Work Diary - Back Of Head Portrait

For this session, it was quite hard to get used to the camera and get the blurry background in our pictures but this soon became easy as the session progressed. It was fun trying to find backgrounds which would look exciting and make the pictures look exciting. I soon found that the best backgrounds were those which contrasted with the person's head as this allowed me to highlight the details's of the head even more so that it can really stand out. It was important that the the person's head was sharp so that it stands out from the blurry background and makes it clear to the viewer that the person is who they need tone focusing on. I tried achieving this in every one of my pictures.

I think this picture is successful because the background is blurry and the camera has fully focused on the back of my subject's head. This means that the viewer can focus on his head, rather than his surroundings, which is exactly what I was trying to achieve with this image. I also like the contrast between my subject and the background; contrast is shown through the bright green and yellow colours  and his dark hair and black jacket. This really makes him stand out and ensures the viewer automatically pays attention to him. I made good use of the Sun - I made sure the Sun focusing directly onto my subject so that he is highlighted in this image. 

On the other hand, I don't think this picture was successful because the background did not come out blurry. The idea seemed good at first as I thought having two heads would make the picture more exciting but unfortunately, the camera wouldn't focus on both heads at the same time. If this had work, I think it would have been an interesting picture as the orange colour in the background would have contrasted with my subjects. Also, my subjects are wearing clothing with different shades of blue so tone could have been shown; I would have made this image black and white.

If we had the chance to repeat this session, I would capture more than just the head, neck and shoulders. I think this will add more to the picture and show more of the background as well as the person. The viewer will be able to guess the person's mood by their posture or actions. I would also like to spend some time in the studio focusing on this topic - this will allow me to manipulate the scene however I like.

By capturing more than the person's head, I could illustrate their feelings or mood to the viewer.

I could also use more exciting backgrounds like this one and use the person's gestures to match the atmosphere of the background.