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I challenged myself to take photos from different angles in the same place. I moved myself to take photos from different angles to find the best angle for the photos. (4)

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I challenged myself to take photos from different angles in the same place. I moved myself to take photos from different angles to find the best angle for the photos. (3)

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I challenged myself to take photos from different angles in the same place. I moved myself to take photos from different angles to find the best angle for the photos. (2)

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I challenged myself to take photos from different angles in the same place. I moved myself to take photos from different angles to find the best angle for the photos. (1)

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David Kim, HOPE, 2021

(Final portrait 4 (inspired by Jack McKain))

I got inspired by Jack McKain for this photograph. Jack McKain is a photographer who likes to try different styles of portrait photography. What I found interested was one of his works used street lights for the light. I always thought of studio light or natural light for the lights. But when I see his work with street lights, it looks so beautiful and natural. So I decided to use street light and tried to find a street light that has enough brightness. It was difficult to found perfect street light because most of the street light was too high, so they don't work well with my concept that is why I went lots of places to find the perfect light.

The concept of this photograph was 'HOPE'. I tell my friend to make a pitiful look that seeking hope. And letting the light drop directly above the face to show light is a symbol of hope. Also, I instructed the model to direct to look at the light right away, and by looking at the direct lights, the light reflected in his eyes. The light reflected on the pupils added vitality to the person, which is the symbol of hope. I used the Black and white style because I want viewers to focus on the light and subject. Jack McKain is also known for taking pictures from a different angle. He is not staying in one unique angle that he finds. He tries multiple different angles throughout his photographs. After I saw his works I wanted to try a different angle for my photography and using high angle shot, it makes subjects weak and small which worked well.

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David Kim, Two-faced, 2021 

(Final portrait 3 (inspired by Andrea Minoia ))

For this work, I got inspired by Andrea Minoia. I got inspired by his low-key lightning. I want something dark and serious mood of this portrait, and low-key lighting fits perfectly with my concepts.

Andrea Minoia's works are dark and deep. In most of his work, he showed control of the light, so in some of his works, he controls the light to shows only half of the subject's face, and in some other work, he uses a small amount of light to make a silhouette, and that was interesting.

So the concept of this portrait is two-faced. I think everyone has two-faced inside their hearts, but some people are just good at hiding their emotions, and some are not good at it. This topic is deep and meaningful so, I consider lots about mood, colour, background, and light.

I set the subject to put in the middle of the photos and use empty/ plain background to make viewers concentrate only on the subject. I did a lot of thinking about the light setting. I think about how to symbolise two faces with a limited amount of light. Also, I did wonder about how to create a low-key setting from the inside home. After many tries, I decided to control light to cover his half-faced and give shadow to another half of his face so viewers only can see half of his face. The purpose of this light setting is by 'hiding' half of his face viewers can not see what he thinks or, they don't know his facial expression because it's too dark.

So throughout my photos what I want to tell is everyone has a dark side of their life. I want to explain that people should always look back on themselves and check themselves because they always live with the evil inside themselves.

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David Kim, Brendon Kim, 2021 

(Final portrait 2 (inspired by Brandon Stanton ))

For this work, I got inspired by Brandon Stanton. What I found fascinating about his photography, unlike the other portrait photographs, I felt like he had entered the subject's daily life and captured the moment.

The portrait was taken from the outdoors using natural light. That's why it took a long time to think carefully about the weather, the time of day, and the location. Natural light (sunlight) was much harder to take than studio light because studio light can adjust the brightness and position. That is why I took lots of pictures to find the best light position and brightness. Natural light helps to show my photographs look natural and realistic. I chose a walkway surrounded by trees that are near my friend's house as the background. Because my friend said he sometimes wanted freedom in stuffy city life, and I want to express what he wants as his daily life. I didn't tell him about the pose because I want him to comfortable posing as he wanted. Also, I told him to set his hairstyles and wear his clothes as daily life. I want my photograph to look natural, and I want viewers to think I captured one of the moments of his life, just like what I felt from Brandon Stanton.

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David Kim, Daniel Na, 2021 

(Final portrait 1 (inspired by Martic Schoeller))

When I heard I had to do portrait photography, I thought about what is stereotypical portrait photography. In the meantime, when I looked at photographs of Martic Schoeller, I thought these photographs looked like passport pictures, but they were standard portraits that allowed me to focus on the subject's faces and their facial expression. His style was appropriate to express the subject's emotions and themselves.

I want my photographs to look natural, so I chose to take them outside rather than in the studio, and the environment was too restrictive to use the studio light like Martic Schoeller, so I used ceiling lights. I encouraged him to make a face that he usually makes, and I tried to be as natural as possible.

