Location Portraiture Image Bank

The frame on this image is very effective as it is very wide yet shallow, meaning there is a wide scope of the landscape this is very suited to the surface of the corn field that it's taken above as it is all fairly the same height. I like how the image is taken as the corn closest to the camera and the backdrop is all out of focus, making the viewer focus into the middle part, where the little boy has his head poking out the corn. 

The shot is very ethereal, the image connotes the idea of femininity as a very natural, showing women as spiritually in touch with the natural world. The way the woman is backed in to the ferns of the tree give the effect she is merging and at one with nature. The image emphasizes the importance of location giving a lot of different ideas to the shot and meaning to the subject shot within the portraiture.

The shot captures the man in his own home, probably in his normal habits and doings, this shows the relevance of shooting the subject of the portrait in their own habitat, representing what they're interests and habits are, getting a natural and real portrayal of them as people rather than just a subject in a picture. The expression and action that the man is making almost looks as though he's saying this is my reality and life.

This image captures an action showing a habit, the man looks to be in his own environment, the clothes he is wearing and look that he is giving and the cigarette hanging out his mouth all come together to set a scene. The contrast in this image is really strong and changing, the fact that it's black and white and taken by a film camera really helps to emphasise the change in tonality. 

This image shows a man in war, he looks like he is suffering from shell shock due to the corrupt and shocking nature of war. The look on his face is of complete shock horror, the importance of location is not as strong in this image as we gather all our knowledge from him due to what he's wearing and the way he looks giving us understanding to where he actually is.

Location Portraiture Work Diary

In my shoot for location portraiture I used the following camera settings; 1/125 F5.6 ISO 200, I find these are the perfect settings needed for portraiture, I also used a tripod as to stabilise my shots. I shot around the local town, the shoot went well, however there are a few components that I would like to change and experiment with next time to reap different results; that I have written about below.

Favourite-

In this Image I love the contrast in colour and tones, what the subject is wearing contrasts strongly against the dark bleak wall, all the colours that the subject is wearing are in blocks of black and white, this looks amazing against the dark green, grey wall. The backdrop and subject are both in focus, this gives a really interesting urban effect encompassing both two components however it may have looked more effective with Jasmine standing further away from the wall with the backdrop out of focus, focusing on the subject alone. I love the clarity and frame of the image, as the whole shot is strangely bright due to the ISO, therefore is very clear and the frame shows a a good section of the wall and a few leading lines. In improving this image I think that I could've asked my subject to stand away from the wall in order to add depth of field, by making only the subject in focus, this would've helped even more so if I had used manual focus to separate the subject and the backdrop, I think by doing this It would make for a better portrait.

                                                                          Worst-

I like this image as it's bright and crisp, I like how the subject is in focus and parts of the background are. In this image I asked my subject Alex to stay still as he was already standing there, I wanted to shoot him where he was standing because it looked like a very natural shot, with a great backdrop including many major lines and depth of field in the shot. When taking the image I thought by the way that he was standing it would make for an image with a good depth of field and only subject in focus with the backdrop at a blur, however I think by not using manual focus and because of how the backdrop is a main leading line throughout the picture, parts are more in focus than others, so in the future I think I need to make sure that the backdrop is far away and horizontally facing the back of the subject instead of throughout the image, on that other hand it does give an interesting effect, with different points of focus. 

Progression- 

Location portraiture is something that I would definitely like to encompass and use in my project, as my project is based on documentary style, portraiture is a means in documenting the life of people and doing it in a setting which can represent them is a great way of exploring the person. Location portraiture is also a lot like street photography; something that I also want to explore in my project as the urban environment is a brat place to find people and places for portraits.

Location Portraiture Contact Sheet

Location Portraiture Straight Images

Location Portraiture Technique Post

Location Portraiture 

• Shallow or narrow depth of field for portraiture photography. 
• F5.6, aperture as to allow light.
• Manual focus, testing focus by seeing if the eyes of the subject are in focus.
• ISO 200-400.
• 1/200 Shutter speed.

Rules 

• F stop 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32, 64 (the higher makes double amount of light)
• (high depth of field low F stop)
• 1/30s 1/60s (halving the amount of light)
• 30", 15", 8", 4", 2", 1", 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500 (main shutter speeds)

• Large aperture   =  low f.stop   = narrow depth of field.

•Small aperture  = high f.stop   = wide depth of field