Need end to end advice - tutorial on portrait of my son

theMusicMan

theMusicMan

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Hiya All

I want to have a go a some form of portrait of my son, Lloyd, who is a super young man at 16 going on 17 years old. I am thinking a b&w one, showing his wonderful young physique and tatoo (OK, I know... I'm a bad dad for that eh!!). The thing is, I have no real idea where to start to go about getting a wonderful top third of body portrait of him.

How do I start...? I am here to learn, and will take any advice offered to me from you experts.

I need to consider background, lighting, pose etc... all advice greatly appreciated. For example, how do I get a black background...? Do I need a black sheet or backdrop...? Very sorry about the noobiness of the questions, but my lad has agreed to have a go tonight and I really want to have an attempt at this - posting results as I go through it.

I admit this is an open ended thread, but I'd love to work with some here to see what we can come up with. Thoughts...?
 
Have a look through the portraits section & see if any of the pics there are in the style you are considering. I'd say that the questions a bit too open ended to give tailored advice but if there is a basis to work from in a style that you like then people will probably find it easier to give advice.
(Also try to post up the equipment that you have, lenses, lighting, backgrounds & location, etc too.) :thumbs:
 
I know exactly the shot you mean, and one of the recent photo mags had a great shot of a young mans top torso, strongly lit from the side, so the shadows defined his 6 pack. Sadly I don't remember which mag, and I no longer have it, but it's definately this months issue, so have a look in WH Smith or similar and see if you can spot it. It was full of pics of naked ladies, but had this one great shot of a male. they did say that lighting for males needs to be much harsher than for ladies, to give muscle definition. Sorry I can't help more....never done portrait work. Try Arkaddy.
 
Thanks everyone for the pointers thus far.

@Photostar 1: that's exactly the one I want to try to get. Even though I am biased, he is a handsome young lad and I want to try to get a nice pic of him if poss - that he'd be proud of too.

Here's one of Lloyd a few months ago... he's beef'ed up a lot more these last few months and I can't think of a better model (apart from my daughter or wife) to try out my new gear on :)

Lloyd_Tall.jpg
 
photostar_1 said:
I know exactly the shot you mean, and one of the recent photo mags had a great shot of a young mans top torso, strongly lit from the side, so the shadows defined his 6 pack. Sadly I don't remember which mag, and I no longer have it,
Click to expand...

Sure it's not under your bed, Carole? :D :lol:
 
Janice said:
Sure it's not under your bed, Carole? :D :lol:
Click to expand...

Hey, guess where I just found the mag?......:lol: ...no honestly......it was under the settee....

Anyway Practical Photography, August issue, as Janice said.

They say.....(rough quote)...harsher, more direct light for male torso, from either above or the side, to give shadows under pecs and abs. Basically, move the light around to see what gives best effect. (The shot in the mag is against a black background). They also say ditch softboxes and umbrellas and use standard dishes or snoots for males. Also worth experimenting with honeycomb attachments.....is what they say. Personally.....it's all gobbledygook as I've never done any studio work.;)

Hope this helps.
 
Top tips.

The smaller the light source the harder the shadows and if you want a black background but don't have one move the subject away from the background and move the lightsource cloder to the subject.

Best of luck.
 
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