Ben: 6/50

Ben is me; I am Ben. This is a self-portrait, from a series of shots I took for a Portrait Photography class at BCA in Burlington.

I enjoy self-portraits. They were the focus of my final project for the class that got me serious about photography, Digital Photography I at CCV in Winooski. For that project, I dressed up as Vincent van Gogh, and emulated eight of his famous self-portrait paintings. The final shots can be seen here.

Dan Lovell is the instructor for the class at BCA. He is encouraging us to think about and experiment with different types and directionality of lighting, which is how this shot came about.

Although there is some dim window light coming from my right, the main light source is a portable LED light held in front of and above me. Some processing was applied in photoshop - I increased the blacks to isolate my face, increased the contrast and clarity for visual 'pop', did a little noise reduction, converted to black and white and applied a sepia filter. I like the 'strikingness' of it.

ISO 200, f/8, 1/3 second. Focal length 30mm (micro 4/3).

Brian: 5/50

Brian is my father. He came over to visit from the UK for a week, and I asked if I could take his portrait. I asked him what kind of picture he would like, and he said his preference was for a scenic background behind him. I live right by Lake Champlain, so that is what we used. Dad used to be a sailor, so he enjoyed the vistas across the lake.

At first, Dad wanted to use a 'sea wall' and lighthouse as a backdrop. We also took shots with another lighthouse and a sailing boat in the background, but in the end, he picked this photo, which has a relatively simple backdrop.

I like this picture too. It was taken in very cloudy, overcast conditions, and the clouds have diffused the light really well, such that his face is pretty evenly lit, without much shadow. Despite my efforts with a reflector (which proved difficult in the wind), the photos we took on brighter days had too many shadows.

These were the first photographs I have really taken of my dad on his own. While I had cameras as a child (very basic film cameras which I would just press and wind), I rarely took portraits with them. I also have not spent very much time with my father in the last ten years, since I moved to the 'States, or even in the six years before that, since we stopped living together. We have recently reconnected, and are rebuilding our relationship, so this portrait is quite meaningful to me personally.

I tried not to over-process this photograph. I did desaturate it slightly - there are a lot of greys in it and I wanted to emphasize that, without losing the color in his eyes and shirt - but not much else. I used a tripod, and focused manually, which has been giving me better results lately than autofocus, especially trying to get Dad's eye in focus through his glasses. Here it is not perfect, but it is pretty good. Again, I think a landscape orientation works well here, as the backdrop (a landscape) is part of the image.

The sun (through a lot of cloud) is the only light source in this picture.

ISO 200, f/18, 1/30 second. Focal length 42mm (micro 4/3).

Mother and baby: 4/50

This is a shot from a family portrait session at an apple orchard. The family have asked me not to use their names.

I got a number of shots in a number of positions, inside, outside, with different combinations of people (another child and the father were also involved in the shoot). Most of the photos, however, suffered from looking somewhat staged (and many of them were). I was also having some issues with getting the lighting right.

I like this shot because I think it captured a candid moment between mother and son. The baby is looking towards us, and his mother is looking at him. I find this draws the eye across the image, and highlights their interaction. You can tell that he is her child.

I had to do a little work in post-processing to clean up the beam behind the baby's head, which had some distracting paint marks on it. I also had trouble getting the white balance and skin hues 'correct', but I think that this is close.

This is also my first portrait (of the fifty) in landscape format. I think it works well in that orientation, given that it shows the relationship between two people.

The only light in this photo is sunlight, coming in a barn door out of frame to our left. A reflector was used for many of the pictures in the shoot. I am not sure if it was in use here.

ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/80 second. Focal length 42mm (micro 4/3).

What's Good: 3/50

What's Good is the name of a band based here in Burlington, Vermont. They describe their style as 'funky soul jazz rock', and can be found on facebook here. My friend Jordan is one of the band members, and I had promised him some photos, so I went along to a gig at Nectar's in Burlington on October 12th and took some shots. This is my favorite.

Lighting was definitely a challenge here. The drummer, at back center, is barely visible, because he has no lights on him. There are also two more band members, who were not on stage when this picture was taken. My maximum aperture of f/3.5 was not large enough to give me a fast shutter speed at ISO 200, so I increased the ISO to 1250, which definitely results in some noise in the image.

However, I like the colors in this shot. I was able to white balance off the keyboardist's T-shirt, and the different lights gave the scene a multi-colored look. The blur is also minimal, despite not being able to shoot at a fast shutter speed. I think I captured a moment where there wasn't too much movement on the stage.

ISO 1250, f/3.5, 1/15 second. Focal length 14mm (micro 4/3).

Catherine: 2/50

Catherine and I dated this summer. She is an artist, a graphic designer, a website designer and an all-around fun, caring, creative person. We are no longer together, but remain friends.


This photo was taken during set up for a shoot at Catherine's father's chiropractic practice. I was shooting staff and some rooms at the business, which is near Rochester, NY.


This is one of my first portraits using my new backdrop stand. I hung a white backdrop on it, but at first it was too creased (out of the package), so Catherine's mother and I wetted it and put it in the dryer. Then I tried to iron it, without much success. I've noticed that some of the pros use roll paper for their backdrops. That seems to work better. So, if you look closely, you can see wrinkles in the background. I don't think that they are too distracting though.


This was also the first shot of a set. The goal was for me to test focus, exposure, lighting and composition with her as a stand-in, but I really liked this shot. I think it captures her sweet, fun-loving personality nicely.


I liked the black and white conversion (with a blue filter), as I feel it makes for interesting skin tones and contrast. There is a window to Catherine's right, which is the main light source, and I am using my small LED light for fill, through a white umbrella 45 degrees to her left and above her.


ISO 400, f/4.1, 1/60 second. Focal length 21mm (micro 4/3).

Stefan: 1/50

Stefan is a good friend of mine. We became friends while working in a French restaurant. I was a sous chef; he was a server. Stefan is an aspiring (medical) doctor. He lent me my first tripod, and has been hearing about my photographic ambitions for some time!


He good humoredly agreed to be my first portrait model, and sat in a chair while I clicked the shutter and adjusted my camera, my light (a small LED panel on a stand, with a white umbrella to diffuse the light) and my tripod.


After taking a series of photos, where I had (mostly) been paying attention to exposure, I realized I hadn't been paying much attention to the background. We moved to another room and I improvised a backdrop, which eliminated background distractions.


In the end, my favorite photo was from the first set. I have taken more portraits since, and am starting to sense a trend. The best photos seem to come, mostly, from the beginning of a shoot, when the model is fresher, more able to smile and less tired of sitting and waiting. Because my favorite was from early on, I had paid no attention to the background, and so went for a tight crop. I usually try to get the whole face in the frame, but I think I like the close-up here. I picked this photo because of the lighting, which feels a little moody, with a good range of tones. Stefan looks at the viewer, and there are catchlights in his eyes.


There is an open doorway to Stefan's left, which is the main light source (although he is turned away from it). There is also a small fill light about 45 degrees to his right and above him.


I convert most of my portraits to black and white in Photoshop to see whether or not I prefer them to the color versions. I find myself picking the black and white image more often than the color one, but have not yet figured out if I have a personal preference for monotone or whether I am not happy with my color adjustment yet. I guess that time will tell. Here, I also include the color version for the sake of comparison.


ISO 1250, f/5.6, 1/20 second. Focal length 42mm (micro 4/3).


Note that this is a high ISO, particularly for my camera, and a slow shutter speed. I would ideally have liked to decrease the ISO and increase the shutter speed, but was finding the light to be too dim. Maybe facing him towards the doorway would have solved this problem.

Introduction

Welcome to Fifty Portraits, my newest photo project. Since deciding to start on the track to becoming a professional photographer, I have met with several working pros, including John Griebsch (www.johngriebsch.com). John is based in New York state, and specializes in architectural and aerial photography.

John was kind enough to spend some time talking about his career, and giving some advice on how to build mine. After looking at some of my work, he offered some useful pointers to focus my efforts more effectively, and, after I told him that I was interested in portraiture, proposed that I make it my goal to 'shoot' fifty different people, in order to gain experience and refine my skills. And so Fifty Portraits was born.