea of the portrait differ from your previous idea?
A particularly good episode of the Netflix series, Abstract, is the one featuring Platon. Watch it for more inspiration!
After spending some time with those artists (or even just a few that sound interesting to you), write down a few of the specific characteristics of one artist's work and complete the Schoology assessment called Portrait Artist Observations. Match the artist with the artwork.
Finding beautiful lighting, using correct exposure, and simply enjoying the experience of taking the photographs are imperative to a promising photographic experience; that said, the main thing to concentrate on during this particular project is composition. Thinking about your unique perspective on a portrait, take several photographs that turn the portrait into an imaginative tool for communicating something about the person you’re working with. What can you tell us about a person just by spending time thinking about where they are within the frame?
We'll start by making a whole bunch of images. You can make all 50 of your initial photographs with one person or with a few or even with fifty different people--the point is to explore what it means to make portraits AND to use that experience with the composition rules. Of course we'll make contact sheets to look at all of your photographs, so narrow these digital photographs down to your best 50 before you upload them to Google Drive. Together we'll narrow the images down to an even more select group that represent all of the 11 composition rules.
You’ll need at least one fantastic example of a portrait, each effectively using a different rule from the list following this slide for a total of 11 that you'll submit at the end of the assignment.
The following slides are the 11 composition rules. A good rule of thumb is to take at least 5 shots for each rule so that you have over 50 shots.
1 / Simplify. Try to eliminate anything in the viewfinder that would distract from the person. Look for incredibly simple spaces and backgrounds.
2 / Change your vantage point or perspective. Consider how you can position yourself to change the way we see this person. Look at this person from every angle you can imagine--keeping the background in mind, too. You may want to eliminate distracting details.
3 / Get close. Start too close and move out. Include only what you absolutely need in the frame and don’t be afraid to crop part of the person out.
4 / Crop it. Consider how much you do and do not need in order to know what the person actually looks like and what their relationship to their surroundings might be. Give your audience a chance to imagine parts that are cropped out. Sometimes gestures can be incredibly telling.
5 / Change the orientation of your camera. Use it horizontally, vertically, and diagonally. Take photos of the person using a variety of orientations.
6 / Change the background. Put your camera in a variety of locations that change the way we interpret the relationship the person has to their environment. As always, allow the lighting both on the person and in the background to help make your photographs appealing.
7 / Shoot the object with a variety of apertures numbers. Move around (closer/further away) to make the aperture changes most effective. Most portraits are made with the face in perfect focus, but try allowing other important parts of the image to take the stage or share the stage with this person as you change the aperture number from lowest to highest.
8 / Create contrast. Set the person apart from the environment or any other elements of the image by using contrasting tone, scale, or depth of field.
9 / Use the Golden Mean or the Rule of Thirds. Place the person off center using the geometric breaks in the frame that define those two rules. Generally speaking, if you cut your viewfinder into nine equal sections (like a tic-tac-toe grid) you'll find that there are four intersections on which to place focal points. You can also use the lines to place linear elements of the photograph.
10 / Use diagonals. Pay attention to ways in which you can make any linear elements in the viewfinder diagonal instead of horizontal or vertical. Maybe the person is on the diagonal or perhaps they’re doing something that makes use of a diagonal line--whether it’s literal or figurative.
11 / Direct the viewer’s attention by using leading lines. Create a composition that guides the viewers eye around the photograph with linear elements. Allow the person’s body parts to indirectly point toward other important things within the frame.
Shoot approximately five images that you love for each rule for a total of over 50 images. We'll edit these down to your very best for a total of 11 that you'll submit to the Schoology assignment.
Images ready for toning in class: November 8
Contact sheets due: November 15
Final images submitted to Schoology by the end of the school day on November 23.
Credits:
Created with images by Jurica Koletić - "K80" • MadhuSmita - "untitled image" • William Bout - "untitled image" • ian dooley - "Pretty in Pink" • Seth Doyle - "Pictures on a railroad track" • ivanovgood - "makeup face woman" • Julius Drost - "anonymous" • iKLICK - "lady window woman" • Tom Pumford - "emotion" • harutmovsisyan - "guitar person man" • Marina Lakotka - "untitled image" • Iz zy - "untitled image" • Alejandro Escamilla - "untitled image"