Fig 1 – Piranha Photography, Portrait of Kevin Spacey
This corporate portrait from an ICAP charity day shows a fun, quirky side to the film director Kevin Spacey. It is informal, as seen by the pose and the horizontal composition. It uses a shallow depth of field, placing the main focus of the image – Kevin Spacey – in sharp detail and his colleagues blurred behind him.
The subject is wearing a formal business suit, which contrasts against the fairly bright clothing and fancy dress of the people behind him. This, along with his informal pose holding the telephones with a gleeful expression on his face contrasts against his sharp suit; It portrays him as a quirky, fun loving person, not a boring business man. It makes him look approachable and someone you would be happy to work alongside.
The rule of thirds is followed, with the man’s eyes positioned a third of the way down from the top of the image.
It appears to have been shot on location, in natural tungsten lighting. We can see the reflection of the ceiling lights on the head of the man, and the light from what appears to be windows in the background. The advantage of natural lighting is that it is not as harsh as studio lighting can sometimes be; it has evenly lit the subject, with not too many dark shadows.
Fig 1 – Piranha Photography, Portrait of Michael Morpurgo “I Believe in Unicorns”
This is a PR shot of popular children’s author Michael Morpurgo, where he is reading his book “I Believe in Unicorns” to a group of excited schoolchildren.
The photographer has taken the shot from above, with quite a wide angle. This shows the vast number of children surrounding the author and how involved they are in his book reading.
The rule of thirds is obeyed with the author’s eyed positioned a third of the way down from the top of the image. This element, combined with his eyes looking straight at the camera and the contrast of his brightly coloured outfit against the navy uniform of the children makes him an obvious focal point. His expressive face and eyes draw our attention straight away. The excited and happy faces of the children add to the positive feeling of the image.
Again, this image appears to have been shot on location – possibly in a school classroom. The natural lighting works well as it makes the scene look like it has not been “set up.” The lighting is relatively low and has caused shadows especially on the children; however this adds depth to the image.
FIG 3: Paul Burns Photography, Hampton Court
This shot shows the scene of a fancy business dinner set up in Hampton Court; a royal palace in Richmond Upon Thames. A wide angle lens has been used, in order to capture the vastness of the space and how it has been filled with the long, grand tables. The wide angle has resulted in a slight distortion; with the room appearing to get smaller as it leads away from the eye. This could be seen as a detrimental effect; however in this instance I believe it works well, as the two tables and the objects upon them lead into the horizon in a triangular shape; which draws the viewer’s eye straight away. This strong geometric shape creates a very effective composition. The use of symmetry is also heavily used, with the tables identical, perfectly spaced apart and almost a mirror of each other. The paintings on the right hand side throw in an element of asymmetry, which prevents the scene from looking too artificial. The identical red of the tables and the similar shades of the floor and ceiling match each other and create balance, both horizontally and vertically.
I believe that the photographer has used no lighting equipment; instead relying on the ambient lighting in the room. He probably made use of a slightly slower shutter speed and a tripod in order to let enough light in. This has resulted in a warm, low key lighting which makes the room look welcoming. The lights reflect nicely off the dark
