work record 1-location portraiture

location portraiture

location photography is a form of photography where a person is posed in a specific location to draw viewers in and make the subject and the background relevant to each other.

to use this technique, you would need your camera set on aperture priority or manual. you should also use a tripod as this will keep the camera steady and level. a shallow depth of field would place the focus more on the subject and move the attention from the background. if the shadows are too harsh, you may want to use a reflector.

Research Artist

Alec Soth (b. 1969) is a photographer born and based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. he takes location portraits of people in places that represent them in some way. he is known for making his subjects comfortable and choosing his environment so that it relates to the subject.

this shows a man in a jumpsuit holding two model aircraft and looking straight at the camera. he is in focus but the background isn't. in this photo it looks as if he is stood by his house. this location is relevant to him and shows how remote and quiet his home is. he is holding two planes and looks as though he is dressed like a pilot. this also makes him seem quite eccentric this could mean he was/is a pilot or is just really enthusiastic about aeroplanes and flying.

this photo shows a man wearing a smart suit, holding a palm leaf in one hand and a bible in the other. both of these things are religiously significant in their own way. the palm leaf can represent the scene in the bible where Jesus walked on palm leaves that had been laid down in front of him. the bible also represents Christianity. both of these things imply that the man is a religious person who may be a preacher or another figure of a church. he is stood in front of a pile of wooden planks and rope on the floor. this doesn't seem relevant to the subject which could mean he was approached by Soth for a photography in the street as he was walking.

image bank

contact sheet






images to improve on



this photo looks very blurred and bright. this was because the ground was very uneven and i couldn't balance the tripod on it. this caused the blur. another issue was the setting i had the camera on aperture priority and has an ISO of 6400. this meant the camera was incredibly sensitive to light and cause the image to be much too bright.



similar to the photo above, there was a big issue with the ISO setting. i had forgotten to change it since another shoot i had done previously in a dark room. this meant the photo came out very dark and grainy. if i were to take these photos again, id change the iso settings to around 200-800 depending on the light in the environment im taking the photo in.

best images 



these were by best images from the shoot and the ones i was able to edit as they were the least effected by the high iso and had the blurred background that i wanted to achieve (in the style of alec soth).


final outcomes
these are the photos after editing.






editing these photos

































when editing these photos, i adjusted them all in the same way as i was more focused on the camera technique and not the editing. i used photoshop to change the brightness and contrast which helped fix the distortion of the high ISO (the graininess and the brightness). this also meant i could make the whole picture brighter or darker and then highlight or darken certain areas to bring out the detail. however, this caused the the vibrance and saturation to increase, which meant i had to reduce them both to make the photo more natural.

overall, although the camera settings were incredibly unbalanced, this shoot was successful as i was able to create a blurred background and sharpen the subject of my photo, in the style of Alec Soth. if i were to do this shoot again, i would double check the camera settings and make sure they suit the area i am in. i probably wont use location portraiture in my project as i am working with shadows, and will probably do more studio based work.