For this project, I chose my brother as my important person to photograph. The two people my brother chose that are important to him was our roommate Cesar and Cesar’s friend, Raena. I used a pretty similar lighting setup for all three subjects which consisted of the subject against a white background which I used the inverse square law to make different shades of grey, a strobe with a 3×4 Ft. soft box as the main light above and to the subjects’ left side and a second strobe with a bounce umbrella as a kicker to add a section of highlights to the part of the face in shadow. The only things that changed were the distance between the subject and the white background, and whether or not I used a V-flat behind kicker light.
Justin’s Portraits
My brother is a Criminal Justice major. I wanted him to look like a security guard in the first two images. He looks more like a lawyer in these first two. My brother is also a very casual person and I wanted to make his chill personality stand out in the third photo. Even though he looks like a car mechanic, the third image was the most successful in showing my brother’s personality and that is why I chose to print that one.
Justin’s Lighting setup
Cesar’s Portraits
Cesar likes to make music as well as DJing. I posed Cesar in a way that his love for music and DJing was obvious. I had Cesar look and interact with the camera while posing as a DJ to slightly imitate August Sander’s photo of the Pastry Cook. I chose to print the first one because it was more thought out than the others. I also liked how background is darker near the bright area in his shirt and lighter near the darker areas of his shirt. That gradient provides a nice contrast between the light and dark areas of his body helping to separate his grey shirt from the grey background.I had trouble coming up with ways to pose Cesar in the other two, so I just told him to pose how ever he wanted to.
Cesar’s lighting setup
Raena’s Portraits
Raena was the most difficult Subject of the three to photograph. That was because I barely know her. I barely gave her guidance in terms of posing. All I told her to do was refrain from smiling and whether to stand or sit. She did the rest in terms of posing and facial expressions. I chose the first one because her pose is more dynamic. It has a greater sense of movement because she is leaning over slightly. Her left lean is being balanced by her head tilting in the opposite direction I also like how the kicker is interacting with the side of her face in the second image. She is a little too rigid in the last two and especially so in the second image. I attempted Platon’s single lighting method. I did not successfully replicate the kicker highlights on both sides of her face as effectively as I wanted to.
Raena’s Main lighting Setup
Platon’s lighting used with Raena
Jason's Photo Blog 