First Article
Boucing light
Can childrens lifestyle portraiture be seen as fine art? and are there any principles and techniques tht will help the enthusiast create images they want to frame? KATE HOPEWELL-SMITH believes so.
Children are a very popular subject for both enthusiast and professional lifestyle photographers like myself who aim to create striking portraits from real-life, natural situations. As soon as you aspire to create something ‘arty’ your technical understanding really does need to be supplemented with some knowledge of the basic principles of design and composition. There are many factors to consider when undertaking a portrait session with children - age, styling, location, light and then of course composition and choice of lens, focal length and settings.
The age of the children will have a big impact on the type of imagery that you can expect. Those below the age of three tend to have a very short attention span, are naturally inquisitive and don’t like sitting down for any considered portraits. This can mean that you have to shoot a lot of candids or think about using props that encourage them to stay in one place (image 3, right). Up to the age of about 10, children will happily take some direction and quite enjoy being photographed. Teenagers tend to be less keen and you have to work hard on your people skills to get the best from them!
STYLING YOUR SHOOT
Clothing is very important and I like to have a hand in choosing final outfits for shots, and I brief clients ahead of a shoot about my dislike of overtly branded items or cartoons. By helping to choose clothing you can ensure that no wardrobe clashes happen within group photos. Colour choices are very important and all photographers should have a basic grasp of colour theory and harmony - ie, which colours work together and in what proportions.
When I use the word ‘styling’ I am referring to the conscious decision of adding elements to enhance the final image - this includes clothing that is not ‘every day’, hair accessories or props such as balloons, bunting, furniture, etc. I love to wander around my local antiques market or car boot sale where I pick up items at very low cost. Adding things to the frame tends to result in a more considered approach to composition and forces you to pull back from the default tight headshot.
LIGHTS, CAMERA, LOCATION
If you choose to shoot lifestyle imagery you have to learn how to get the best from your chosen location and lighting conditions. I came to realise this when I use the term ‘location’, many clients think of their back garden or local park. When I’m thinking about ideal locations for portrait shoots I am looking for somewhere that will give me the greatest variety of natural and manmade backgrounds - with the focus on texture and colour. When learning the visual arts it is normal to know the principles of design, specifically when studying graphic arts it’s necessary to understand the basics of composition: “Essentially the ordering of all the graphic elements inside the frame” (Michael Freeman). If you don’t feel confident in this then take the time to read up and learn - it will have a big impact on your work. And then we come to light - the most important factor of all - and the element that will dictate the concept of an image and how I will shoot it.
Let’s look at a selection of images and show you what principles and techniques I used to create them. The safest and easiest light to shoot in is the diffused light of an overcast day. Whilst you may think that you can shoot a portrait anywhere in overcast conditions, it is important to realise that all light has direction. My top tip is to learn to use the palm of your outstretched hand - if you put your hand 30cm away from your face and slowly turn it in a full circle you will see how the light falls on your hand, this will have a big impact on how luminous skin looks. Then place your subject’s face in the spot where you noticed the most luminosity or glow.
