Outdoor Portrait
-Consider Lighting
-Try using the Rule of Thirds
For this assignment you will need to enlist the help of a family member for an environmental portrait. This could be a parent or guardian, an older brother or sister, etc. Although this won’t be painful for your subject, it will take a bit of time.
The first step is to select an appropriate spot to take the photographs. Do not take the photographs inside. Find a comfortable, shady spot outside where your subject won’t have to squint. This could be a covered patio, a ramada in a local park, under a large tree with plenty of shade, a porch, etc. If you choose the “under the tree” option, make sure no direct sunlight is on your subject. Your subject can be seated or standing. The scene should be relatively clutter free, but with enough supporting details to give an idea of where the subject is. Remember to orient the camera in either portrait or landscape mode as appropriate for the composition.
Make sure you have your focus and exposure set on your subject. To do this, put your subject in the center of the frame (this is where your primary focus point is and where the camera gets most of its exposure information) and use the half-push technique. This will lock the focus and exposure for your subject. If you need to recompose the photograph you can, but you have to keep the shutter button half pushed. You will have to do this for each image you take.
Take a number of photographs of your subject capturing different facial expressions, etc. Make all of the photographs in one session and at one location. It is very difficult to recapture the feeling of a session if it is interrupted.
IMPORTANT TIP: In the first frame of your session, have your subject hold a piece of white paper so you can see it fully in the camera. You will use this later to judge the color balance.
After taking your photographs load them into your computer and look at all the images you took.
Select three of your photos. One image will be the photograph of your subject holding the sheet of white paper. The other two will be different images of your subject.
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