This morning was the second session of our portraiture class at the Greenville Museum of Art. Today we were to spend the day posing and working with our model, Christy. Since it was incredibly cold outside, we started in the studio, with Polly discussing and demonstrating various posing techniques and lighting.
Polly drove home several points with us…
- Know your equipment before you start. Models and subjects may become uncomfortable or impatient if you’re constantly fooling with or trying to figure out your gear.
- Know the effect you’re after before you start. Give clear directions to achieve that effect.
- Take your time to get it right. The temptation with digital is to snap away, hoping one of the hundreds of images you shot will turn out OK. It’s much, much better to get it right in the camera than to try and fix it with Photoshop.
After shooting inside, Christy decided she was brave enough for a photoshoot outside. We each were to take turns posing our model and giving directions. Even when we were not working directly with her, many of us took advantage of other’s posing, and snapped some shots anyway. Christy had a variety of whimsical outfits (although none of them was warm enough for the weather.
I had scouted the area last Sunday, and had thought that the columns in front of the Little Theater would make for interesting lighting and lines. I violated rule number three above, and shot tons of photos, most of which didn’t turn out too well. However, a few did.
It was another fun class. Next week we critique each other’s shots.