Recently, I have been watching Channel Five's "How to Take Stunning Pictures". I was particularly interested in the first episode on portraiture, where photographer Harry Borden gave tips on taking better portraits. I took these tips into account and started shooting portraits for myself.
With these images, I tried to use the rule of thirds, with my grandad and the fruit machine in the background being on the dividing lines. I also used natural light to light the composition. I like the way the light caught one side of his face, creating quite dramatic lighting. I converted them to black and white because I feel they look more sophisticated and seems to suit the lighting well. I did this using Photoshop, first desaturating the image then altering the levels. I think to get a more accurate black and white conversion, I will look at other artists and how they convert to black and white.
These images were initially taken spontaneously. My grandad was not aware of the first image, showing a very natural pose. With the second pose, he looks more aware of me yet still fairly natural. With the third image he is fully aware of me taking photos and starts pulling funny faces. Even though he is posing, this really reflects his character. This uses both of Harry Borden's techniques. His best work are a mixture of both posed and spontaneous images.
This is an example of Harry Borden's posed images. This is a portrait of Adrian Brody. As it is taken in a studio, they tend to be very posed because there is full intention of achieving a portrait, where as spontaneous images tend to be lucky shots.
This is an example of what Harry Borden considers to be a lucky shot.
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