How To: Portrait Photography - ID# 131

Neuqua Valley

Division: A

Demonstration

Entry Description

Demonstration video about three basic concepts that every person should use when taking portrait photos.

Recent Teacher Comments

• 4/18 10:19 am - Great use of audio from VO to on-camera narration. The music works well in the background. There is a good mix of still images and video. The titles throughout the video work well. I would have liked to see more shots “through the lens” of the camera to demonstrate the techniques that are spoken about.
• 3/12 10:33 am - Nice music. Good shot of you listing the three concepts (nice composition and color, and it adds a personal touch). You are trying to cover a lot of material here—the concepts are abstract and multi-faceted. As an intro to the fact that there are three concepts, it is fine, but it does not give enough information about each concept for a fuller exploration. You chose appealing images to demonstrate the different concepts.
• 3/11 3:45 pm - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PiuEosRSJPIc8DjdrNpnd_-yVf9XpkXk/view?usp=sharing
• 3/8 11:44 am - what works: music choice; opening effective; nice mix of on-camera and voice over instruction (when you first appear, a title indicating your expertise in subject would be value added); like the touch of humor with your sister; good use of ecu shots, focus demo; good overall audio mix. what could make it better: more specific detail and information/instruction; take it to the next level with some visual tricks, such as the end shot morphing from live video into what we come to realize is the actual final portrait; maybe shutter sfx to help the viewer understand those are final portrait shots.
• 3/5 4:07 pm - Keepers: A good, if somewhat simple, explanation of the subject. Your method of speaking directly to your audience through the camera is a fresh idea, as so many demonstration shows rely only on voice over or text to convey the message. Good usage of both. Your audio quality was very good and the music was well mixed and didn't distract from your overall message. The mixture of live action, stills and animated stills kept the visuals fresh. The title graphics were well placed and easy to read. Improvements: The shot of the narrator was a bit noisy. Your camera's ISO was too high. Perhaps you needed more light in the room. Some of your rack focuses needed to be sharper as well. I think you could have gone into more detail with portrait photography, perhaps by explaining leading lines and foreground, midground background. This would have given your viewers more to to work with as a whole.

Judge 1

Positives: Liked the addition of the graphics to help guide viewer. Good camera work, which obviously was expected based on your topic.

Improvements: Music could have been a bit more "in the background", it was a little loud with narration. Lighting when showing camera was a little dark and camera was hard to see.

Judge 2

Positives: Good choice of music - adds a "happy" feel to your video. Good variety of shots from still images to video. Instructions are short and sweet.

Improvements: Add a drop shadow to your text anytime it's over video or a background to help it "pop" out from the background. Slow down a little on your VOs. That will also help with the pacing of your video.

Judge 3

Positives: Good discussion on the rule of thirds. Good use of your personal work to illustrate your points. (I would like to see more of your photo work incorporated into the project.) The black and white still images looked excellent. The opening shot of the camera was great. Stay on that a few more seconds after the title fades away.

Improvements: Consider discussing one or two more concepts like depth of field, head room, subject placement and the direction the subject should be looking etc. Try to richen up the colors in the live action footage where you are talking in the start of the project. Look at the shot at 0:57:00 for a reference. The colors in that shot are vivid and appealing.

Judge 4

Positives:

Improvements: