Ok, really I do need to get better about catching up with posting these.
Today I have another shot from a photoshoot. I kind of like doing this, as it’s really my photography specialty and I like seeing what I can do with a more limited camera.
This portrait was taken while I was doing a photoshoot for Zivity with Sarah. The nice thing about already having a shoot is that I already have everything set up. The model is ready, the setting is good, and I know how I’m working with lighting.
But this particular shot isn’t really about lighting. It’s more about mood. We were going for something spooky and gothic. The idea of a young girl performing a ritual of witchcraft.
At first glance, it seems I broke a few base photography rules to get this the way I wanted. Sarah isn’t really lined up where she should be according to the rule of thirds. Her forehead is clipped, her fingers are clipped. But if you actually look at the pictures, it’s not really a photo of her. She’s the backdrop. The photo is of the fire. This is obviously a nonstandard thing to do for a portrait, but the hope with this photo is to illustrate how to perform tricks like this. If I were using a dSLR, I would have use a shallower depth of field to blur sarah put a little more and really make the fire pop out, but since I lacked that kind of control, I got the focus as sharp as I could on the wood, flame and smoke. Then we use positioning to focus the viewers attention where we want it. When all this is done, while you’re aware of the model in the back, the attention of the viewer should be drawn to the true subject, the flame.