Female Portraiture Shoot

After reflecting on Mike Trow's talk and learning how British Vogue produce their shoots I wanted to try doing more planning for my next shoot which was for my female portraits. My model for this shoot was first year graphic design student Eleanor Smith and I went to shoot my portraits of her in and around the studios that she works in. In order to get some detail and environmental shots of her working and around her studio space. I briefly planned out my shots beforehand and I also explored the location with my subject before taking my portraits of her, and I discussed with her the kind of portraits I was intending to create of her. I felt that this planning really helped me visualise my final four images better and also made my subject more comfortable as she felt she had more purpose when posing for the photographs because she knew what I wanted to capture in my shots.

Above is a mood board/contact sheet of all my favourite photographs from the shoot which I then has to edit down for my four final images of my female subject. Again I didn't feel as though I needed to reshoot as I felt I had a good variety of shots that reflected my subject well as a person. 

I chose this for my detail shot in the end as I like the detail that you can see in my subject's hands in this photograph. She has a skin condition which is visible in the photographs but you can also see how she holds her pencil and the amount of tension she has in her hands when she is working. Which I think is important to show as she works with her hands a lot being a designer. 

This was my favourite photograph from the shoot as I love how relaxed my subject looks. I will be using it as my environmental portrait as she is stood beside the information boards in the design studios.

Environmental, Observed, Detail, Formal

Above are my final four portraits for my female subject. I am happy with these photographs although I am worried that visually they are not that consistent together. I am still considering the order of these photographs although I think my environmental shot will definitely go first as I feel it is my strongest photograph out of the four.