This week in VSAR 302, we were each assigned a person from class to take environmental portraits of. Location, props, lighting, and posing are all important to environmental portraits as they contribute to saying something about the subject. My subject was Aisha who was very relaxed and easy to work with. This past Saturday, we shot on location in her room which was decked out with many various pieces of pop culture paraphernalia, her own art, and cosplay work. I squealed internally with delight. 🙂 As we set up and shot photos, we talked about art, popular culture, and clumsy friends. I definitely wanted to capture the happy, childlike environment that is Aisha’s room which encapsulates her personality and interests. I suggested that we set up all her Mickey Mouse plushies (she had an impressive amount) like a throne and had her sit among them while shooting from eye-level. This made her look especially regal in her kingdo-, I mean her room. Aisha also loves gaming so I also wanted to capture her in her natural habitat which, of course, is in front of her gaming setup. I appreciate how completely honest Aisha is about being a child at heart. Interacting with her reminded me of how those kind of people constantly inspire myself and others to create art for the purpose of telling stories and evoking wonder and joy from other people.
In Lightroom, I wanted to convey the feeling of warmth and nostalgia by playing with split toning and creating slight vignettes with radial filters. However, I still wanted to highlight certain areas by utilizing graduated filters.
Kaitlen Boe 