On 23/10/04, Amita Guha, discombobulated, unleashed: >My friend Garth is an actor. He recently paid a portrait photographer for >some "casual" shots, and apparently they were awful, and Garth and his agent >thought the shots were unusable. They were looking for a photo that will go >onto a comp card, a postcard-sized card that will get sent out to casting >agents. Garth asked me and Nate for help, so we spent a couple of days last >weekend shooting him. Here are the best of my photos: >http://sunny16.smugmug.com/gallery/255274 > >All of these were done with the *istD and the Tamron 90mm macro. I haven't >done much processing with these, and there are a few shots where it's >obvious that they should have been cropped or rotated or airbrushed, but I'd >like to get some opinions on these since I'm pretty new to shooting people. > >Garth paid us in pizza for these shots. Next week we're taking shots of a >musician friend for her website, and in exchange, she's baking us something >with chocolate and making us dinner. :)
Amita, When photographing people, always try and use the vertical orientation as a default - unless trying for a particular style, etc. That way, they can be used wide showing more of the human form. Nothing intrinsically wrong with landscape orientation with people but you will find it more satisfying vertically. If I was his agent and was going to pick one shot for a card it would be this one: <http://sunny16.smugmug.com/gallery/255274/2/10013629> as a tighter crop, orientated vertically, or possibly as is but melting into the card info on the right of frame... With an actor, a potential casting agent will want to see a fairly straight face with no daft grins or anything. Also, anything favourable that illustrates a particular aspect to the face is useful. I think the shot I chose shows him off well. Very good job - well done. Cheers, Cotty ___/\__ || (O) | People, Places, Pastiche ||=====| http://www.cottysnaps.com _____________________________
