Studio Portraits

This is both a group and individual assignment. You shoot as a group and edit as an individual. To avoid handing in the same photos as your group members, ensure you take lots of pictures.

In a photo studio, you are in control. YOU determine the placement of the lights, the exposure, how the person sits, what they sit on and how comfortable you make them. In short, you become a photographic god. The trick is not to act like one.

Portraits are an act of cooperation between the photographer and subject. It is vital for for you as the photographer to listen to your subject. You do not want to make your subject uncooperative. The results are usually disappointing for everybody.

So in this lesson, you are going to learn finer points of studio portraiture. First we will study lighting, followed by a look at different facial shapes. Then, we review posing.

Make sure you know the basic types of portrait lighting, butterfly, loop, Rembrandt, followed by side/split lighting and rim lighting. Then remember these are 3 new lighting techniques: broad, narrow lighting as well as clam shell. These links lead you to a Google search, so look at several. Note some links may show glamour type photos. Here is an additional link for portrait lighting tips and tutorials.

Darlene Hildebrandt is a Canadian photographer who was the editor for Digital Photo School. At the other end of this link are six types of lighting that you should be familiar with.

Facial shapes

Look around the classroom and observe the different facial shapes of your fellow classmates. Notice that there are many different shapes, some are round, oval, or square. This first link contains a diagram of female faces.

The second link shows a diagram of a female face along with actual faces.

Why is this important? To make your subjects look their finest, you can use lights to influence the shape, by playing with highlights and shadows.

Studio Lighting for Portraits

If a person has a wide or round face, you may want to narrow the face, so use narrow lighting. Sometimes it is called short lighting. With this type of lighting, the part of the face closest to the camera is in shadow giving the appearance of a slimmer face. This tends to be the lighting most people prefer.

On the other hand, if a person has a narrow shaped face, you may want to give the appearance of a little more fullness to their portrait. This is accomplished by using broad lighting. The side of person’s face that is closest to the camera is highlighted or receives the most light, causing the face to look wider.

Click the following link to learn the difference between broad and narrow lighting from Lighting Made Easy.

Clam shell lighting is great for portraits and full body shots. Imagine an open clamshell as two separate light sources. They be either vertical or horizontal. Click here for examples of clamshell lighting.

Posing

Finally, let's look at posing. Visit the Digital Photo School Posing Guide. You may remember this page from grade 11.

There are additional links for posing men, children, couples and others.

Tips on posing men by Jerry Ghionis

Visit Petapixel, for more advanced information on posing,

Posing Hands

Hands are awkward things. They often dangle or look weird in a photo. To help you decide what to do with them, check out this 5 minute video by Lindsay Adler:

• do NOT put your whole hand in your pocket. Leave your thumb or a few fingers sticking out.

• If you want to look like you have square shoulders, hook your fingers in your belt or waistband. It will raise them a few centimetres or an inch or so your you will look more assertive.

Finally, which side of your face looks better? You may here people say my left side is best. They may know or perhaps it is just a gut instinct and they could be wrong. How can you tell? Watch Joe Edelman's video. Pay special attention to the size of the eyes. The takeaway from this video is to photograph both sides of the face.

All this information separates the grade 12 pros from the rest of the pack. Now armed with all this advice, go have fun completing your studio assignment and creating amazing portraits.

Assignment

Remember your pictures will be marked on the following criteria:

1. pleasant expression -- MOST IMPORTANT,

2. posing,

3. lighting,

Here is a rule I generally use in marking portraits. If I was your parent or uncle, would I buy a copy. If the answer is yes, you receive a higher mark.

Take a casual photo of each person under the diffuse florescent lights in the classroom. Store it on the computer to compare it to your studio photos.

In the studio set up your lights for each of the following lighting types:

• butterfly,

• loop

• Rembrandt,

• side,

• clamshell,

• broad,

• narrow.

Add a hair light, rim light and background light.

Try adding 2 strip lights (rim lights) perhaps with a gel to add a colour accent to show off a person’s hair or body outline.

Take 8 to 12 photos of each group member for each lighting techniques. For each shot, try to use a different pose, as suggested by the posing guides.

Also try sitting, standing, leaning on one leg, looking over their shoulder and tilting the head in different directions. Remember you may have to adjust your lights each time the person moves.

Take a 5 group photos of 2 or 3 people. Use different poses. Clamshell and loop lighting work well for groups.

Don't be afraid to direct or help them pose. Take some fun shots and a several photos with unusual or wacky posing. You should have close to 100 photos. Remember to make your subject look stunning, so experiment and have fun.

Hand in

Keep all your photos. People who mark will want to see thumbnails of all the photos your group took.

For each of the 7 lighting types, pick the best 2 photos of each person, considering both facial shape and posing. Include 4 group shots and 2 fun shots. You should have a total of 20 shots.

Import the final photos into Photoshop CC. Edit all your photos. Make any exposure corrections and ensure there is only one catch light in each eye.

Assemble your finished portraits in a file along with the casual photo you took in the classroom for marking. All photos will be marked on the computer in a discussion with the teacher and perhaps another grade 12 Com Tech student.

If you have any questions, come see the teacher.