Portrait project: Subject placement

- Hey, everybody, Sean Duggan here. Welcome back to Mobile Photography Weekly. This week, we're gonna explore a common road trip scenario where you're traveling along, and you see something really cool by the side of the road, and you tell your traveling companion, hey, Jacob, go stand over by the bus, we're gonna make a picture. But in this case, the bus is really large, and if I get back far enough to include the bus, he's just kind of getting lost in there. So, I'm gonna get closer, and if I get closer, this is better in terms of a picture of Jacob here, and that's good.

But, I'm not seeing the entire bus. So the solution to that is to separate those two objects more, have your friend get a little bit closer to you, have the larger object more in the background, and that way, you can get a good view of both of them where they're both filling the frame. So, Jacob, let's come up here, to right over on this side. And I'm also moving my position a little bit this way because I'm able to face the bus at a more oblique angle, and because it's more angle-like, I can get more of it in the frame.

And that's good. And why don't you just go ahead and kind of cross your arms and look real tough there. A little bit closer, this way here on the side. All right, that's good. Now, the other thing that's happening here is the light is really not ideal, it's heavily backlit, it's kind of harsh light, but, you know, that's a reality when you're traveling on a road trip. Sometimes, you stop at a cool place, and you don't have the light you can choose, you have the light that's there. So I'm just gonna work with this, I'm kind of envisioning a black and white portrait, which has a starker look.

I'm photographing with the Lightroom CC app, and I'm shooting in HDR in a raw format, the DNG format, which will give me more flexibility when I process it. We get down a little bit lower. Well, that's great, I love that. (camera clicks) Chin up just a little bit. (camera clicks) Great, and I'm tilting the camera angle a little bit just because it's such an odd scene. And you know, on this road trip, I've managed to pick up some props. I think that this is a strange enough scenario that some props would be cool.

So let's bring some props into the shot, too. Here we go, let's stick with the transportation, automotive sort of theme. You can go ahead and cradle that like a baby there, that looks good. All right. (camera clicks) And then, give me that look off the the side. (camera clicks) Great. And you know, since we got props, and it's kind of a surreal location, let's go all in.

And we're gonna go All-American Gothic. Why not? Okay, that's good. Will you get back a little bit more, and then look straight at me, that's good. (camera clicks) And then, why don't you go ahead and look off the side profile, the chin up. (camera clicks) Very good. I'm shooting down low here because it gives me a little bit better separation between the edge of his beard. So, if you're faced with a situation in a road trip where you gotta photograph something, and it's a large object in the background, just create separation between your main portrait subject and what you got in the background, and explore different shots.