Last night I handed in my first assignment, which was on portraiture. On sunday I was supposed to be taking photos of my friend Georgina who had agreed to be my model but as many of you now know I was unable to get out of bed as I was so ill. This meant that I only had monday to take the shots and also meant the George was no longer available. Luckily my friend Kelly agreed to stand in her for, so after dark we trapsed into the woods in the freezing cold, I was still ill and hadn't eaten for two days and poor kelly ended up freezing to death nearly lol!!

Given the circumstances they came out alright, I just did them quick as poss. A few blurred due to long exposure times but I got some nice ones. Here are a few that I thought I'd show you. Most of the ones I've hosted have been RAW processed to some degree.

People at college seemed to like them

I used a black one and a white one in my final piece - these two:

The rest are just a few more I liked

In this one you couldn't even see any of the background until it was photoshopped. Has made it go a little grainy but I kinda like it lol

The first and the second to last are the best IMHO

Good photos! Bet you'd get some funny looks from passers by dressed like that in the woods Anyone for dogging?

Where are the nude ones?

bless kelly though, she must have been freezing!!

I don't think college would appreciate nude ones :P

I don't think college would appreciate nude ones :P

Why not? it is art, after all!

Dont think kel would have been too pleased, she was cold enough! lol

The ones with her back to the tree, in the black dress, don't really work. The others are very nice. Not sure about the squatting down profile shot either. The black dress makes the lighting look a little harsh. I think the first is head and shoulders above the rest.

Lighting was supposed to look harsh on the black one, that was the whole idea

Also, I couldn't see her it was that dark, I sorta left the posing up to her, just told her whereabouts to stand. I felt pretty ill and I didn't get to review them properly til I got them on my pc. Some had blurred if she had moved and I just had to make do with what I'd got

Infact, just checked and that first one had a 5 second exposure! I'm lucky it came out at all lol

Oh - but in my defence, you didn't explain the parameters of the assignment at the beginning

Well, the assignment was on portraiture and we had to produce a diptych or triptych or images that either complimented or contrasted each other. So I went for the good white one and the black evil one. I dunno what she's meant to be, some kind of mystical figure lol. I'm deffo gonna have another go in the summer when it's warmer and I have more time and I don't feel like death!

I still think a pale nude lass would look better.

I don't know what you were trying to convey in the photos though, were you deliberatly making them look poor?

Second to last is an awesome shot in my opinion. I'm no expert on "art" and "photos" but it just works for me in a nice way.

Poor in what way? Have you ever tried taking photos in complete and total darkness, other than a torch and some tin foil? Some of them have ended up a little noisey due to the post processing I had to do on them, but it adds to them I think. The side lit ones have great atmosphere, but that type of lighting does take its toll on the quality a little, especially as I had to up the exposure on the RAW processor in p/chop.

I wasn't having a go, it seems as though you are dissing your own piccies, but they look fine to me.

But then again, as you know I am a complete numpty:D

Second to last is an awesome shot in my opinion. I'm no expert on "art" and "photos" but it just works for me in a nice way.

I love that one myself, but as I used the white one of her stood behind the tree it was too similar. Also I liked the lighting on the second one. When printed out as 10x8 at Jessops it didn't quite look as impressive as it does on the PC with the backlighting of a screen

doing anything in the dark is a challenge... kel looks very un-impressed in some of those photos

She was suposed to, I don't like people smiling in photos it ruins the atmosphere

very nice loz. i like the 5th 1 in a pervy way... lol...

Just being a novice, I'd have to agree with some of the others that the first and second to last one's are my favourites.

Nice going! Good composition, and you can tell a lot of thought went into it. In my experience you have to take loads of pictures to get one or two good ones you're happy with.

Very good lighting. But why am I reminded of the original Evil Dead Fillum?

you can tell it was cold, those nipples look like scania wheelnuts !!

you can tell it was cold, those nipples look like scania wheelnuts !!

:eek:

And the marks....Loz 10/10, as for your loopy friend, I'd give her 1..................................:P;)

Did some similar stuff to this back in my film days. Not easy, especially when it is freezing cold and you are ill. Nice idea that can be developed later.

Personally, I think you need some closer framing / cropping / portrait orientation frames in there. Also, the model needs to communicate with the audience or be "unaware" of the audience. In one or two frames, the model looks distracted. In others, the model is just a little too small in the frame to get the intimacy, but too close to get the detachment.

For this sort of shoot you need time and lots of frames to get the expression just right. Portable lighting is pretty tricky too. Did some in car headlamps once. Used halogen lamp film but it still came out with too strong a cast.

With RAW, you may want to try using the slower ISO settings and pushing the processing on an under exposed frame. You would be amazed at what you can recover.

Last tips for today... Remove the bungalows form the background and maybe some stronger makeup on the model.

Like the idea of this project and it is a good start. Definitely room and potenial to develop the ideas further.

Chris

I didn't have any time, I couldn't be ar5ed moving the camera because I was ill, freezing and using a wobbly tripod (I now have a new manfrotto one for xmas with spirit level etc). I am also very sure Kelly WAS distracted, I'm sure I would have been if I was her!! I tried my best to find somewhere with as few houses in background as I could, but if you walked through that wood I challenge you to find a place without them. I wanted to go to the trough but was out of time by this point. I doubt very much the examiners will look this far into the photos, they just want to see that it's been done and that some form of planning is there. It's whether I've done all the stupid bits right that will count for most of my marks, like the research etc

They are far from perfect I can see that, but under the circumstances I was happy to even get anything at all. I picked the black one more for the lighting that the way she's stood. At least you can see a bit of background. As for cropping, I had one that was a long way off and I didn't like it. I didn't want them too far in as you get no sense of atmosphere (IMO) I wanted her whole body in it with a bit of surrounding and as few houses of streetlights as possible.

As for processing, I know a little bit but not enough to be playing with them to a massive extent, if I did they would just look stupid