RESEARCH
I took some time to research what makes a good portrait photograph. According to JasonGuyPhotography, lighting, framing and posing are key elements to a good portrait.
For lighting, the article says that light from above the subject is better than from below. PhotoWorkout suggests using natural light, especially on a cloudy day since the light is diffused by the clouds.
JasonGuyPhotography suggests framing portraits with the use of leading lines and the rule of thirds as this will give the portrait a good composition that will focus the viewer on the person rather than the background.
PRODUCTION
To take the photos, I went to the Historic Dockyard in Portsmouth, as this area had lots of interesting textures to make unique backgrounds for the photographs. I took photographs of a classmate, experimenting with different poses and angles. I used a Nikon D3300 with an 18-55mm lens.
When taking the photos, I looked for interesting objects to be in the foreground of the images. One object was a large rusty gear cog. I took a photo of my classmate through the cog, allowing the cog to frame them.
EDITING
To edit the photographs, I used Adobe Lightroom. I wanted the images to have rich colours to enhance the dark backgrounds and blue sky, as well as the model's brown jacket. To start, I found a preset called "Taislany's Edit - thais gomes" which gave the image the look I wanted, I then made a few adjustments until I was completely happy. I saved the adjusted preset as a new preset and then applied this to the other photographs.
OUTCOME
