Portrait Photography- Pictures

• Portrait photography consists of taking photos of an individual or a group of people.
• The focus is usually on the face, although there have been exceptions
• Portrait photography is supposed to connote the mood and tone through the expression on the face/faces.

David LaChapelle

• Published the first picture of the Beastie Boys
• Took the last picture of Andy Warhol
• Left school at a young age and went to New York.
• Went back to high school to do senior year and discovered his love for photography and art.
• Has worked with many celebrities- including Florence and The Machine.
• Started off with basic black and white photography
• Did a lot of nudity-based photography
• Concentrated more on the human form
• Artistic photography
• Works on very elaborate sets
• Has evolved from taking photos to shooting videos

Things to consider:

• Lighting (too much/too little)
• Fast shutter speed (to capture motion)
• Wide aperture (to compensate)
• Native ISO (balanced)
• Fill flash (on/off camera and diffused)
• Reflective light

Dramatic portraits on a black backdrop (without needing  a single light), a garage is a go to spot. Simplest and most makeshift looking setup. While you can accomplish this setup on overcast days, sunny days help increase the brightness of everything outside the garage- increasing the catch light in the model’s eyes. The daylight acts as a giant reflector, which hold under the subjects chin to soften shadows.

For portraits like this you will want to use a focal length of at least 50mm or longer. Anything wider angle will lead to distortion of the subjects features.

Photography Studio Setup

If the background lights are too bright, there is a lack of contrast.

Background lights are just right. Background is pure white. Contrast on subject is good.

Portrait Pictures

In these photos, we used various forms of lighting in order to gain different portrait pictures. We used 3 point lighting, however we experimented with different forms of lighting in order to see different angles of the face.