This assignment asks you to take a number of pictures (approx. 50) and to print your best (approx. 5-8). The emphasis here is again on camera work and strategic cropping in the darkroom. The theory of camera work is discussed in Basic Camera Operation. The definitive treatment on camera work is found in Ansel Adams' books, The Camera and The Negative. (See the bibliography.) Reminder: Portfolio reports are due at this time.
Basic Approach
In this assignment, a person or a group of people will constitute the subject. The image should not only offer a good physical representation of the person but it should also express something about the person. This might be a character trait, a relationship, or something about immediate activity. Composition elements will aid you in expressing this.
One of the main problems with portraiture is the immediate relationship between you and the subject. Trees and lakes don't look back at you and scoff or recoil. Interrupting someone around the dorm or in the classroom or on the street may lead to a tiresome collection of people with weird expressions and odd body movements. You need to make an initial commitment, then, to working with someone who promises to cooperate or to working anonymously. The former lets you set up the scene and gives you time in which to arrange the composition; the latter means that you will have to take what you can get spontaneously. Both techniques have produced great portraits but they demand quite different talents.
Candid anonymous portraiture is usually easiest if you have a long focal length lens so that you can remain at a distance and still create an image that shows the subject's features. A good clear 200 mm lens is desirable. In an arranged setting, however, a standard 50 mm lens may be all that you need. Some people feel this lens requires you to approach a subject too closely -- even when it's someone you know well -- and would prefer the "psychic space" enabled by an 80 mm or 105 mm "portrait lens."
The biggest problem with portraiture is that it is very easy to become so completely involved or affected by the human subject that you completely lose sight of all composition factors. How many times, for instance, have you taken a picture of people, only to view the result and see that you have a telephone pole emerging from someone's head? Have you taken pictures of friends standing in front of light spaces so that, in the picture, the friend's face is completely shaded and unrecognizable? In this assignment, you need to think through all of the composition elements and still capture whatever it is you want to express about the person.
One of these composition elements is the depth of field. "Portrait" settings on automatic cameras usually assume that you want a shallow depth of field. If you focus on the eyes, in this situation, you will get a very nice sharp rendering of the face but foreground and background will be fuzzy -- nice, if all you want to do is call attention to the face. You may want to create a portrait that places a person in a setting with meaningful objects -- an artist in her studio, for instance. In this case, you will need to widen the depth of field appropriately and make sure that everything is correctly exposed.
Updated on August 7, 2001; click here to return to Course HomePage.