Environmental Portrait Session with Kadari
I recently met Kadari earlier on this semester. After she accepted my request to photograph her as part of my project, I decided that the location I wanted to frame her in was the location where we initially met. This was the BCC on campus, in particular the upstairs Library of the BCC. I knew that I wanted to include books in the frame to represent the aspect of her that is astute. When I looked around the library a few days prior I spotted a framed picture of Malcolm X on the back wall behind some records. I asked for permission to both shoot in the library with strobe lighting and also to temporarily remove the records blocking the image of Malcolm by the wall (see image below).
My Process:
I used a fast shutter speed and a low ISO to massively reduce the amount of ambient light in the frame so that I’d have full control over the lighting conditions. I placed one speed light with a soft box to the upper left of frame acting as my main light. After I reviewed the images on the back of my LCD screen I realised that the near side (left) of her face was being ‘lost’ in the shadows and this wasn’t an affect I was going for. So I then I placed a ‘hot’ continuous led light on the book shelf nearest her face to act as some fill in order to balance the lighting on Kadari’s face. Then finally I placed the torch on the back of our phones on a lower shelf just out of the left side of frame in order to fill in some details on her bottom half that was initially ‘clipped’ on my histogram. In order to take the image I zoomed my lens to a telephoto focal length with a wide aperture to have some ‘fall off’ between her and the books in the foreground and the wall in the background.
My Analysis:
I like the final image because it depicts Kadari in the way in which I see her. She has Malcolm looking over her shoulder, while also being surrounded by books which in my mind alludes to the fact that she is conscious of her history and her status as a young intelligent lady in society.
Before and After:
