Simple Portraits

I'm going to share two photos I took a couple of days ago. I will explain my decisions in the creation of each photo.

Both photos were taken with the natural window light in my front room. In the first, since he's a boy and with an intense personality, I wanted the light to look more direct, and from the side so his features would be accentuated. This can give a more rugged look. The light is coming from the window on his right to light his face. You can also see a highlight on the left side of his hair and face coming from windows on the other side of the room. I used a white reflector to lighten the shadows on the left side of his face. I could have chosen to not use a reflector, which would have made these shadows darker and more dramatic. I asked him to pick a shirt/clothes he liked and he chose this orange shirt. I did ask that he choose something without a logo or picture on the front. With this color choice in mind, I decided to use the reddish brick background so as not to compete color-wise with his choice, and also to help the shirt not stick out by itself quite as much. However, orange always looks nice on him with his coloring, so I like it.

I love the way the light comes in from the side(s), casting shadows and showing a lot of dimensionality to his face and hair. I tried to pose him with some strength - and it is not easy to keep a six year old boy in one position for very long! I chatted with him and he talked with me about things he liked, we tried serious expressions, and his own choice of expressions. This is the photo I liked the best.

In the next photo I wanted the light to look softer, and less from the side so the whole front of her face could be lit. She chose one of her favorite dresses, and with the bold pattern I chose a backdrop to blend a little with the dress, to pick up some of the colors in it and keep the dress from taking center stage too much.

I put the background in a different position than I used with my son. Here the light is coming from the same window as it was in the above photo. Here, light is coming from upper windows directly behind her to highlight the back of her hair. The highlights on the hair really help separate her (and her brother in the photo above) from the backdrop. I also used a very large mirror behind her and to her left to help lift shadows on that side a touch and bring light in from behind. The backdrop is actually in front of some lower windows, so there is a little bit of luminosity to it.

A four year old is also tricky to pose! I had her sitting, and explained she needed to sit "like a princess", with her knees toward the window, hold her shoulders back and put her hands folded on her lap. We also tried a number of different ways to get a good expression - everything from having her tell me things she liked, to choosing her own expression, to having her brother behind me trying to make her laugh.

Notes on the light in the last post

I want to mention a couple of things about two of the photos in particular.

If you look at the photo of my daughter with her hands up touching the black, note that the light is coming from her left side. However, there is a reflector to her front that is casting a little more light in on that side and you can see the catch lights in the tops of both eyes because of it. This photo works for me because of her pose. If she were just standing there, our eyes would be drawn to the bright side of her face and the window. As it is, her hands up draw us around her face to the light of her hands and so back to the dark side of her face as well. I like this dramatic look in this picture, and it has to do with both light and composition.

If you look at the photo of my littlest one against the brick wall, the light is coming in from behind her. There is enough window light in front of her to illuminate (but not as strongly) the front of her face, but not enough to put catch lights in her eyes. The reason this photo works for me is that we read a book from left to right, and the lines in the bricks and light not only bring us into the back of her head but continue to draw our eyes to the right so that we actually look at her face and her expression. The direction of her eyes also draw us to the right, so we aren't stopped by the strong light in the back.

The ideal portrait lights up the mask of the face predominantly and you see catch lights in the upper part of the eyes. But the light is also complementary to the subject. Strong, flat light from the front eliminates shadows and makes the face look wider (as with on-camera flash). We want dimensionality to the face. If you study portraits you like, look for where the catch-lights are. You can often tell by the position and shape of them, where they are and the shape of the light providing them. Also look at where the shadows lie - are they particularly dark, light, soft, hard?

Have fun!

A few photos from today - look at the light

Do I keep reiterating that photography is all about light? Of course, it involves looking at lines, patterns, and with kids - expressions as well. However, if your lighting isn't thought out, your photo will have trouble.

I've started using my front room with large windows on either side as a mini-studio. Today my kids were happy to play around with me, so I grabbed a few shots. Often black and white really shows the light direction as our eyes go directly to the lights and darks and aren't distracted by color. Here are a few of both. Look at where the light is coming from and where the highlights on the faces and hair are:

Another creation and a little on lighting

I set up a little front room of my house to take advantage of the natural light coming in through the windows. I can set up small backdrops and a reflector to shape the light the way I like. I wanted the light to illuminate the mask of the face, but leave shadows to show dimensionality. We call it "short lighting" when the shadow side of the face is closer to the camera. It is called "broad lighting" when the lit side is closer to the camera. Generally, short lighting is more flattering as it helps define and narrow the face. Broad lighting can make the face appear larger to the camera. I used a reflector to lift the shadow side, so it wasn't as dark. Contrast the two photos on the left below. The top one uses short lighting, the bottom one shows broad lighting.

I took a few photos here recently, of my littlest who just turned two. I then took some of these photos to create a little piece as shown here.

Anniversary Gift

My parents are having their 40th wedding anniversary next week. I wanted to create something special for them. So I created a piece from 10 different pictures, and had it printed on a canvas float wrap for them. It is 16"x20". I layered and arranged each picture to create a single piece, and also included excerpts of poems or essays they had each written in the past.

I tried to use photos that signified important concepts, moments, or periods of time in their married life, and incorporated the the picture of the hand-hewn cross, as their Christianity has been very central to much of what they have done or learned. All but three of the pictures I took (or possibly my husband). Obviously their wedding picture, picture of their family when I was three, and picture of the teepee where we all lived after moving to Montana (when I was three), I did not take. My husband and I took the picture of the lake in Montana just as the clouds were rolling in, when we visited there in 2005. The other picture of our house where I grew up, I took at some point in the early 90s. And the most recent picture of them in the bottom right, I took last spring in their backyard.

I layered different textures (photos I've taken of different things/textures) with different opacities to achieve the background, all of which go with the picture on the bottom, of a lake where they spent time in their early married/family years and one my father (an artist) had even painted a picture of at one time.

It arrived early and they were thrilled. So here is the picture of the first test printing hanging on the wall:

After receiving it, I edited the photo before the final printing on canvas. Here is the final picture before printing it for them:

I truly believe each person is a piece of art. I enjoyed creating this for them.

Arranging to open up space in the house

I'm re-arranging so I can convert a little space in the house to a studio. Our little library will soon be changed. Moving bookshelves upstairs to open up window space. I'd like to use the open window as much as possible for light (with reflectors), then I can use my studio lights when it is dark. We'll see. It isn't a huge room, but I think it holds potential for mini-sessions especially geared toward kids and babies!

Old Favorites

Here is a photo I just found that I took almost 3 years ago. I used a lensbaby -which is a type of tilt shift lens that you manipulate manually. This is a photo of my son. The bright patch of sunlight is distracting on his hair, but I loved the way the light reflects back on his face from the book he's looking at. It is tricky using this lens, as you have to use your fingers to get the focus right and hold it there! It's not a lens I use every day, but it is fun to play around with sometimes.

 This other, also of my son, is one of my all time favorites of him. This was taken just over two years ago. It really captures his intensity. I liked the way the striped lighting pattern fell on him, and the look in his eyes.