Isn't it always the way - having finally completed the People & Place course, I find a brilliant article by Darren Rowse about portraiture on the website Digital Photography School.
http://www.digital-photography-school.com/10-ways-to-take-stunning-portraits
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| Photo by Mrs Maze. Striking use of limited colour, space, strong shapes and unusual framing. | |
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Here are images that break the rules, challenge convention and provide a wealth of inspirational ideas. Perhaps to some these tecnhiques are well known, even clichéd. So what! This is the style of image I WANT to take — very bold, graphic and non-conventional. Being new to portraiture, I played safe working through the P&P course, spending most of my time trying to capture a technically competent image. Now I have those basic skills I am itching to try some of the ideas in this article. Seeing these pictures has definitely made me re-evaluate my reluctance towards portraiture. As a graphic designer, I know the concepts, it's mearly a change of mindset to apply the principles to my own photography.
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| Photo by striatic. I like the unusual perspective, you are drawn into the scene as the boy gazes up at you. Positioning him slightly off centre in a square format leads the eye around the scene. The b/w treatment avoids the shot being too busy, while the items around provide clues to his life. |
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| Photo by darkmatter. Bold, linear framing, cleverly simplified by an almost monochromatic colour scheme. |
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This image reminds me of a shot called "Letter Box" taken by fellow OCA student Sharon Kaplan. Her blog and photography was a great help and inspiration when I started my course.
