Casual Portraits
It isn’t often that I shoot portraits outside of cosplay. It is something that I didn’t have a particular interest in. With cosplay, you are working with predetermined characters that have a setting, personalities, and even poses ready to be directly referenced and incorporated into a photoshoot. It is just easier to be “creative”. As time went on, I found myself diverging from what a particular character would do in canon (much like a cosplayer may modify the character to suit their own preferences) and focus on what would make for interesting photos. This allowed me to breach a barrier of creative freedom. Now that I have explored those avenues, it points me into a direction I can go with more traditional portraiture: creating characters for the model to portray.
I did not create any character or theme for this shoot. Will hired me for some portraits that he could use to reflect himself and that’s what I did. The casual environment with a couple additional friends made it easier for Will to feel comfortable during his first shoot. Building confidence in a model is often critical to the outcome. With his friends hyping him up and Fuji’s film sims offering a great in-camera aesthetic, Will was having a great time.
Speaking of “in-camera”, I originally planned for this shoot to be on film, but models often tend to be late. 400 speed film wasn’t going to do the job with the sun setting as quicky as it was. I opted to switch over to my Fuji X-T30 and mostly stuck with the Meike 35mm F/1.7 lens, although I did utilize my Sirui 50mm F/1.8 for a few shots as well. I do love wider aspect ratios. I used only environmental light, even after the sun had dropped below the horizon. I was generally around 1000-1600iso shooting around F/2 and wide open. There were street lamps to have Will stand beneath and the ambient light from the city itself presenting enough light to work comfortably.
Overall, it is a step away from cosplay. I will be shooting cosplay much less this year, with a greater focus on personal projects and conceptual projects. Getting out of my comfort zone is necessary to break some stale habits and find new creative ground.
