Natural Light Portraits

[dawesy]

Another set for class. The brief this time was to experiment with some compositional techniques discussed on either a 'medium sized' inanimate object or a person using only daylight in it's various forms. I roped in a friend of mine who hates having her photo taken, but has a delusion that I possess some talent so let's me shoot her to encourage me to take more shots. All straight from the camera.

A couple playing with perspective and point of view. A few hot spots that probably need to be taken care of here:




Some shallow depth of field


Messing around with edge of the frame



I also played with some leading lines, patterns, some interesting shadows and negative space with various levels of success but these were my favourites. We have to hand them in B&W so hopefully they look good in monotone!

[Alpha_7]

For me the last one is the strongest, I'm not 100% sure about the wire on the fence, the affect in the OOF area is a little bit distracting but at the same time, without it it might be a little too bland.

[Marvin]

In the first one the colour looks a bit off and you are kind of drawn to look at her boobs. The second is definitely better without the hot spots but I wonder if a small bit of fill flash might have brightened her up a bit. The fourth appeals to me. I like her expression and her face is a bit brighter.

[dawesy]

Thanks guys.

I hadn't noticed the colour in the first one on the lappy but looking again and especially in print it's pretty bad. I think that would be refelction from the sandstone wall on the right of frame... didn't think about that. I just love the expression knowing her, it's pretty much her telling me to stop being a smart arse . It looks better B&W but the hotspots become a problem so may have a go at fixing them.

I think the second could be good with a bit of post, these are out of cam.

This is the 3rd in B&W which may make the fence a little less distracting. I hadn't actually intended to have it there to start with then got caught up trying to get that expression that I forgot about my background... again!


And another that may be stronger, or not, with the exception of that wisp of hair on the face.

[BullcreekBob]

For me, the fourth image of the first post is the *best* by quite a way.

The high wide angle of the first two makes her head inordinately large, while I like this style for some shots, I don't like it for portraits. The third - well I'm not a fan of armpit shots.

In your second post, I quite like both image. The BW works well and in the second, the composition is great, but as you say marred by the errant hair strand.

[JC_Denton]

If those strands of hair were just a bit lower and thicker I think they would actually work quite well.