Portrait, Two Ways

For this assignment, I chose to capture my roommate Derek and a personality trait of his. Derek is a musician, and after knowing him for so long, it's not hard to tell that he is most comfortable with himself and his surroundings when he is playing music. In these two photos, I wanted to capture Derek in a normal surrounding for him (his room) and show how music changes his mood and comfort levels, specifically with lighting.

In the photo above, I decided to use completely natural lighting, which was the window to the left in the photo. I liked this specifically because it only lit half of his face, which incorporated darkness into the photo. Not only did it incorporate a darker aspect, but the portion of his face that is lighter showcases a sort of solemness that he was feeling. I chose to use a shutter speed of 1/50 and an ISO of 1600. The ISO I started with originally had been 3200 to accurately expose all aspects of the photo, but I decided bumping it down a notch gave me more contrast and depth to work with. I had Derek sit against his black wall under his "Rock & Roll is Dead" decoration, and asked for him to just relax and sit how he normally would. Incorporating this decoration on the black wall, the meaning behind it, the strategic lighting, and his solemn facial expression helped me capture who Derek is when music is not in his life.

In the second photo shown above, I brought Derek his guitar. Immediately, without me giving any direction, he sat up, and looked directly into the sunlight. His energy changed, and I wanted to capture that in the photo. I moved my ISO to 3200, a jump up from 1600 which was used on the first photo. Lightening up the photo when Derek grabbed his guitar also lightened up the mood, which was something I wanted to showcase about him and how his own mood changed as well. The light quality here is more direct, and captures more of the subject I am shooting. The first photo's lighting was from the left side, which created a more dramatic and moody environment. Yes, Derek does not look ecstatic in this photo either, but in truth, this is who he is. I didn't want to ask him to force a smile or fake a laugh to show the contrast in emotion when he was playing music. Instead, I used more direct, brighter lighting, and captured his change of posture and body language in one photo.