Collins Complete Photography Projects by John Garrett & Graeme Harris

Author:John Garrett & Graeme Harris
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2013-09-25T04:00:00+00:00

CROPPING AND CONVERTING

As we looked at the photographs on the laptop I started to do some cropping, and as soon as I tried this rather extreme composition we both really liked it. We decided to convert it to black and white, making it even more dramatic compared to the uncropped colour version. I added the vignetting in Lightroom so his spiky hair would stand out from the background, since it is part of his personality. JG

PROJECT 6: INTERPRETATION

A good portrait is a well-lit likeness of the subject – but a really good portraitist takes that next huge step and makes his or her personal interpretation of the subject’s character.

This involves risk-taking, since the subject may strongly disagree with the interpretation and in the case of a professional photographer the subject is most probably the client who may not want to pay the bill. However, if you really want to progress and be one of those portraitists, you have to go for it. Even so, it’s a good idea to start off playing safe first with a good flattering portrait so that your subjects are not too dismayed by interpretations that they don’t like. You will be relying on friends and family to model for you while you explore portraiture, so it’s in your interests to make sure they will co-operate again.

For this project, have some fun taking a friend out and making an interesting composition matching a background to their personality. You could also use lighting effects, clothing and props. A series of pictures of your friends with their favourite possessions, which could be anything from a vase to a motor car, would be interesting to do and would also give you a portfolio of images that would act later as a reminder of your own life at the time, intertwined as it is with theirs.

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