Creative Lighting Portraits

M. Mason

For this photo, I set up the lights so that the small one was shining directly behind his head, giving the outline along his shoulders/neck and emphasizing the form of his hair. Then there is the bigger 500 watt light somewhere between split and short. Because his head is facing the bigger light source, we loose his neck to shadow, and it creates an interesting line along his jaw.

Y. Jobin

For this photo I set up one 500 watt light on the ground to create the shadow on the background, and there is also a small light on the right side of his face to eliminate shadows as much as possible.

Classic Studio Portrait

Yann, from the other first year group

Studio Lighting Portraits

Split lighting

Short, no fill

Short, reflector

Butterfly

Environmental portraits

Before you look at my pictures, I just wanted to mention that I've discovered a problem with my camera's settings. No matter what ISO I set it at, the picture is always taken at ISO 1600 when I shoot on manual. I thought in the case of my self portrait I had forgot to adjust my settings, but then it continued to happen. So sorry for the ridiculous amount of grain in my portraits, and I'm hoping I'll be able to fix this problem asap!

I took my self-portrait in my bedroom, where I spend most of my time on my laptop, or drawing/painting. I'm the most comfortable in the space that I've decorated and arranged myself. I talked to you about trying this idea of peaking from behind my laptop, and I like the way it turned out (except for the grain).

I love flowers and flower shops, so I decided to go to the one in the Alexis Neon mall and ask to photograph one of the women working there. This one woman cooperated fully, and even suggested ways she could pose. She seemed happy to let me take a picture of her, and this was refreshing after being rejected by many random working strangers I asked. I like the many colors in the picture, and the nice smile she has.

This is a totally unplanned shot I took of my best friend waking up. I thought it was quite lovely even though most people look terrible in the morning. I like the grungy lifestyle that the image portrays, because of the graffiti on the wall and the raggedy Bob Dylan portrait I made for her. She has just moved into this apartment. I included it just for fun because I think it defers from the typical looking environmental portrait.

Portrait entry

This is a portrait of very talented actress/musician Zooey Deschanel. The colour of her dress is a nice soft shade and does not distract from her face, instead it accentuates her dark hair. Her hands, which could have easily looked tense, look totally relaxed. Having her full arm in the frame leads our us up to her eyes.

Moment shots

Available light

These pictures of Graham were taken using available light in the studio in class on Tuesday.

using a tripod

handheld

JUMP!

Graham Gibb

landscape assignment

Both these images were taken on the lakeshore in Lachine, a very short bike ride from my home.


I do realize that the trees and grass and everything else on the right side are not visible, but it had become too dark out to capture. I still really like this picture because of the gorgeous purple and pink tones in the sunset. I shot this using the wrong white balance.


Again, I really like this picture because of the contrast between the two colours, blue and orange/red. By taking this picture I realized how quickly fall is approaching.

urban landscape & vantage point

(Sorry for the lateness, I thought they were due with the September 9 landscape shot)

1. Urban Landscape

I decided I would go on a journey to the Jacques Cartier bridge alone for this assignment, and see what kind of pictures I could get out of it of our skyline. My favorite was this one, because the sky has just the right amount of color that all fade nicely.


I like this image for different reasons than the first one, because there is not very much colour to be excited about. What I like about it is the lonely feeling I get, because walking around the city by yourself can make someone feel very alone and isolated. This area seemed like a place often overlooked, and I decided to take the time to look, and liked what I saw.


2. Vantage point


My idea for this image came to me when I was waiting to get on a bus (the top image), and then my idea developed even more when I looked up while on said bus (the bottom image). The two have almost identical shapes, and I thought it would make a great diptych and appropriate vantage point shots, because they were both shot straight up and down.