In addition to the basic ones of sitting, leaning, standing, walking, squatting, and so on, there are variations in the way the limbs are positioned, the hands, twists and turns in the torso, and more.
I have to set up a portrait session, and plan for my subject to adopt in turn at least three different basic positions (sitting, standing, etc.).
Within these, suggest to my subject, different limb positions.
Later, I have to review the results and assess how effective or attractive the variations were.
I decided to push a bit the limits of this brief and, I did not only take inspiration from the magazines, but I decided to reproduce three fashion advertisement photos.
Antonella is the most fashionable colleague I have and nobody else I know could have fit into this exercise better than her.
I believe she personifies the so called Italian style.
Almost a stereotype between perfection and exaggeration, action and seduction, intensity and joke.
When she spontaneously proposed to help me with my exercises, I immediately thought about this one for her.
I imagined that I could have very well leveraged her great aptitude towards the fashion business.
Antonella can be theatrical, with her soft, but almost arrogant look, with her thin body lost in the delicate folds of her dress.
Pure passion from South Italian roots, pure fashion attitude.
It was amazing and very interesting shooting a photo session with Antonella.
A true lesson of life.
Her world is diametrically opposite to mine, to my way of living life, to my way of taking photos and express myself by means of my camera.
However, I strongly perceived her love for fashionable details, clothes cuts, design, colours, make-up, accessories, as a true love, as a true passion.
And, at the end of the day, are not her pure love and passion the same than mines for photography?
Image 1.
f 2.8, 1/4 sec, ISO 100, 55 mm
Image 2.
f 2.8, 1/4 sec, ISO 100, 55 mm
I started with a sitting position freely inspired by an add of Max Mara.
I prefer Image 1 for the intensity of the look (almost arrogant) and also because Antonella's posture seems to be more natural.
Obviously, I do not like very much the background of the two photos, but my PS skills are not good enough to perfectly replace the tiles with a uniform background.
Image 3.
f 5, 1/30 sec, ISO 100, 51 mm
Image 4.
f 5, 1/30 sec, ISO 100, 51 mm
Image 5.
f 2.8, 1/40 sec, ISO 160, 30 mm
Image 6.
f 2.8, 1/30 sec, ISO 200, 34 mm
In my view the shots in the leaning position are definitely better than the previous.
Antonella looks really at ease and in Image 4 the change of position well shows her theatrical attitude.
Once again, like in other exercises, I decided to get rid of my tripod and the result really pleases me.
I consider Image 5 and 6 interesting portraits with a nice narrative.
Particularly, Image 5 plays on the thoughtful look of the model in spacial relation with the shoes in the background: ephemeral and profound playing together.
Image 7.
f 5.6, 1/125 sec, ISO 100, 37 mm
Image 8.
f 5.6, 1/125 sec, ISO 100, 28 mm
Image 9.
f 5, 1/125 sec, ISO 100, 39 mm
I like both Image 8 and 9.
In the first one I appreciate the geometrical construction of the lines in the background associated with the shadows that the curves of the legs draw on the wall.
The second is very interesting for the luscious attitude shot by a photograph who appears just like a shadow in front of such a voluptuous woman.
Probably, the last three images would have needed a WB correction, but I really liked the soft, warm, natural light of an early spring sunset. Therefore, I decided not to correct the WB in post production.
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