TECHNIQUE ON A SHOOT
In the image of the little girl sitting in bluebells (image 2, page 58), I positioned her on the edge of the woods based on where the light was falling on my hand - this meant I could capture the most of the available light as well as knowing it would fall off behind her, ensuring that she would stand out in the frame. I chose the white dress and the pink headband because her clothing needed to contrast with the blues and greens of the bluebells. This little girl was very shy and was most comfortable when she could see her mum. In terms of composing the image I asked her to lean forward slightly and suggested that she looked at her mum who was standing in the distance to camera right. You will notice that I have placed the point of interest, her face, on the upper-left third of the frame. My focus on any portrait like this is always the eyes, and I was able to shoot at such a wide aperture because both of her eyes are on the same plane of focus. The most important decision in this image was to shoot it at f/2.8 at a focal length of 2QOmm on my 70-200mm f/2.8. This gives the narrowest depth-of-field and the greatest compression, resulting in the background and immediate foreground being out of focus. I photographed the two-year-old girl in the tin bath (image 3) on a very hot, sunny day. Her mother was heavily pregnant and didn’t want to leave the garden so I had to find an area of open shade to shoot some portraits. As well as finding a large enough area that was shaded I needed the background to be interesting and was pleased to find this spot. I had brought the tin bath with me and the little girl was very happy to put on a swimming costume and jump into the warm water. Due to the fact that it was so sunny there was a lot of reflected light bouncing around which meant that she still had nice catch lights in her eyes. Once again I chose to you use my 70-200mm at f/2.8 and due to lack of space for me to back up I zoomed in to a focal length of 11Omm. The depth-of-field is still pleasing but not as pronounced as the last image. In post-production I had to warm the image up due to the fact that the colour temperature of shade is often a bit cool, giving a slight blue cast. As a final touch I added a layer of texture in Photoshop, masking out the effect on the little girl. The cover image was shot in identical lighting conditions - open shade on a very sunny day. However, you can see that this image from the same shoot (image 4, page 55) utilises full, directional, sunlight. When you shoot in full sun you have to be incredibly precise about where you position your subject in relation to the light source as you will potentially get very strong shadows. You can see from the shadow being cast by the jug of flowers that the sun is about 45 degrees to camera right. As a result I turned the girl to face the sun and got her to look down to prevent any discomfort or squinting. The strength of this image lies in the combination of the location choice (the inside of a derelict swimming pool) with the style and colour of the clothes and props. My lens choice and settings were about achieving correct exposure rather than creative effect shot at 1/1600sec, f/3.5, ISO 200 at 175mm on my 70-200mm. My favourite type of lighting for shooting environmental portraits is backlight - otherwise know as ‘contre jour’, where the camera is pointing directly towards the source of light. Getting consistent results takes practice and you have to make a decision about whether you are happy to blow highlights and get a hazy effect (image 5, top right), or if the image requires a little fill flash to maintain background detail. I created the image of a girl walking in a coastal landscape (image 6, bottom right) using purely natural light. During the shoot I was amazed how different the grass looked depending on whether you were looking into the light or away from the light. I loved the texture, contrast and movement that shooting into the light produced, so I picked my precise location first. I chose this composition because the path helps to create depth and leads your eye from lower left to upper right through the frame. The colour of the dress works perfectly and stands out strongly against the muted tones of the landscape. I chose my lens and camera settings with the look of the image in mind - I shot this on my 50mm prime lens 1/4000sec at f/1.6, ISO 200. I asked the girl to walk away from me (having put my camera on Continuous Servo, Autofocus and Continuous Release) and asked her to look to camera right so that the light caught her face and provided some separation in the form of rim lighting. In all cases I choose to spot meter from the subject’s skin to choose my exposure. As mentioned above, this method can lead to blown out highlights - something I have no problem with in this situation. Sometimes, however, maintaining detail in the background is crucial to the look and feel of an image. This is the case in the image of my daughter shot in late evening light in long grass (image 7, page 56). The angle and intensity of the light falling on the grass resulted in this beautiful texture and contrast. If I had exposed for her skin the grass would have blown out, so in this situation I used my Speedlite. After setting the exposure for her face, I put the flash to Through The Lens (TTL) metering on fill which will add just enough light to lift the shadow side of her face. In terms of composition, you will notice that again I have positioned her according to the rule of thirds and asked her to look to camera left - ie, into the larger expanse of the frame. I had just taken delivery on my 105mm macro lens (which is also a good focal length for portraits) and shot this using high speed sync, which enables you to use flash at higher shutter speeds (1/1600sec at f/4, ISO 500). I used the same approach in the image of the girls with the balloons (image 8, left). Here I placed them in a shaft of backlight providing lovely rim lighting and translucent balloons, then popped in some fill flash again using TTL metering. This image was shot on my 85mm at 1/1250sec at f/1.8, ISO 250.
I hope that these examples will help you create some images that have impact and interest. As you prepare for your next portrait session think carefully about the subject’s age, clothing, and consider adding some styling with props and accessories. Study what options the available light source provides and then take time to compose a strong image having made a deliberate choice of lens, focal length and settings. You never know - you just might create an image with lasting appeal that is worthy of a frame and the term fine art! ~
www.photographymonthly.com - June 2012
Kid’s Life
Portraits
Second Article
Established talent
They’re skilled, savvy and have their sights set on producing the very best of British design. Meet Established & Sons
It’s hard to imagine any art and design students who have not at some point sat around and dreamed of starting their own business. The conversation would go something like this: ‘Our company will not settle for cheap imitations; we’ll make sure that we only work with the best, in terms of both people and materials. There will be no compromise on quality, and behind the scenes will be an investor who will provide plenty of financial backing but leave us with complete creative control.’
