The Portrait and background

Since we had so much time available to shoot I've posted and evaluated three portraits I took on 30 March. I've included the original image and the final versions.

For the first photo I found two women sitting in the courtyard talking. When I approached them about taking a photo they both initially said no but when I explained it was for an assignment this woman agreed but said she would just continue her conversation with her friend. This made it more difficult to take a traditional portrait so it is more an environmental portrait.

Details: 1/50 f7.1 ISO 100

I wanted to isolate the woman from her friend so took it from a position in front of the friend, there was not too much distance between them and they were not willing to do anymore than allow a photo to be taken.

Original

Considering the restraints put on me by the subject the shot as it stands is not very well composed and needed some treatment. Although not readily visible in these jpg photos the brick wall is very soft when viewed at 100%.

Post Processing: Cropped the right hand side to get rid of the grey doors so the only background was the red brick wall. The crop resulted in removal of some of the subjects left shoulder and arm but conveniently placed her in the right third of the image giving 2/3 of the area to indicate she is gazing at something/someone outside the frame.

The exposure was increased less than 1/3 stop, contrast raised slightly and the image was sharpened.

Post Processing

The final image is more flattering to the sitter and works as a portrait.

The second photo is of one of the coffee shop workers who was having a break. Again another reluctant subject not willing to pose but OK with having her photo taken while she continued her discussion with people at the table.

Details: 1/100 f4 ISO 100

Original

Post Processing: increased the exposure by 1 stop and sharpened.

Original photo obviously underexposed because I failed to compensate in the manual exposure mode for the brightness of the subjects shirt and the light building in the background. I used f4 to purposely throw the background out of focus as much as possible; f4 is the widest aperture of the lens being used.

I intended to get the subject as natural as possible. At first she kept trying to hold a position for me to take the photo. I told her to just carry on as she was with her conversation and I would make the image when she was being natural. It didn't take long before she seemed to forget I was there allowing me to get the image.

Post Processing

As a photograph the image came out well as a snapshot but as a portrait I feel this image does not cut it. It is lacking something that I just can't quite put my finger on. Perhaps it is lack of engagement with the viewer.

The third subject was much more agreeable to posing outside the coffee shop. I wanted to use the umbrella as the background by taking the photo from a low angle. Couldn't quite get the angle I wanted and the subject jumped up on the bench to accommodate and make it possible to use the umbrella for the background. One problem with the umbrella was it was impossible to get the subject positioned where the arms or centre of the umbrella were not visible.

Details: 1/25 f4 ISO 400

Original

Post Processing: cropped, increased exposure by 1/3 stop, sharpened, slight noise reduction to soften skin.

Post Processing

Good portrait, engaging with viewer. The bar over her left shoulder is distracting and should be cloned out. I did not clone as I'm trying to present the works with the least amount of manipulation. The close cropping and square format works well. Overall this would be my choice portrait of the three.