We started taking portraits with the help of a professional portrait photographer called Oliver Doran. He’s a British/French portrait photographer who often uses flash head lights with umbrellas attached to them, allowing the light to be controlled easily and creating a good contrast between the model and the background. He takes his photos in black and white, allowing him to see the different shadows easily instead of focusing on how the colours look in each photo as he understands that he can manipulate the colours later on Photoshop or Lightroom.

I began by taking a few portraits with his help and guidance, finding it very informative as he kept questioning how I wanted the lighting to fall, whether the background would look better if it was darker or lighter or whether I wanted to try Rembrandt lighting [when only half the face is lit along with a small triangle on the side] etc and would help set up the lights in order to achieve my desired look. This helped build my knowledge of lighting and how manipulating shadows are a key part of taking a successful portrait.

From this photoshoot, I learned a variety of techniques in order to help me improve when taking portraits such as camera angles [keeping the camera at eye level in order to keep everything in frame], lighting [the height of lights can change small shadows which can improve the photo altogether] and communication [talking to the model is important so they know how to pose in order for you to take a successful and flattering photo of them].

In my next photoshoot, I would like to experiment with different types of lighting in order to gain a better understanding of how lighting placement can change the look of a photo completely. Along with that, I’d like to take more photos and try a variety of poses to further experiment with shadows and how differing amounts of lights can create or take away shadows from certain areas without eliminating them altogether.