Journal Notes: Ch.5 (pg. 114-125)

Portraits

Steps to shooting a Formal Portraits:

1. place the background to the photograph close to the wall
2. place the lighting (45 degrees to the right of the subject)
3. set the camera directly in front of the subject (6-8 feet away)
   

Camera Settings:

• shoot with a wide open aperture to make the background out of focus and increases shutter speed
• zoom lenses try f/3.5 of f/4.5 to keep he subject in focus

Lighting For Formal Portraits:

• Indoors
• place one light at 45 degree angle on the side of the subject
• use a reflector on the other side of the subject 
• Outdoors
• direct sunlight isn't the best lighting
• shoot in open shade
• include the reflector must be 3-4 feet from the subject 

Candid Portrait:

• capture a person going about everyday life and activities
• don't pose your subject
• background gives context and meaning 
• facial expressions
• action shots 1/250 shutter speed

The Environmental Portrait:

• uses a subject's surrounding to help tell that persons story 
• formal and photojournalism
• may be posed
• wide angle lenses are useful with f stops at f/5.6, f/8, f/11

The Self-Portrait:

• you become your own subject
• don't have to be revealing
• show who you are and something about yourself
• tell something about yourself
• Cindy Sherman
• New York artist
• created a career of self-portraits dressed in costumes and disguises

Class Notes:

• Good Lighting/ avoiding sunlight
• show the subject's personality/ Different moods
• camera 6-8ft. away/ faster shutter speed
• setting the subject/ dominant subject as emphasis
• 45 degree lighting
• triepod/ refelctor
• Composition/ Framing/ Clarity/ Value Range



Journal Notes (pgs. 140-149)

Camera Support

• use tripod for action shooting
• Monopad= a one tripod leg for easy access and easy to carry around

Freezing the Action

• To freeze action= to cature the moving subject as a stationary object with no blurring
• done using a fast shutter speed
• use a more open f-stop

Blurring the Subject

• captures a sense of movement 
• also called subject motion blur
• shutter speeds are slower
• to show subject motion blur use a slower shutter speed

Types of Blur

1. camera motion blur
2. subject motion blur
3. out of focus blur
4. depth of field blur

Panning

• Avoid pictures ecoming over blurred by panning the camera
• Panning= using a slower shutter speed while moving the camera along with the subject

5 Random Topic Photos

Portrait

Notes (pg. 102-113)

Portraits

• faces show the world who we are
• demonstrate similarities and differences between the subject and viewer

Early Portrait Photography

• Gaspard-Félix Tournachon(1820-1910)

1. first great portrait photographer
2. started in France in 1853
3. Used soft lighting and plain dark backgrounds 

• August Sander(Germany, 1876-1964)

1. created the 1st environmental portraits
2. showed the settings of his subjects lives and works

Creating Portrait Photos

• value is an important design element

1. refers to the range of light and dark areas

• textures & shapes become more or less visible as values change
• values also bring emotional content to a photograph
• Balance and rule of thirds are important considerations
• Shape 

1. can be organic with flowing curves and irregular outlines 
2. can also be geometric
3. eyes are immediately drawn in the picture

• Form

1. when a shape becomes three-dimensional

Working With People

• the photographer must gain the subjects trust and cooperation
• good portrait depends on building a relationship w/ subject

Camera Formats

• large format cameras (4x5 view cameras or even larger)

1. have the most detail

• candid and environmental portraits

1. 35mm cameras

Film Choices for Portraits

• Film speeds

1. Slow Films (50 to 100 ISO)

                   - particles of silver for black and white films are fine grained and small in these         slow films 

1. Fast Films (400 to 3200 ISO)

                   - more sensitive to light and suited to candid and environmental portraits

Equipment Choices: Lenses for Portraits

• 100mm lens gives you the most flattering image for a portrait

Camera Accessories

• Three Items making portraits easy and successful

1. Tripod = 3 legged medal stand to mount your camera
2. Cable Release = flexible wire that lets you trip the shutter w/o touching the camera 
3. Reflector = anything reflecting light into shadows for a three-dimensional portrait

The Formal Portrait

• the simplest portrait style 
• emphasize the person and nothing else

Julia Margaret Cameron (England, 1815-1877)

• Victorian photographer
• started at 43 years old
• children moved away and husband gone a lot left her to picking up a camera
• completely self taught
• one of the first people to approach photography as an art

The Beauty of Nature

This Photo was taken in Landscape and I used Iphoto to enhance the picture to bring in the green of the tree and bring more of the warm colors from the sunset.

This was taken in the early morning of Mt. Capitan in Yosemite, California. 

This photo was taken in the morning in Yosemite, California. 

This photo was a regular shot but I enhanced the photo to bring in more of the blue sky. 

This photo was taken of the mountains in Yosemite and enhanced to bring the warmth of the red bush.