Category Archives: Exercises – part 3
Exercise: The Hollywood portrait
Todd McCarthy’s introduction to John Alton’s Painting with Light reminds us about the nocturnal world of the characters in film noir and how scenes were illuminated with single lamps “slanted and fragmented beams and pools of light, all separated by … Continue reading
Exercise: A studio portrait
I found my experimentations with studio lighting to be a very interesting process. It took me quite a while to get my head around the physics, when I was trying to create specific effects. Definitely need regular practice and to … Continue reading
Exercise: Outdoor portraits
I have rather learnt the hard way for this area of photography. There are countless examples of me trying to get portraits in the wrong kind of outdoor light: faces screwed up in the sunlight, horrible shadows under the nose, … Continue reading
Exercise: The Night Watch
Rembrandt’s painting known as The Night Watch (1642) is a fascinating masterpiece which offers insights to photographic portraiture. This group portrait, commissioned by Frans Banning Cocq and financed by him and a number of other individuals in the painting, breaks with tradition … Continue reading
Portrait photography – initial explorations
This Gesture&Meaning-induced exploration into Portrait photography is fascinating, so far. I thought it was the genre I understood the best and the one that is, in some ways, the most straightforward but I am finding this is not so. There … Continue reading
Exercise: Draw a portrait
I love drawing – the feeling of making something appear on paper with a pencil is marvellous – and don’t do it enough. Drawings faces or bodies, however, drives me crazy as it’s so easy to mess up and can result something … Continue reading
