Photo II – Project #2 Class Portraits

Building & Exploring Relationships through Portraiture Photography

OVERVIEW:

Project #2 is focused on 2 things: interpersonal relationships and purposeful lighting of your subject.

Building upon Project #1 in which you explored aspects of your personality and who you are through your photographs, Project #2 asks you to investigate and strengthen your relationship to other people in your immediate community…your classmates!  You will be partnered up to conduct in-depth interviews with each other as a form of research.  Based on information you learn about each other, you will have to collaborate with your partner on how to photograph them in a way that reflects aspects of their personality.  Each person will photograph their partner with a medium format camera, either in the studio or in natural lighting, paying attention to how lighting can communicate emotions.

The video below illustrates how our knowledge of a person affects how we view them, and therefore photograph them.  Canon invited 6 different photographers to take a portrait of the same guy named Michael, but they presented Michael as a different character to each photographer.  Each photographer brings their own ideas of who Michael is going into the shoot, but a portrait session is a collaboration – Michael is playing the characters each photographer is trying to capture.  In the end, each picture reveals an aspect of the human experience – emotion, personality, a deeper connection.

While shooting your portrait, challenge yourself to go beyond the usual smiling pictures of your friends (you can shoot that any day with your iPhone).  Try to communicate a variety of moods/feelings in your pictures and use what you know about lighting to help convey that feeling.  The video below made up of tight shots of only people’s eyes, yet each picture looks different because of 1) the quality and angle of lighting, 2) the direction of their gaze, and 3) the expression on their face.  Pause the video at shots that you find really powerful and analyze the what it is that draws you to that frame.

As you write your Project Proposal, and go out to shoot, consider the following:

  • Be aware of lighting and how it can communicate meaning.  Be aware of where the highlights and shadows are falling in your scene and across your partner’s face.
  • Think about the direction and strength/distance of the light on your subject.  Diffused lighting communicates softness and comfort, versus specular light, that tends to be more bold and/or mysterious depending on the shadows.
  • Look at the composition of your frame: would rule of thirds, static, symmetrical, or dynamic balance work best for the idea you’re trying to tell about your partner.
  • Consider the distance between your model and the camera.  When a person fills the frame (rather than taking up only a small part of the frame), what does that say about the relationship between photographer and model?
  • Determine what type of mood/feeling you want to convey in your image and how your lighting or backdrop/surroundings can help communicate that.

Our school is an incredibly large school with 450+ students in a grade level. Most of you will go through all four years of high school not knowing everyone in your grade – let alone on campus – and to some it may be an isolating experience. This project is meant to encourage you to build authentic relationships with your classmates through interviews and portraiture in an attempt to improve your immediate classroom and school community.  Yes, many of you are in this class because you like being BEHIND the camera, but changing your perspective and building empathy for others will strengthen not only your photographs, but your relationships with others as well.

AT THE END OF THIS PROJECT, STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO:

  • Develop an awareness of different lighting situations in portrait photography
  • Demonstrate an understanding of strobe/studio lighting through portraiture
  • Develop a better relationship with classmates through collaboration and empathy-building activities
  • Demonstrate an understanding of how to use a medium-format camera
  • Continue to use appropriate equipment and chemicals in the correct sequence to process film and make 8”x10” prints
  • Continue to analyze composition/lighting/printing/subject matter to create and read meaning in an image

EXAMPLES & INSPIRATION:

Dawoud Bey – “Class Portraits” and “The Chicago Project”

Irving Penn is a legendary photographer, perhaps best known for his portrait and fashion photography.  Check out his “Small Trades” series, or this link that has a collection of his works, and the video below for an idea of his style.

Richard Avedon is another famous photographer who often worked with portraiture and fashion.  One of his best known bodies of work is on “In The American West“, in which he photographs “normal” people.

Julia Margaret Cameron 

NEED MORE RESOURCES?

Are you completely overwhelmed by the idea of studio lighting?  Watch the video below to see how you can get 5 different lighting patterns with just 1 light.