Lecture Topic:

A portrait should capture the likeness and spirit of the subject. It should go beyond the pleasing, the anecdotal. It should be a work of art. It should live, not just for today, but for generations to come.

Portraiture has always existed.
It is natural for people to record their presence, their image, for their time and as a memorial to pass on. Portraits have been painted to honor those of stature, from business leaders to political leaders to clerics. Portraits also represent the love of one human being for another, the parent for a child, the husband for a wife, a partner for their mate.

A portrait will illustrate a moment or time in the life of a person. But it must also incorporate the spirit of that person, something intrinsic at almost any age.

A portrait is a work of art. It takes all of the artist’s skills and vision to incorporate the elements of good photography, color and design necessary for a portrait that will invite viewing over and over.

Portraiture

Portrait

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait

Daguerreotype Portraits (Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/daghtml/dagport.html

Daguerreotype info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daguerreotype

Some Interesting Portrait Photographers:

Diane Arbus

Mary Ellen Mark

Simple Photo Tips

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=317&pq-locale=en_US

Simple Portrait Photography Tips

http://photo.net/learn/portraits/

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=339/423&pq-locale=en_US

Screenings: The Language of Photography/The Merchants of Cool

Readings: Sontag

Photo-retouching

Project: (in four parts)

1. “Self Portrait”: Photograph yourself in front-on close up view using a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera.

Bring your image into Photoshop at approximately 300 dpi 1142 long x 768 wide pixels. Work from copies of the original images. Select the front on view that you feel is the best.

2. “Beautify”: Retouch the image to look as “beautiful” or “handsome” as possible. Experiment with the many tools in Photoshop including layers, filters, paint and drawing tools, colors, palettes, etc. Hints found here

3. “Age”: Take the original “best” view again and this time age your image to look at least 20 years older. Hints found here

4. “Interpretive Creative Portraits”: Experiment with taking a series of 5 portraits of your friends or family or fellow classmates. (This section of the assignment can use either high or low resolution photography.)

Studio skills:

Basic digital photography,(camera, lighting set up) retouching, levels, image enhancement and correction, tonal and color manipulation techniques, layers, masks, selecting and cutting, pasting techniques (marquee, lasso, magic wand tools), tolerance, multiply, pen tool, paths, inverse, color range, feather, modify, magic eraser and background eraser, channels, saving selections to channels. See hints also.

Deliverables:

1. 3 self portraits: (one original front on view, one beautified front on view, one aged front on view) roughly 1142 x 768 pixels at 300 dpi image using RGB colors saved as jpg

2. 5 interpretive creative portrait studies of others

3. Presentation of your images using the classroom projector. Your presentation should include a short description of at least three new techniques you used while making the images.

Grading Criteria:

1. Assignment completed on-time.

2. Adherence to the size and file format specifications

3. Exploration and application of creative tools in Photoshop.

4. Quality and clarity of class presentation

5. Quality, Realism and Believability of photo-retouching as illustrated in your final beauty & aged images.

6. Creative exploration and experimentation in portraiture of others