Self Portrait and Portraits Part I

Some of the best tips for portrait taking:

1. Alter Your Perspective

Get up high and shoot down on your subject or get as close to the ground as you can and shoot up. Either way you’ll be seeing your subject from an angle that is bound to create interest.

2. Settings—The Other Subject

The settings in which you make pictures of people are important because they add to the viewer's understanding of your subject. The room in which a person lives or works, their house, the city street they walk, the place in which they seek relaxation—whatever it is, the setting provides information about people and tells us something about their lives. Seek balance between subject and environment. Include enough of the setting to aid your image, but not so much that the subject is lost in it.

3. Shoot Candidly

Sometimes posed shots can look somewhat…. posed. Some people don’t look good in a posed environment and so switching to a candid type approach can work.
Photograph your subject at work, with family or doing something that they love. This will put them more at ease and you can end up getting some special shots with them reacting naturally to the situation that they are in. You might even want to grab a longer zoom lens to take you out of their immediate zone and get really paparazzi with them.

Environmental Portraits:

I chose this first environmental portrait because of how much of this boy's daily life is captured. It also allows me to know more about the subject and what's important to him. I also notice how the photographer used different photography techniques like lighting and positioning to add more to the photo. The lighting leads me on a path to the subject and also makes me more curious as to where the photo was taken. The statue in the background also helps to balance and add more to the scenery. Overall the image intrigues me and makes me want to learn more about the boy and the background, which is why it it probably one of my favorite photos on this blog post today.

I also chose his second image because I really like how the photographer thought out of the box, it is definitely not a typical portrait photo. There is a lot of action going on however the image isn't blurry at all and easily shares a major part of this mans life. The sky and tree outline in the background is a super simple and allows for the subject to be the main center of attention.

Photography Self Portrait:

I chose this first self portrait image because of the different techniques used. I think that the adding of a prop really changed this whole photo and made it very unique. I'm really curious to know more about the subject and why she has the expression that she does. I also like how the subject isn't looking directly at the camera and how much emotion can be found. 

Similar to the first self portrait image the subject's facial expressions creates lots of emotion in this photo and makes me, the viewer, want to know more about whats going on. I also really appreciate how the photographer played around with the lighting to create a darker ora. The lighting also helps to have the viewer fixated on the subjects left eye (or i guess her right eye but left from our perspective), which is where all the emotion in the image is located.

Casual Portrait:

I really like this image because of how unplanned it feels. From viewing this image I highly doubt that the child was asked "stare off into the distance with a serious face so I can get a good photo" and because of that I feel that the image holds so much more true emotion. I also really like the unplanned props (the beaded necklaces) because it really adds to the affect of a kid just being a kid.

For this second photo I get the feeling that it was little more planned however I like how the scenery and props really shares a lot about this person. I feel that from her facial expression we can really see how at peace this women feels when doing what she loves. I kind of feel that the subject isn't really looking at something super important outside of the frame but because of how beautiful the background is I am kind of curious to figure out where she's at.

My Own Portraits:

I personally would really like to shoot some images of my family just at my house or at my grandma's house doing whatever it is that they love doing the most. I have a younger brother who I feel I can get some really good unposed photos of, just doing arts and crafts or playing with toys. My sister is super into makeup and I can totally imagine a really cool of her from a side angle putting on some mascara and using different makeup props to try and kind of tell a story. I really like the idea of taking portraits from different angles and having the subject be looking at something outside of the frame. For my self portrait there are many different things I'm considering taking photos of, either me at home stressed out with all my school work, in my room with all my clothes super organized because I'm definitely a neat freak, or me at the Bowie farm with my pig.