Weekly Challenge 135: Portrait with Blurred Background

This week I propose you to practice with depth of field when taking a portrait, something essential to achieve greater impact.

How does it work? (Reminder)

Every week I will propose a new challenge, it is a topic that you will have to capture in a photograph and upload it to the Facebook page of the blog, putting in the description the keyword that I will indicate for each topic. The themes will be varied, from portraits to Macro photography, through landscapes, black and white photography, or babies. Topics will be proposed Fridayso that you have all the Weekend to work them. You will have one week to upload your photograph (one photo per participant), until Thursday of the following week. On Thursday I will update the article with the photo that has captivated me the most and on Friday I will propose a new topic so that you have the whole weekend to capture your images, and so on…

Weekly Challenge 135: Portrait with Blurred Background (from 11/13/2015 to 11/19/2015)

There is an easy, very easy trick to make your portraits more impactful, and that is to play with depth of field. Using a wide aperture isolates the model from the background and draws the viewer’s attention directly to them. Like when you fall in love at first sight it seems that everything around you suddenly disappears… well, something like that.

You can use a very wide aperture, so much so that only part of the face appears in focus, or just blur the background. You decide that. In the first case you must be careful with the look, it is the key. Unless it’s a creative (and carefully thought out) exception, the eyes, or at least the closest eye, have to be in sharp focus or your portrait won’t succeed. If you need some help with portrait photography, here are a few articles that might help. Let yourself be trapped by the world of portraiture and seduce us with yours 😉

As usual, to participate in this week’s challenge upload your photo to the Facebook wall from the Photographer’s Blog: In the description of the photo please mention the keyword “Portrait Challenge with Blurred Background” followed by a title of your choice.

Alternative Means to Participate

For those who do not be from Facebook I have enabled new social networks to participate.

• Flickr: accessing the Group Mural of the Photographer’s Blog and uploading the photo directly. Give your photo a caption and be sure to mention “Challenge Portrait with Blurred Background” in the same.
• Twitter: uploading the photo directly to Twitter with the hashtag #ChallengePortraitWithBlurredBackgroundBdF

Happy photography.

Update

What a great level, every time you work harder and you encourage more people, eh? Impossible to put all the portraits that I liked, here is only a small sample (although this time it has been a bit long 😉 ), if you want more go through the Flickr, Facebook or Twitter galleries 😉

A photograph must be consistent with itself, it is the best way to be honest with your audience in addition to capturing their attention. At least that is what has happened to me with «Soledad» by Rigoletto Reséndez. I don’t know if the title is the name of the portrayed person, the feeling that she wants to convey or an intentional play on words. Whatever it is, it could not be more accurate because that is exactly what the woman transmits and everything that makes up the image. Indeed, the retro tried to blur the background in order to focus attention on the gaze, on the person portrayed and that is what happens here. The blurring of the background (and the foreground) concentrates all the attention on her, on her penetrating, lonely gaze. It transmits a loneliness that seems not to be sought, that anguishes but that at the same time gives the sensation that he has settled into it, or that he fears letting go of it. I also really like this portrait because of its timelessness, the place, the hairstyle, the blouse, the bracelet, they can be from now or from thirty or even fifty years ago. The colors, the light, the gesture, the gaze, the posture and even the blurred background harmonize and conspire to transmit the same message and captivate the viewer. He has left me at least a few moments looking at it and has asked me to come back several times. I have had the feeling of being hypnotized by the look of loneliness, or should I say Soledad? Congratulations to Rigoletto and all of you who have participated!