Portrits and self portraits

17. Introduce Movement

Portraits can be so static – but what if you added some movement into them? This can be achieved in a few ways:

• by making your subject move
• by keeping your subject still but having an element in the scene around them move
• by moving your camera (or it’s lens to achieve a zoom burst)The key with the above three methods is to use a slow enough shutter speed to capture the movement.
  The alternative is to have your subject obviously move fast but to use a shutter speed so fast that it ‘freezes’ their movement.
  
  

  19. Fill the Frame

  One way to ensure that your subject captures the attention of the viewer of your portrait is to fill the frame with their face.
  It’s not something that you’d do in every shot that you take – but if your subject is the only feature in the shot – there’s really nowhere else to look.

  9. Obscure Part of your Subject

  A variation on the idea of zooming in on one part of the body is to obscure parts of your portrait subject’s face or body. You can do this with clothing, objects, their hands or just by framing part of them out of the image.
  Doing this means that you leave a little to the imagination of the image’s viewer but also focus their attention on parts of your subject that you want them to be focused upon.
  
  
  ENVIRONMENTAL PORTRAIT
  
  
  
  I like this picture because the guitar leads you to the subject of the photo. Also the guitar is blurry but the man, the main subject, is in focus. I think it demonstrates the environment this man enjoys, music and mysterious. 
  
  
  SELF-PORTRAIT
  
  
  
  I like this picture because his face fills the frame. You can see every detail and all the texture that is on his face. The picture is crisp, clear, and up close which makes this man seem bold and a hard worker.
  
  
  CASUAL PORTRAIT
  
  
  
  I like this portrait because it is candid and the bride is framed by the car window. It is close enough that you can clearly see the bride's emotion but far enough away to capture the event and frame the subject. 
  
  
  1. What are the characteristics of an environmental portrait?

  -An environmental portrait captures the subject (a person) but in an environment that they enjoy. For example a basketball court, or on a stage. They are plead somewhere that is an environment they know well. 

  2. What is the difference between an environmental portrait and a casual portrait?

  A casual portrait is just any picture of a person at any time or place where as an environmental portrait is placed in a certain location. 

  3. What will you need to do to get a really good self-portrait?

  To get a really good self-portrait, the camera needs to be on a tripod so it can stand alone, and you need to plan out where you are going to pose. 

  4.  When you go take these pictures, and you will eventually turn in one of each, a portrait and a self-portrait, describe to me what you would like to do and who you would like to take a portrait of and where you might shoot these images.

  For the portrait,  I would like to do one with someone moving in the background almost as if there is a ghost. (So create movement.) I would like to do it with my two brothers. I might do it in our dining room because it is more old fashioned looking. 

  For the self portrait, I am of course going to shoot myself. I would like to do a close up with different lighting so it is dark with streaks of light. If not that, I would like to do some sort of framing like in a car or the treehouse in my backyard.