Megan by the window

[Joan Breckwoldt]

Dear Linda and Sharon,

Thank you both for all your help! I turned on the computer and found Linda's post so called my daughter for more photos, then by the time I got back to the computer there was the post from you Sharon! So I called my daughter again.

I love the new pose, though I still have the problem of no far nostril. Linda, that is a perfect way to direct someone to a pose, I like those instructions and my daughter is old enough to follow my instructions. I see what you mean about having the light come from above, in the ones I just took the light is 'lighting her up' almost from a lower level. I did have her pose on her knees by the window (quicker than draping off the bottom of the window) but for some reason that whole series of photos by that same window turned out too dark today.

Sharon, I plan to paint this by using the reference photo and my daughter from life. I learned what a big difference there is between life and photos on my last portrait so it was a great idea to take pictures of her in my 'studio', which is more of a painting space. They turned out too dark though. I had my husband hold up my big piece of foamcore for a reflection board but they were still all way too dark. I posed her next to a south facing window at 2:30 p.m. on a sunny day. I finally got the best photo taking her downstairs and opening the south facing french doors to get enough light. This time I stood back and used the zoom so I wouldn't get so much distortion in her face.

I am really overwhelmed with the help I am getting on this project. You have both absolutely made my day! Thank you both so much,

Joan

P.S. I don't think this is the best I can do but I'm getting closer with help. I think it's too late in the day because there doesn't seem to be enough light. Also, the light is coming from the right instead of the left, like I am more using to seeing. I wonder if this matters, next time I'll try having the light come from the upper left so the painting will 'read' from left to right.

[Joan Breckwoldt]

Hmm, after rereading the suggestions above, Linda, your post talked about 1/4 shadow and 3/4 light. But, it looks like I've got the opposite of that! I've got 3/4 of her face in shadow with this pose . Did I miss something? I will recruit her again tomorrow for more photos. Lucky for me (not her) she has finals so she'll be home early.

Joan

[Linda Brandon]

Joan, I was trying to get for you a natural light, light/shadow composition equivalent to what Chris Saper achieved in her post "Brown Shawl", linked here.
She used artificial light in her setup; you may not have a strong enough light source from your window for this, at least at the time of the day that you took the photo. Maybe a different time of the day? Or a different room of the house? Maybe you should move the camera a bit as well as having your model move? How about cutting down all the bushes in front of your house?

Where is Mike McCarty when you need him?

The goal here is not necessarily to find a "formula", stock portrait pose which you will always use; rather, it's to come up with one very successful example of light management which you will therefore 1. succeed at painting a great "form" portrait, 2. feel justifiably self-confident about it, and 3. move on from there.

[Joan Breckwoldt]

Dear Linda,

[QUOTE=Linda Brandon]How about cutting down all the bushes in front of your house? QUOTE]

Actually I think we just might move, we have an excellent realtor. I'll tell her exactly what my requirements are and she can probably find it !

Thank you for that post of Chris Saper's photograph. It's got me thinking again about an artificial light source.

I realize with natural light no two situations will ever be the same, but if I want to take a photo of a model, I need to have a better handle on the lighting situation. It's easy to call my daughter to this window or that window for three days in a row, but a client is different. I think it's a big deal for a client to get all dressed up and ready for a photo shoot, or have their child dressed up, and I don't want to have to call them back the next day and say I need more photos . I realize I need to be much more professional. Even for my 'practice' portraits with the neighbors' kids, I don't want to have to keep calling them back or going to their house over and over again.

I just took a long walk with my husband and talked his ear off about all this and the more I think about it, the more sense it makes to have a more constant light source, which I think means artificial lighting. Though I will keep trying to understand how to use natural light, but I need knowledge of both. It is ridiculous that it takes me days to get a usable reference photo when I could be starting on the next portrait.

I also think I should take the advice that I have read more than once on this forum and sign up for a photography class . I'll have to look at that as part of my education.

Well, I've talked long enough. I will try again with my daughter tomorrow earlier in the day and post a photo if I get a good one. I'll think positive!

Thanks again,

Joan

[Joan Breckwoldt]

Because the rooms in our house are on the small side I was having a hard time getting far enough away from my daughter to take photos without alot of distortion. That's when I thought about our garage. It's big and when I open up the garage door it's like a big window which luckily faces north. I think I got the classic 3/4 view, here it is:

[Joan Breckwoldt]

Here are two more which I thought were good photos of her but I wonder if the shadows are prominent enough? The garage was great to work in (sorry about the junk in the background! Next time I need fashion some kind of backdrop). I could move myself and my daughter closer to the door (and light) or farther into the garage away from the light.

[Joan Breckwoldt]

I took this one inside and I like the pose. I realize the camera is pointing down at her but I think it's kind of interesting. It would be a more ambitious portrait but it may be a good one for me to learn how to deal with more than just a head and shoulders. I could really enlarge it for details, plus I have my daughter right here so she could pose for me too.