Practicing Portraits

By Leslie Parks - Wednesday, March 18, 2009

I love seeing photos of people against a brick wall. For Isaac's and Job's team, I think that I'm doing the photos so I took them out to practice. Job hasn't had that pleasure yet but he will. This is a south facing wall. But we haven't had much sun and I'm still learning about catch lights in the eyes.
Here is what we came up with.

I had Karen critique this. First he is too close to the back wall and it is a distraction. Also the light isn't right. Part of his face is shadowed.

I think that there is too much wall in front of him. And he looks uncomfortable. OK, there was rain and wind when we did this.

I think this one is much better. The brick wall in front is smaller but still leads the eye to Isaac. The face has more light on it, but still no catch lights. I'm even with him. Maybe a reflector would work. I think maybe the ball should be held in his other hand. I'm wondering about the knees. I kind of cut them off. Should I have stepped back another inch to include his knees. Maybe. (Afternoon light - 4:00)

Lona, I like how the evening sun (all of 5 minutes of it) is illuminating her. This is right after dance practice and at the same wall. Again I cut off her knees but with all the tutu I don't think it is very noticeable. Her face is well lit and there is light reflecting off the wall. Kind of glows. Hair is distracting.

The wall isn't straight. I should make the lines very vertical and horizontal. I should have shot with a little higher view point, not much but her head and the back ground are too much at the same height. Light is hitting her lower on her body. Close to 6:15 pm at night. Hair is out of her eyes. Definitely deserves a blizzard at DQ for helping me with my class.

Say this staircase at the Grange on the corner of Hannegan and Smith. Stopped to take a photo. My ISO is too high. Forgot to change it. I think it would look really cute in black and white with just the tutu in color. I like the angle of the railing and her arms. I would love to take two to three girls in tutus around Bellingham and Fairhaven someday for a photo shoot. There are a couple of grungy buildings that I think would be fun backgrounds for girls with tutus. Have to do this soon or they would be too old to do it.

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