Project One - Portrait

 

Title – Ian’s Almost a Teenager
Tags- Ian McGraw, Portrait, Digital Photography Class

For the first assignment of creating a portrait, I read the website resources to come up with a plan for taking the picture.  Some of the main ideas I read about included shooting from a different angle and not being afraid to take risks with the shots.   I intentionally cropped some of his right ear off on the shot because I am trying to not be so confined to my rigid rules of centering the subject.  The rigid rules I have imposed on myself generally create decent pictures, but they are not creative or that noteworthy. 
My son, Ian, was the person who was available and willing for me to take pictures of for this assignment.  I wanted to capture his impending ‘teenage-hood’ with this shot.  I believe I have captured that aspect of him.  I could have done a bit better with the rule of thirds, but then I would have cropped out his hair.  I wanted the spikes on his hair to show because that illustrates that he is an upcoming teenager.  If I would have taken this picture a while ago, you would not have seen Ian being so concerned with his appearance, but now that he is almost a teenager his appearance is vital.   This photograph is very important to me because it captures a moment in time of my precious son who is growing up so quickly.

I feel that this was a good starting point for this class.  I was competent in all photographic areas.  The concept of the photo was to capture the inner and outer person.  I feel that I conveyed the message of Ian on his journey to becoming a teenager.  Perhaps I could have added props to better communicate this element, but I was trying to focus more on his face and less on his body.  I like the composition of the photo because it follows the rules “fill the frame, lead your subject, and don’t be afraid to get in tight” (Long, 207).  Composition is also about capturing a feeling about the moment and that is what I did in this shot.  The one area for composition where I could have slightly improved is the rule of thirds, and I will improve in the future in this aspect.  As far as color, contrast, and tonal range, I feel that I was competent there as well.  The muted background contrasts nicely with the blue shirt.  Also, I was able to tone down a yellow flower that was in the upper left corner of the photo by adjusting the saturation levels with Photo Shop.  To achieve a good focus, I shot using the raw and high setting.  I pressed down half-way and then waited for my camera to select a good shutter speed and aperture.  I had never shot with raw before, but after reading my manual it said that was a perfect setting for editing.  The depth of field was competent as the area of image that I wanted to be in focus (Ian) was in sharp focus and the plants in the background had a softer focus.   I think the focusing differences made a nice portrait.  I chose the title and tags to complement the portrait and for easy reference in searching for the picture in the future.  I exceeded on all the comments I made for my peers as I gave positive comments and constructive feedback.   I enjoyed having the opportunity to look at my classmates’ pictures and learned a lot from seeing their photos.

I believe I could use this type of photograph in an educational setting on a lesson on life span development.  We could write about this person’s life at present time and then write a different story about this person in 20 years.  This would be an interesting lesson on aging and the changes that come with growing up.