[Leica] Portrait of a friend

[tedgrant at shaw.ca (tedgrant at shaw.ca)]

Chris Crawford SHOWED:
Subject: [Leica] Portrait of a friend


> http://chriscrawfordphoto.com/chris-details.php?prodId=1042

>> On 10 Jun 2012, at 07:55, Chris Crawford wrote:
> This was a hard one. I had to shoot it under a tent at the park downtown
> where all the events and festivals are held in Fort Wayne. The white tent
> gave really beautiful soft light on this bright sunny day, but the tent 
> has
> open sides , which would let the extremely bright sunlit background show. 
> I
> stood my friend in front of the stage, so its pretty busy, but was the 
> best
> background there. It took a lot of burning in of bright spots to balance 
> the
> image, but I think I made her look pretty good considering the challenges 
> of
> the site.

Good morning Chris,
A couple of quick comments . Please don't be offended as it's merely
suggestions for the next time. And of course I'm not there on location, so
what I suggest may not be possible.

1/  this is the perfect "passport head position" straight into camera. Not
really flattering. Yes it looks exactly what she looks like.

2/ Next time even with the mixture of back ground.... sometimes it's the
 best in the place so you shoot nearly wide open and throw it out of focus 
as
 much as possible.

3/ Turn her shoulders more to a 45 degree angle, then bring her head back
toward camera as this should slim down her neck and face possibly creating a
more flattering face effect. Then have her tilt her head slightly while
looking at you and try to make a straight line down the side of her face
right down the neck line. Again it might thin out her face with just a very
slight tilt of head... but very slight. Then try to squeak a bit of a gentle
smile out of her. OR? Don't have her look into the camera but have her look
for something behind you that you've already picked out. Then ask her to
find it. This makes her mind and eyes in action almost forgetting you are
taking her picture because mind and eyes are concentrating on finding the
object you've asked her to find.

It' always best to break the subject away from thinking  about having their
picture taking. Besides it puts life in the eyes looking for whatever is
your object. Always best to have a couple of spots then you can change where
she must look without telling her to turn her head in a certain direction.

I trust this is some helpful

cheers,
Dr. ted.

PS: By the way this fashion of direction works with CEO's and children. A
very good technique once you've tried it a few times.






















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