Quick Portraiture

[Daniel Harrison]

HI everyone,
I have an assignment that will require me to take around 50 portraits in a small amount of time and thought I would ask for a few suggestions here. I have 4 Lights, but will most likely use 3, one for the background, 1 main and 1 fill.

Last time I posed the subjects on a stool leaning on a small tall table which worked OK (3/4 view of the face), but I would be interested in any other posing ideas which would be quick and easy and would work for a large majority of people, passing through very quickly.

Also if anyone has ideas for creating a more pleasing portrait with those who are considerably overweight, I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW. I know I will be doing at least one of these and any suggestions would be appreciated.

Examples tend to speak louder than words :-)

So here are some from last time, they are by no means great. Forgot my lightmeter and there was very little time as well as light leaking from the windows- but enough excuses!

http://dhphotography.com.au/Portaits/Image1.jpg

[Ray West]

Hi Daniel,

I am not a portrait or any sort of photographer, but fwiw, it may help to know the purpose of the portrait, e.g. id card, company brochure, whatever.

I think the first image on the second row is about the right proportion head,/ body/angle view. The guy next to him is two front facing (both ears showing the same amount). Perhaps use a stool with a back, so they sit body facing right, but looking at you. Maybe you have to consider moving back for larger heads/ zoom, whatever. For large bodies, maybe get them leaning forward more, shallow depth of field (or photoshop???)

Looking at all the photos you have shown, it looks to me that the photos of larger bodied folk shows smaller heads than the others. This may be some unconscious cropping you are doing, but may be a physical reality, which you need to compensate for by zooming in on the face more. Perhaps you could mark the viewfinder in some way? (In general, black tends to make things look smaller, so maybe you could do something re suggesting attire, but how you do that in this pc world is up to you.)

Can you not spend a few minutes trying out a few variations in some other location before the event?

hth.

Best wishes,

Ray

[Gary Ayala]

Morning Daniel-

I have the same portrait resume as Ray. I like the lower left photo best. A hint of Rembrant lighting with a triangle of light on the cheek ... Ray is on the money on "Slenderizing Black". Remember to look at the background and foreground in addition to the subject. In my Rembrant lighting shot the tie is loose ... you need to look for these type of details.

Gary

[Daniel Harrison]

Thanks Guys,
Oh and the reason is for politics. So it would be for letter heads, buisness cards, polling cards etc.

[Daniel Harrison]

Well I shot my assignment last Saturday and I will post what I got. Finally used that groovy voice recorder on my 1D :-) THings went much better this time as I had time to set up in a dark room, and I had a light meter!

Will post results soon, and I will wan't some feedback on these :-)

[Asher Kelman]

Congrats Daniel! look forward to the resullts!

asher