Photographic Design Principles

Phillippe Halsman's Portrait Lighting Article Questions

1.  In you own words, explain what Halsman means by: “Most Photographs called portraits don’t deserve the name.”

A photograph of a person is only a portrait if it captures some of the essence of the sitter’s character.  But in most “portraits” the subject is posing for the picture.

3.  Explain in your own words, what psychological portraiture is.

A psychological portraiture is where the person taking the picture tries to not re make the features of what they are taking the picture of, but capture the character.

4.  What is meant by: “each technical step introduces psychological overtones?

This means that lighting, camera angle, background composition, cropping, darkroom work are all important steps that cause psychological overtones to a photograph.

5.  There are six challenging assignments in Philippe Halsman’s Mini Course. Describe each one.

Ä Assignment 1:

One Light: He only used one light to produce photographs.  He used silhouette lighting, side lighting, and edge lighting.

Ä Assignment 2:

Two Lights: In this assignment he used to lights to take photographs.  He used cross lighting, and fill-in lighting to do so.

Ä Assignment 3:

Multiple Lights: In this assignment he used a fill-in light, a main light, two spotlights, and a background light to take pictures of the subject.

Ä Assignment 4:

Bounce Light: In this assignment he used indirect lighting to shoot.  He bounced the light off of the wall and ceiling.  This made it look like Hollywood glamor position and a high-noon position.

Ä Assignment 5:

Window Light: This is similar to bouncelighting.  He had to position the subject in a certain way according to where the window is.

Ä Assignment 6:

Outdoor Light: In this assignment the sun is a substitute for lights.  In sunlight you should try not to shoot from 10 am to 2 pm because the sun would be in the subjects eyes.

Out of Place Activity

In this activity I had to put three things in a place where they wouldn't normally belong.  I put an igloo, a banana split, and a gingerbread man all on the beach.

Point of View Photoshoot

In this shoot I took four sets of four photos.  I took pictures at odd and angles that I normally wouldn't take pictures from.  I shot pictures of a fire alarm, a water fountain, a hat, and my friends head.

These pictures were taken from unique point of views that normally a person wouldn't take a picture from.