For most young hopefuls with such ambitions, the story tends to end there, but for four Britons the dream came true in the shape of a just-launched, UK-based furniture design and manufacturing company called Established & Sons - it just took a while. Which, in this case, may be the secret to their success. Each of the four founding members has had the time to become successful and design-savvy in their own right before they regrouped to form Established & Sons late last year.
Alasdhair Wi llis (CEO) has a sturdy background in design marketing and brand strategy, acquired from his years as our Wallpaper* publisher and, later, from setting up his own creative consultancy and working with companies such as Adidas and Estee Lauder. Mark Holmes (design director) is a successful designer, with products for large companies such as E15 under his belt. Sebastian Wrong (operations director) has been running his own manufacturing company since he graduated, gaining invaluable technical skill s, and Tamara Caspersz (development and marketing director) has a great understanding of consumers and the market, nurtured while she was manager of Viaduct, oneof London’s major contemporary furniture trade showrooms. Mixed together in the company pot, the quartet’s collective skills become a very powerful potion.
‘Our idea to create a proud representation of British design and manufacturing excellence is not a revolutionary one,’ says Willis. ‘However, it’s difficult to realise successfully.’ To do so they needed two things: great designs and enough financial backing to keep the quality of work unsurpassed. The first was easy. ‘We drew up a list of British designers we wanted to work with,’ says Caspersz. ‘When we approached them, they all agreed we had a great idea, signed on and have given us complete commitment since day one.’
And an impressive list it is. With Barber Osgerby, Future Systems, Zaha Hadid, Alexander Taylor, Michael Marriott and Michael Young among the eight designers creating new work for Established & Sons’ first collection, it is hard not to have faith in the success of the enterprise. Finding the finances to support such an ambitious project was done with equally striking ease. ‘I had the right gentleman in mind to help us,’ says Willis. The man in question was Angad Paul, director of Caparo, a UK-based group specialising in the manufacture and supply of steel and engineering products. In Paul, Established & Sons found a partner not only enthusiastic about design and investing in young British talent (Paul is director of Ska Films and the Victor Film Company, responsible for some of the most innovative British films of the last few years), but also one that had an established network of factories spread throughout the UK’s Midlands. This meant that production facilities were already in place. ‘Often, these projects can take so long to go from idea to reality that you’re bored before the whole thing is launched. For us, it’s only been ten months since we first had the idea,’ beams Willis. ‘And for this we have to thank Angad and the Caparo Group’s enthusiasm and belief in us.’
The company is certainly making all the right moves. It has a funky launch planned this month in one of the Milan Salone del Mobi le’s most sought-after outside-show locations, the Zona Tortona; stylish new offices in east London; and fashionable, London-based designers Made Thought working on its graphics. But for a contemporary set of designers, such a traditional name seems at first slightly odd. Willis explains the reasoning in a simple, three-tiered argument: ‘Firstly, Established & Sons is an intrinsically British name that refers back to when British manufacturing was great, which is something we want to associate ourselves with. Secondly, we wanted to be different from the usual one-name brands within the industry, such as Cappellini, Edra and so on. And thirdly, it shows that we intend to work with both established and up-and-coming designers. We intend to bring new creators into the fold at regular intervals and it won’t matter what stage they’re at in their career.’ Willis goes on to explain how all these points are clearly manifested in the company’s logo. In it, a traditional and historical serif font and an elaborate old-fashioned ampersand are contrasted with the modern, slick sans serif Helvetica font and a very contemporary colour. With even their logo immaculately planned down to the last detail, it seems there’s no stone these four masters of their trade have left unturned. They may have first met as young, starry-eyed hopefuls, but when it comes to Established & Sons, the company is a confident, mature and meticulously run business that is leaving nothing to fate. *
E-mail: info@establishedandsons.com.
www.establishedandsons.com
