Portraiture Research and Development

For portraiture I wanted to mainly use soft light, as it tends to be more flattering of the subject, bringing out details without being too severe.

The photographers that inspired me to do this were;

Richard Learoyd

Ryan McGinley

Using soft light creates a sense of serene calm, as evidenced above, I felt I achieved this with my stranger portrait best, where the only light source in the room was from the lightbulb surrounded with a paper lampshade, nicely diffusing the light.

As evidenced by Learoyd and McGinley’s photos, the soft light doesn’t create drama, as there are no stark contrasts coming from hard shadows.

I also took inspiration from Rineke Dijkstra, who took photos of her subjects when they weren’t actively posing.

Bibliography

http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/archives/RichardLearoyd.jpg

http://data.amirite.net/quote_author_images/530fc12b14791.jpg

http://enciclopedia.decintivillalon.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Rineke-Dijkstra-6.jpg