Composition and background help, please

[Joan Breckwoldt]

Hello,

I would like to do a portrait of my nephew for my portfolio. I took this photo of him in natural light, the light was coming in a sliding glass door to our right. It seems it's pretty low light, but hopefully there are enough shadows there for me to work with.

I have two main concerns. One is that since this little guy is fair skinned and has light hair, and he's wearing a light blue outfit, the whole thing may have a washed out look. I can probably make the colors a little stronger when I paint though. I was thinking about adding something with some color, maybe just a simple ball (fairly small) next to him with some red or yellow in it. Or I could make that little crest on his outfit a red, just to have some kind of 'pop' in this portrait.

My second question is the background. All that junk in the background has to go. I was thinking of having him sitting on a hardwood floor with some kind of doorway frame in the background (Peggy, I think this is in my mind from a portrait you did of a young boy sometime). But we don't have any hardwood floors in our house and I've never painted one so that might not be the best thing to attempt at this time.

Thank you all in advance for any advice you can offer on this reference photo,

Joan

[Joan Breckwoldt]

Here is my reference photo,

Joan

[Chris Saper]

Dear Joan,

I think you should shoot more film, for many of the reasons you mention.

First, even though you have used natural light, the direction of the light on your subject, is still flattening the form. Children of this age have such subtle soft forms to begin with, you want to get as much visual information as possible in order to describe them.

You also have a great deal of photo distortion in the focal place because of the lens and proximity from which you photographed your subject...look at the size of the feet and lower legs. You'd only be able to correct this distortion with careful drawing to reflect true proportions, or posing from life (LOL). To correct this when you take photos, you will need a zoom lens that lets you back away from your subject and zoom in.

Yes, the background has to go. Unless you plan to use a nonrepresentational background (i.e., color/value), it is unwise to invent "stuff" to fill the space, and especially if that stuff is unfamiliar to you, and even more so if it is of an architectural nature which requires precision in perspective, such as hardwood floors, doorways, windows, fireplaces, bricks, and so forth. You could solve this problem either by changing the setting in which you photograph him, or simply by draping the furniture in the background with some fabric whose colors you'd like to employ in the final piece.

I think that the idea of adding color through interjecting a prop is problematic, because you'll end up with the most highly saturated object competing with your subject (and probably winning). When you next shoot film, consider placing props with your subject, stuffed animal, etc.. With something like a ball, you will have to be precise in painting it, so it is round. In either case, I think you would be well-served to consider the overall color harmony you want in the portrait, so that you aren't just arbitrarily adding a color. If you use a prop, think in terms of overlapping forms, rather than just placing an object next to him; so put the toy in his lap or hands, etc.. Barbara Hudson faced many of these same issues here: http://forum.portraitartist.com/show...&threadid=2063

Good luck!

[Joan Breckwoldt]

Hi Chris,

Thank you for taking the time to post a reply. Hmm, not a lot of good news though.

My nephew lives out of town and I took this photo over the Thanksgiving holidays, so more photos aren't really an option for this subject. Since it's for my portfolio, maybe I should stick to a local subject and not make this so hard on myself.

Though this photo might work for just a head and shoulders portrait, any thoughts on that idea anybody?

Thanks again Chris, I really appreciate your thoughts. You have probably saved me hours and hours of frustration. Looks like I need to get my camera and find a local subject. I have read many times about being further away when taking a photo and using the zoom to lessen distortion, but I guess even though I knew that, I still didn't practice it.

Joan

[Leslie Ficcaglia]

Joan,

Your nephew has a nice, alert expression and is a very cute tyke, all of which is good.

The main thing that strikes me about the photo, however, is the shape of the little guy's head; I don't know if it's really that way or if it's distorted due to your lens. His head is not at all symmetrical and on our right side it appears to come out at an angle toward his ear. His lower face and chin are also off, and look much fuller on our left than on our right.

Do you have any more photos of him, even shots that your nephew or niece took, to tell you if that's a true portrayal of his head or not? If it's for your portfolio and you have no other sources to get more information from, it could be a turnoff if the child's head looks out of true.

You're trying to show how well you can paint babies and the prospective client won't know whether the child actually looked like that or whether any distortion was introduced by the artist.

When taking reference photos I always shoot at least a roll of film; you never know which shot will give you important information. And you can always incorporate features from different pictures to make a better whole. If you don't have that option here I'd wait til you can get a better series of pictures and paint something else meanwhile. Give yourself lots of photos to refer to and don't make it so difficult!

[Joan Breckwoldt]

Thank you Leslie for replying to my post. I think you are right that I shouldn't make it so hard on myself. This little guy does have a crooked smile, which is one of the things that makes him so endearing. But I see all the points you have made about his head. I think since his head is not looking straight at the camera, all the bumps and angles look funny. You're absolutely right, when a prospective client looks at it, they probably won't want their baby painted with a funny looking head (if that's what it looks like to them).

So, I suppose the message I'm getting is the same from everyone who was kind enough to take the time to reply. I actually have taken quite a few photos of my three nieces and nephews, but I think the key is to get a model that lives here in Houston!

Thanks again, Joan

[Leslie Ficcaglia]

Joan, the key is actually to have enough reference photos of your subjects; it doesn't really matter where they live. I've done posthumous portraits from three poor reference photos; amazing what you can do when you have to, although the painting with the least reference material did offer a good picture of her face in a tiny school photo. I've also done photo shoots with subjects whom I knew I'd never see again, but thank heavens for one-hour processing; I could have the results almost immediately and know whether I had something that pleased the client and that I could work from. If you have enough photos of any of your nieces and nephews to give yourself a good face and a pose both with similar lighting it should be sufficient for a painting (although others may disagree). Still, if you're very new at this, as Chris and I said, you might want to make it easy on yourself and go for a fairly good face and pose with pleasing lighting all together in the same photo.

By the way, I use a Nikon with a 70-210 telephoto lens for my photo sessions. It keeps me from having to get right on top of the subject, thereby letting them relax better, and also reduces distortion. I can zoom in for a face shot and zoom out for the whole figure - or as much as I need for the kind of painting it will be.

Do keep us posted about what you decide to do and good luck!