Portrait Photography

1. What is exposure? Give an example of a photo you took in manual mode to explain your answer. 

Exposure is basically the amount of light that is captured by the camera. This can be controlled by adjusting shutter speed, aperture, and ISO.

Take this photo for example.



This photo was taken in a high-light situation, so I needed to make sure my camera's exposure wasn't too high so I didn't accidentally overexpose my photo.

If I recall correctly, for this picture, my shutter speed was 1/100, my aperture was 4.5, and my ISO was at 100. These settings, in a low-light situation, would have underexposed the picture, but they worked perfectly with the morning sunlight. 

2. Which photo of your summative assessments was your best and why?

I'd probably have to say this one. I think it gives the most consideration to background and lighting and just, well, looks the best. I also like how the 'frame' inside of the actual frame - the red pillars - stick out.

3. Background and lighting: explain how background and lighting for portrait photography must be considered and provide evidence of how you considered background and lighting in one of your photos.

Here's a photo in which I have considered both background and lighting. My evidence of considering lighting is how I asked the model in this picture to look towards the light, almost as if she were looking up at a goal. A consideration of background is how I used the other two pillars (behind the main ones in the foreground) in the background to kind of create a double-frame inside of a frame.

Considering background and lighting is important in photography because those are two factors which determine how your model looks. You can create contrast on your models face (like I did here) when you consider lighting. If lighting is not considered, then your photo might look more snapshot-y than artistic. Background is good to consider because if you don't consider background, then you basically don't consider a main factor in the mood of your picture (ie someone running in a field of flowers looks different from someone running on a busy street. They convey different messages).