Portraits

This assignment was harder than I thought it would be; in part, due to my inability to find time this week due to work, and sick/hospitalized family members (no worries everyone will be okay).  I kind wish that this assignment had been a week later, because I just found out I'm going to Boston Comic Con next week, and I will totally be able to get some killer photos!  Anyway, here are the photos I took from this week.  

The first is of my sister in her natural habitat in front of the computer, in the dark.  I found that not using flash, and just allowing the light of the computer to illuminate her, had the best affect.  She is definitely the focal point of the photo with everything around her, with the exception of the computer , shrouded in darkness.  I had taken many pictures of her face, but this was my favorite.  I like that her purple hair, and the downward angle obscure her face, but you still know exactly where her focus lies.  

The second photo is a self portrait.  I stuck my face between two open bathroom cabinets to create multiple mirrored faces.  When I was younger this was something I always enjoyed doing because, depending on the angle, you could see my face go on for infinity.  I thought it would be wicked cool to try this with a photograph.  Not only is it just cool looking; but portraits are to capture the likeness of a person; people have many different faces they change on a daily basis, for various situations, my face at work is totally different than my face at home; I was kind of trying to capture some of that with this picture.  

This assignment was very interesting and it forced me to think about the meaning of a portrait.  I definitely think you could take a portrait of an object rather than a person, so long as their was a person-like meaning behind it.  I also don't think that a portrait has to be of a face, if you can make an object into a portrait you most definitely don't need a face for one.  With the picture of my sister, I liked it better without having a clear image of her face, you can still see she's absorbed in the computer where she spends most of her time (not saying it's a good thing).  

The hardest part of the assignment, other than finding time this week, was lighting.  Finding the right lighting to, appropriately set the mood was difficult.  I won't lie, I definitely edited the images to achieve a lighting that was more effective. I have to say, Photoshop is my best friend now.