Although I might incorporate landscapes into my work, I have still focused on the portraits as this is the main part of the project and I plan for my main outcome to be big prints of the portraits. I contacted another person and her mum was also happy to be involved. Like every shoot, I did not take many photos as I did not want to stay there longer than I had to.
Like usual, I walked to the shoot in the evening for the best lighting, it was a bit cloudier this day but still bright enough. When I shoot people in the same house, I make sure I position them at different windows so that it has different reflection and sometimes different window frame.
What I find frustrating about this project and the current time we are living in is there if the lighting of framing of the shoot isn’t good then there is only so much I can do to correct it. In this one I knew straight away that it wasn’t successful. Firstly I struggled with the reflection as it was too distracting in her face but the better angle I could be seen in the reflection. Next she did not have a lot of space to get close to the window and because of this, I don’t think she is enough in the frame.
I then took photos of her mum, I used a different window which was easier to work with the reflection. What I realise I like from my previous shoots is when there is a bit of sky in the image and then a building or object. I think the sky breaks up the harsh lines of the window frame and buildings and adds more light and colour to the image. The only thing I question in this image is the blinds in the top. They’re tilted which makes it slightly distracting. I also think when I get to the editing stage I might crop in closer to her face. The garage in the reflection is a bit distracting on her face so if I was to make her face fill more of the frame and brighten it slightly, it might improve this.
Although one of the portraits was not successful, I am happy that I managed to get one that I can use as a final. Each shoot I am doing, I am learning what works best and I am also knowing when the image isn’t worth spending the time trying to correct lighting etc. Such as the first one where I could tell straight away that the composition wasn’t working.
Lucy Davis 