Exercise 1 continued: Portrait, Scale and Setting

I based this set of images on an idea that I obtained from the Guardian colour supplement. I decided to use the car as a prop as Tom is a keen driver and so I thought it would be very fitting.

In the first two images he looks quite serious but more relaxed in the third where he is having a joke with me.

In the last two I zoomed out to 30mm and then 17mm. Of these images I prefer the head and shoulder ones. I feel that they work because they show the context but they also reveal the situation.



In this series of images I asked Thomas to put his bike on the workstand and clean it. Again I thought that it would be a suitable situation as he is a keen cyclist. In the first two cropped face ones I asked him to look towards me in the first one. I prefer the studied look of the second. These were taken with a 100-400 lens set at 285 mm. The next head and shoulder shot I used a 17-85 lens set at 73mm and the next two were also at 73 mm but I physically moved back. Both seem a little posed to me and he has lost some of his relaxed look.


In the first two of this set of three I zoomed out to 41mm and the final full figure shot was zoomed to 17mm.

Of this last set of images I prefer the larger torso shots.

Exercise 1: Portrait, Scale and Setting

For this exercise I used my son as a subject as he had come home for the weekend, it being his birthday. As he is not always available I made sure that he had his turn!!! I tried different set ups for this exercise using some photographs from the Guardian colour supplement as a stimulus. (Unfortunately this edition found its way into the recycling and so I cannot use the photos.)
I took photographs in four different situations: sitting on the settee in the conservatory, sitting at the dining room table (as I had seen in the Guardian supplement), sitting in the car (again an idea from the Guardian) and cleaning his bike. In each case I took a series of face cropped in close, head and shoulders, torso and full figure.

1. Conservatory

I liked this full face image. Thomas was quite relaxed and talking to his mother. I used the lens at 78mm and the camera was on a tripod.

Here he enjoys a joke.

I had to move the camera back for this image and used the lens at full zoom of 85mm.



Again he is very relaxed in this image.

Here I zoomed out to 35 mm and kept the camera on the tripod in the same position.

For this full figure shot Thomas is obviously very relaxed. I had no need to direct him as he adopted this pose whilst talking to his mother who was in front of him. I kept the camera in the same position and zoomed out to 17mm.

• Sitting at the dining room table
  

Here I have zoomed in to produce a cropped face image.









I have used the 180mm setting on my 100-400 lens. The camera was on a tripod. I asked him to support his face on his hands as in the Guardian image and look straight at me.



















In this shot I asked him to look to one side. I prefer this image it is more informal.

Here he is laughing during a converation with his mum. Again I like the informality.

I have now zoomed out to 85mm. He is very relaxed.

Again 85 mm and I took photographs as he was talking to his mum. A good technique I think!!

Now zoomed to 26 mm. I think that this picture needs some post processing. We don't have a brown wall!!! The pictures were taken using natural light.

Now 17 mm. The image on the right has had the levels adjusted in photoshop but the wall still looks too brown.

My first post

Hi this is the first post of my OCA learning log. I have already completed my first two courses: Photography 1, Intro to Digital for which I gained a C grade and Photography 1, The Art of Photography which will be assessed this August. I have registered for People and Place and received my course materials on Friday 8th May. My tutor is Robert Enoch. I have read through the materials and am now concentrating on Project 1: People Aware. I have taken the photographs for the first few exercises and now need to study them and write up the exercises. I have begun collecting people photographs from magazines and also need to get started on some research.