Portraits Part 2 - First Shoot

Yesterday I did my first shoot for my portrait idea about grown ups acting like the things that they wanted to be growing up. I decided to try using a studio and using the studio lighting as it is something that I have never attempted before. Prior to the shoot, I took on the advice that was given to me by my tutor about making the materials of the costumes out of resources that would be likely for a child to use, i.e cardboard, tape and scissors. For these photos, I used a Canon 600D with a 50mm lens. I used a 50mm because I feel that these kind of lenses produce the most satisfying outcome for portrait images.

Before the shoot, I asked my models to bring in anything that related to what they wanted to be as a child and one person in particular stood out. Jodie decided to bring in a onesie of a monster (because that is what she wanted to be) and so when instructing her on the poses I wanted her to do, there was a small mixture of different things I wanted to try. I wanted some of her poses to be like she is thinking she is a huge monster that is destroying a city and terrorising the place where in a different pose, I wanted her to look sweet and vulnerable as that is what children are a lot of the time. I then had the idea to stand on a chair, capturing photos from a high angle and have Jodie do the same poses but looking up to the camera. I did this to symbolise us, the viewer looking down at the child (because children are smaller than us) and hoped that it could add to the innocence of her childlike behaviour in the picture.

'Monster'

My next model, George, wanted to be a king when he was younger. Because of this, I sculpted a crown and a sword out of cardboard and tape as I feel that that is what a child would attempt to build costumes out of. I instructed George to pretend he was 12 years old again and that he was play fighting with the camera having a sword fight. Those were the only instructions I gave to George and I feel like he did really well to play for the camera.

'King'

There were a few models who's pictures I wasn't too satisfied with, one of whom was Chris. Chris wanted to be a knight when he was younger which honestly, if done right could have been produced really well but Chris isn't exactly a confident person in front of the camera which isn't a completely bad thing but just meant that it was a bit more difficult to try and direct him to pose the way I wanted him to. 

'Knight'