Single Portrait.

My single portrait was a recreation of an ID magazine cover featuring Kate Moss.
It had to be head and shoulders as my self portrait was a full body shot.
I'm pleased with how it turned out, and how effective it was for such a simple shot.
I felt my lighting was good although I had a bit of trouble with shine off the backdrop, however I felt overall the shine worked as it created an intense light at the top left hand corner and a shadow at the bottom right hand corner, creating a diagonal line of gradual lighting, which I feel, in correlation with the models pose, draws your eye from one corner of the photo to the other.

Self Portrait # 1

My self portrait didn't turn out as effective as I imagined in my head.
I think it's a little underexposed and I'd like to re-shoot with the same concept but a few tweakings in the execution, such as a different pose, different outfit and a more closed in frame when taking the shot.
The focus too is also an issue for me, I'd prefer sharper focus, especially on my face.

Group Portrait - Skeleton

As mentioned in my proposal, my group portrait was inspired by the song Skeleton by Bloc Party.
It's a very somber but intense song and I wanted to convert that sort of energy into my image.
I shot from different angles but found the shot worked better from a moderately low angle and with the subject matter sprawling from the very far left to the very far right, hence covering the whole frame. For me, this worked because it gave the image a sense of confrontation, like the models were bigger and more overpowering than the camera itself, which I think is a poignant theme of the song. I chose to include harsh shadows behind the models to add to the gloomy effect, knowing that I was going to desaturate my image, I found it created a greater contrast between the background and the models and added texture to such a simplistic shot.

This is my raw image:
CANON 450 D:
ISO: 200
SHUTTER: 1/60
INCIDENT: F8
SHADED BACKGROUND: F2
HIGHLIGHTED BACKGROUND: F4

I used two incandescent lights positioned very low and pointing upwards to get correct shadows above the models heads.



Obviously there are some bad qualitys about it that I need to edit, such as the dent in the backdrop and some dirt on the floor in the foreground, and I am going to desaturate the image as well. I will work on this A-Sap.