Cynthia Kelly

I have used a digital video with success in developing the composition for portraits involving more than one subject, particularly where children or a pet are concerned. As you shoot, the people and animals in the group all move around naturally in changing relationships to one another and against different backgrounds. With a digital video each frame can be isolated into a jpg, tiff, or whatever file producing a discrete image. The process is simple - hook the camera to your TV and computer; watch the video on your TV, and each time you see an image that appears to be what you want in terms of composition press a button on the hand-held remote and that image is captured in your computer. You can then manipulate them like any scanned image - e-mail them, print them out, etc.

The camera I've used belongs to a friend and though it is high end the resulting images don't have adequate resolution to paint from. But isolating the images and printing them out gives me many ideas to bring to the client. We decide on the composition from the video stills, and then I shoot the photos with a high-end digital or 35mm camera to work from to supplement actual sittings.

I haven't done it yet, but I think it would be neat to shoot a little video of the family unveiling the portrait, or a testimonial from the client shot on video in front of the portrait, and then integrate that into your web site.

Cynthia Kelly
Brand new to the forum