Tumblr Fame! - Research

http://490tx.tumblr.com

So I was just googling portrait work and I couldn't really find anything that I liked. So I started looking on tumblr and found this guy. I think that he captures some really great examples of portraits and they have a really soft and subtle presents about them.  I chose a range of different style portraits from his tumblr page to look at. These are what I thought were the best:

What I like about this is the framing, the fact that the model in the shot isn’t centred. She is positioned slightly to the side so there is a lot of negative space on the left hand side of the image. This is great because the image isn’t too over powering. There is really soft lighting in the image that hits the model and gives her a soft glow. Maybe this is done with natural lighting? I can’t really see any flash in the image or harsh lighting created by a flash. It’s really soft and has a serene feel to the image. 

Really natural shots both backed by the natural lighting. These may be some of my favorite just because I think its sweet and demure how they aren’t over thought or over posed. They are beautiful. These really work well in black and white as they add to the image and make them less intense and also adds to the elegant nature of the shot. I think that with colour there would be a bit too much going on. The lack of colour makes them timeless. 

 This I think is a really interesting take on a portrait image. The composition used and also the depth of field work together to create a really rather unique image. The photographer has used a long depth of field to make him out of focus in the fore ground and all the back in focus. This is really important because the main part of the image is the person in the back. I think that this will have taken a long time to set up and position correctly but it looks really effective. I also like the fact that the photographer his self is in the shot. The quote above (possibly on the wall itself) is really appropriate. I think that it is "a portrait to remember" as its totally not what you would expect from a general portrait shot. The colours in the image are really well thought out too. I think that if the photographer was wearing a different top to what he is it might be too in your face and loose the model between his arm. Good that he is wearing the same colour as the background. 

This shot is a good example of shallow depth of field. There's a sharp focus in the eyes are of the model. I think that it could be better maybe with slightly more catch light in them however there is just enough at the moment to give them a glow and draw you too the image. It doesn’t look flat or boring. There is nice range of tone in the image. Isn’t that contrasting what I kind of like for this particular image because its soft and it has a "pretty" feel to it. I like the patterns and tones created by the ball in the foreground of the image and the way that the light hits it and makes it sparkle, really adds detail to the image.  Props would be good to use in my image as long as they don't take away from the detail in the models eyes. In this case it helps to show just how shallow the depth of field is.

This image has really nice range of tones. It has a lot of sharp blacks in what I think the other images lack. I like the way that the photographer is at a low angle looking up at the subject. This creates a feel of power and that the model is someone who is important and noted. I also like this angle because it makes the masks I think have a scary/intimidating feel to them that probably wont be the same if you looked at them straight on. Again the framing used isn’t central but works as you get the full detail of the masks but they don’t take up the full frame due to the mid depth of field. Only really the model is in sharp focus.