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February 13, 2008
[ CONTRIVING SPONTANEITY ]
DPEXPERT MOTORED OUT TO ELTHAM last week for a one day workshop designed to help photographers improve their people shots. The day was organised by Camera House and was run by professional photographer, Shelton Muller.
Shelton loves doing wedding photos, which makes him something of a rarity amongst professionals, most of whom seem to do it grudgingly to make a living. But Shelton is a showman who enjoys nothing better than directing a cast in a big production.
There were thirteen of us there in the chapel at Montsalvat. For $249 we were offered the run of the grounds, lunch, the cooperation of three models and the experience of the professional.
We are a motley crew with varying degrees of expertise. One wants to take better pictures of his bonsai, and another has been sent by his wife to learn to take better photos of her with the camera she gave him! There are a couple of camera club enthusiasts and one chap who just wants to recapture the pleasure he got taking photos for the school year book a long time ago.
There is a bloke who takes pictures of yachts and a couple of women who want to take better photos of their children.
We get started with the warning: “There’s no more difficult subject in the world than people.” And then we learn about light – avoid the on-camera flash, use available light wherever possible and become an observer of light and how it falls. Look for the most attractive, diffused light – think Rembrandt, and window light streaming in from above and to the side. When you find the light place your subject in it.
Then attend to composition. It isn’t a good idea to place the subject’s face in the centre of the frame with lots of “negative space” around the head. Put the eyes of the subject one third of the distance from the top to bottom of frame.
A medium telephoto lens, preferably a prime, is best for portraits. Shelton’s in love with his 85mm Micro Nikkor. It gives a flattering perspective and keeps the background attractively out of focus.
So, this is an easily repeatable set of rules, but now comes the hard part. We all want to take spontaneous, unposed, relaxed, natural pictures. And as our teacher says: “Often the spontaneity is contrived.” You have to work at it. The photographer is the director, drawing a performance, an illusion of spontaneity, from the subject. Which is where we shy introverts are at a disadvantage.
Shelton has a personality somewhere between Jim Carrey and Tigger. When he pulls a face and bounces you smile. His exuberance comes from unfeigned pleasure in his work and in making people have a good time while he is buzzing around putting them into their contrived spontaneous poses. He is free of the embarrassment that most of us feel when pushing people around in front of a crowd.
dpexpert, being a dour party, is confident that we know all about the rules of lighting, composition and lens selection, but when it comes to energising the subject we can only envy Shelton! We don’t think that wedding photography is for us. We should stick to still life capsicums and zucchinis.
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Posted by terry at February 13, 2008 11:15 PM
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