I. Subject and Space

For this assignment I chose to shoot with a good friend of mine from highschool named Mikayla. I am still getting comfortable directing my subjects so I thought it'd be best to work with someone that I already was comfortable with. The space I chose to do this shoot was at Mikayla's house. I already knew she had an awesome window in her living room that I could pull some soft light from and then on my way up I noticed her fence leading to the backyard was painted so I wanted to do a few test shots out there as well.

II. Test Shots for Lighting

I didn't have much problem with exposure during this shoot, it was an overcast day outside so the light stayed pretty constant and then I just went based off of my light meter when we moved inside and none of my shots were dramatically over or underexposed.

Into the Light with Mikayla - image 1 - student project

III. Horizontal vs. Vertical Shots

I wanted this shoot to feel very natural and comfortable. In the first image, which is horizontal, I placed Mikayla on the couch nearest the window so that I could harvest that natural light. As far as composition I made sure that I left plenty of space to the right for the eye to wander off torwards where Mikayla is looking, I think the placement of her hand helps to lead your eye into that space and it gives a sense of ambiguity and wonder. Aside from that I think that this picture just gives off a very comfortable vibe and you can tell that she is somewhere familiar.

With my second image, the vertical, I arranged Mikayla outside of the gate leading to her backyard. What initially attracted me was the bright blue of the fence but when I started shooting I noticed that the flower reef placed behind her did well with carrying a little bit of a color scheme throughout the photo by matching Mikayla's flannel. Again, I wanted this shoot to feel very comfortable and I had Mikayla go for the whole "I don't really care" look. I had her drop the one sleeve and mess up her hair a little bit to follow through with that. I also noticed after dropping that one sleeve, the bright colors of the left sleeve and the flower reef behind her came together more naturally and made the photo feel more balanced so that the viewer isn't looking at one or the other so intensely. To me, this composition just had a comfortable flow to it.

Into the Light with Mikayla - image 3 - student project

IV. Final Portrait

I chose this image as my final portrait simply because it spoke to me the most and Mikayla was really happy with it. To me if my subject isn't happy with the image then I've failed, so I was really pleased with the way these portraits came out. Big Ups to Justin for putting on this Skillshare class and to everyone who participated, I was glad to be a part of it.

Into the Light with Mikayla - image 5 - student project

Josh Corrigan

Student

15

22