Photography class: Assignment 7 - Portraits

The assignment for this week was about portraits, we had a basic class about the different types of portraits and a few techniques, not a lot because portraits is a course in itself, so this assignment was to have a brief idea of how to take portraits. The assignment was to take 2 portraits of somebody else and this person was supposed to be posing for the camera, also I had to take another 2 portraits but in this case the person didn't have to pose, it has to be spontaneous so we can capture the person expresion without being influenced by the fact that a picture was being taken of them and lastly I had to take to self-portraits to get used to see myself in the other end.

Posing for the camera


This is a picture of my sister, posing in her garden with her orchids, which she loves. I took it in a cloudy day, no flash no other tools used.

Posing for the camera


My sister again in a different pose, similar settings.

Spontaneous


This picture was taken in the office with some good light coming from the window, again no flash used.

Spontaneous


This is from inside the office as well, lot of light from the window, no flash used. Made it black and white to hide a bit all the light that comes from the window in the top right corner of the photo.

Me


I took this inside my house, in my bedroom to be exact, during the night, I used a mirror and the external camera flash.

Me again


Same here, however since the position is different the flash created an effect that could make you think I took this one in the afternoon with sunlight coming through the window.

With this assignment I learned that portraits are hard, you need to get the light right so you can show people how they really are, self-portraits are harder, you have to be very creative to get a good photo. At end as usual it all comes to practice, patience and to be creative and most importantly to have fun.

I had my last class this week and this was my last assignment, the whole course and every assignment were very interesting, I learned a lot and now I am off to practice everything I learn.

I am going to be sharing all my photos in my Flickr account in case you want to follow me there and check on what I am up to in terms of photography.