Portrait Analysis
![Picture](/uploads/9/0/5/3/9053994/2237330.jpg)
The first thing I notice is that my eye doesn’t know where to land. It fleets back and for the between the girl and the boy’s mask. The mask is a distraction to the emotions showing in the girl’s face. This seeming confusion to my eye makes me want to look at the picture just a bit more to figure it out.
The girl appears tired and on guard. She is not trusting of the person taking the picture. This may be from shyness or from some other bitterness she carries. The boy’s eyes are also blaringly mistrustful.
The girl is leaning into the boy, seemingly reliant on him both for emotional support, and probably economical support. The trailers in the background suggest they are of the lower economic class. However, the boy’s mask makes me suspicious that there is more to the story and that what I read into the picture may not be accurate at all. He could be simply posing with his angry face. The mask and trailers suggest they might be at a gathering, maybe like an anime convention, or are part of a traveling circus. I am inclined to think they are part of a traveling circus, hence the trailers, (is that a circus booth at the right of the picture?) the mask, and the girls’ haggard, tired look.
Their mistrustful look makes me want to avoid asking these two people anything. However, I think I would start with asking them “how long have you been here?” Might have to clarify it with “how long have you been traveling with the group?” I think they communicate, nonverbally, anger and mistrust. I read this from their eyes. I would like to ask the photography how he/she came to be there and also ask what background information they might be willing to share.
Portrait Story
Photo Analysis
- Feelings/mood- In this photo shoot I picked up on the the subtle challenge of being a sole proprietor hairdresser: smiling and chatting with clients even when life's other challenges are ripping you apart. Although clever conversation is natural to her, I knew when we started the shoot that I was going to have to work to get Nikki to share her best camera feature - her smile. Attempting a friendly hint, she responded with rewards that were so fleeting I nearly missed them.
- Subject placement- I only had an hour for shooting before her next appointment arrived, but it seemed plenty of time to capture the essence. With a small working environment and the sun's glare in the window, I made use of the mirrors for action shots. For personal shots, we went outside her shop, where the lighting was nice and soft. Her white top was both a help and a hindrance, often appearing too bright, but also it blended with the white brick background, which brought more attention to her face.
- Multi-layered - Using the mirrors in her shop allowed for layering, which otherwise would have been nonexistent for this session.
- Depth of field- Here again, I struggle (I feel), with getting the perfect depth of field. I kept my aperture set wide, but due to lack of lighting I turned up my ISO quite a bit. I'm not sure if this is what caused a little bit of graininess to some pics. I did pay with a narrow aperture but not for too long before I switched back.
- Light- The setting for this was both the best and worst. Depending on my camera angle, I got either high contrast, perfect shadows, or soft light. I did not worry too much about the light, except to be aware of it. The photo above to the right with Nikki in the doorway was taken with the sun's glare in the camera, but with some Photoshop adjustments, it turned out great. I really like what black and white can do for photos that are otherwise too harsh.
- Improvement- First, go prepared. I started shooting and had some great shots before I realized I didn't have my SD card in the camera. Second, although I did ask her to do a few things, such as look away from the camera (photo above left) and where to stand, I would have tried to be a bit more bold to ask her to do a little it more posing. She doesn't think she's photogenic, but when given minor suggestions, she pulled off photogenic in spades.