Week 11 - Portrait Photography

 #1

 #2

 #3

#4

For my portrait subjects, I used two members of my family.  My daughter is quite used to me taking pictures of her.  My husband, not so much.  I did not make him smile (as I usually would for pictures) because so much of portrait photography is about capturing real, raw, honest emotion and expressions.  So he got a pass this time.  

I thought the one of my daughter turned out perfectly and is unedited.  I took it using the black and white setting on my camera.  Adequate natural light is coming in through a window to her front/left.  Her emotion is that of "ho-hum, another picture."  I thanked her for humoring me.  

The next set of three is of my husband and again using the black and white camera setting.  All three are edited via GIMP in some way, shape, or form.  

In #1 I had to use the clone tool to edit out part of a lamp shade that was in the upper left hand corner of the photo.  In #2 I decided to posterize the photo. I thought this gave it a nice look.  In #3 I played with the brightness and contrast.  I changed them to different levels until I found one I liked.  It gives the photo a darker, more mysterious feeling.  At least I thought so.  

I ran into lighting trouble in the one with my husband due to taking them at night.  I wanted a color photo with the soft glow of a candle but with all of the other lights off, my photos all turned out too dark.  I then turned on two different lights, one being a lamp to his upper left and a hallway light to his upper right.  Changing it to B&W did not show the glow of the candle much but it did add some light to that side of his face as well as add another object in the photo besides him.