Portrait Scale and Setting

First exercise was a short and sweet one; take a portrait with 4 different crops - face, head and shoulders, torso and full body including background. Then discuss how each one affects the over all feel of the portrait and where attention is drawn to. I took a shot of my friend from Australia on Bondi Beach and then using the different crops saw how the image changed:

The first crop of just the face is very intimate, it forces you to concentrate only on the expression.

When the shoulders are exposed in this crop it gives away a few hints as to body position to help show if the subject is relaxed or posed for movement etc. It's still closed in enough to direct attention to only the face.

when you pull back again some more, the back ground is revealed and in this case emphasises  the reason behind the subjects pose and expression. The inclusion of the background is supporting the subject who is still cropped in close enough to be the centre of the image. Being able to see ore of the body gives clues as to what is happening in the shot.

The last photo where the subject is surrounded full frame by her location pulls all the elements in together including expression, body language and scenery, which gives a greater impression over the reason behind the image. This works really well if you are trying to imply how the subject is interacting with there surroundings.

 

so as you can see there are different reasons why a certain distance or crop for  portrait can effect the feel of the image from a very intense close up to a far away shot that has many meanings. In the above photos the two I feel work best are the 2nd and 3rd images. The 2nd one works well showing the expression in my friends face and giving a tiny hint at the blue sea behind but the emphasis is all in her eyes, yet the drop is not so small that it becomes too imposing for this expression. The 3rd photo I feel is just the right balance between subject and background in this instance; there is enough of the beach showing so that the viewer knows where she is and why she is smiling and  she fills the frame well. I prefer this from the last one as I feel that there is too much space around her that doesn't really add to her pose.