Martic Schoeller used empty background so that viewers can focus on the subject's faces, but I used the shallow depth of the field to make the backgrounds as blurry as much as possible so that viewers can concentrate on the subject's faces.

Before I took the photographs, I asked my friend how he is currently doing because I thought it was important to understand him. After all, the concept of this photograph was to express his complete with facial expressions. He said he felt exhausted and tired from his studies. I tried to expressed fatigue by setting the tone of the photograph dark. Also, I tried to express the fatigue through the photograph by darkening it without giving light to his eyes.

When I see the photos of Martic Schoeller, I feel like the subjects are looking at me. I felt like his photographs are reading me inside. I wanted to express it in my photographs, so I told him to starred at the camera, and I think it worked well.

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Haruka Sakaguchi

Haruka Sakaguchi is a Japanese documentary photographer currently residing in New York City. She was born in Osaka, Japan, and immigrated to the US with her parents when she was three months old. Haruka Sakaguchi’s black and white photography is full of life. Whether she’s shooting portraits or documenting her surroundings on travels across the United States and elsewhere, Sakaguchi’s images are powerful and carefully considered.

She uses lots of depth of field skills for her portrait photography. It makes people see the focus point, which is the subject. The pose or facial expression catches viewer’s eyes. Most of her photography works are dark or black and white. All of the models have something to symbolise them (Cigarette, hijab, Tattoos, child, letter). For most of her work, she didn’t use studio and studio lights. She took photos outside or in a home with natural light or use lamplight. But in one of her photography projects called “1945”, she used studio and studio light and black background to make the viewers focus on the subject.

https://www.harukasakaguchi.com/about

https://www.format.com/magazine/galleries/photography/best-black-and-white-photography-portfolios

https://www.harukasakaguchi.com/

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Jack McKain

Specialising in intimate portraiture, Jack McKain is known for his cinematic yet candid photographs of musicians. Whether shooting icons like Common, John Mayer, and Seal, or newer artists such as Sampha, Willow Smith, A$AP Ferg, and Leon Bridges, his focus is directed toward the humanity in his subjects rather than their celebrity status. His work is brimming with raw emotion. In 2015, he designed and published Modern Hieroglyphics, a top-shelf magazine that spotlighted artists from around the globe and sought to illuminate the raison d’être behind their work. In September 2017, he released his first photo book, Clin D’oeil. This marks McKain’s second major artistic project and features intimate portraits of the most promising young names in the music industry – singers, hip-hop artists, producers, DJs, and musical innovators.

From his works, I like how he used different types of light. He used studio lights, and natural sunlight even used street lamp light for his photographs. I think he likes to try different styles in his works because his works are all different. He used mid-shot, full shot, and shooting in a different angle, taking pictures in both landscape and portrait, also he used both black and white style and original colours of the photos. He is not staying in one unique style. He tries different types of styles for portrait photography that fit with the concepts of his subject. That seems interesting to me.

https://www.annenbergphotospace.org/person/jack-mckain/

http://www.jackmckain.com/

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Brian Ingram

Brian Ingram is a famous photographer from Georgia. Moved to the U.S., he spent only four years mastering portrait photography tips and secrets to create lots of incredible works.

Ingram has had several influences on his shooting style in his formative days. “Yousuf Karsh was one of the biggest influences on my work in the beginning,” he recalled. “Other portrait photographers who have influenced me are Dan Winters, Sally Mann, and, to some degree, Irving Penn.” Ingram especially found Karsh’s approach to his subjects inspiring, the way the master portraitist expressed a reverence for them, interacting with them, and bringing them out of their shell. When asked to define his lighting style, Ingram responded: “Simple. That’s the first word that comes to mind. A lot of my portraits are made with one or two lights. They involve one strong key light, often a gridded silver beauty dish or maybe a medium Octa with only the internal baffle attached, and a lot of flagging to shape the light and to control exactly where I want the light to fall, with an emphasis always on highlighting or defining the face.”

His lighting control was interesting. According to research, he didn’t use many studio lights for his work. He makes the best outcome with one or two lights. Also, zoomed in to the subjects to make viewers focus on the facial expression. He used black and white to make viewers more sympathetic. As he explained, his portrait is similar to Yousuf Karsh's photographs. Another thing I like about his works is most of his subjects are direct looking at the camera. It feels like the subject wants to communicate with the viewer, and It seems to increase the immersion in looking at pictures.

https://fixthephoto.com/best-portrait-photographers.html

https://www.shutterbug.com/content/pros-choice-character-studies-brian-ingram%E2%80%99s-pensive-and-powerful-portraits

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Joe McNally

Joe McNally is an internationally acclaimed photographer whose career has spanned 30 years and included assignments in more than 50 countries. American Photo magazine has described Joe as "perhaps the most versatile photojournalist working today" and listed him as one of their 100 Most Important People in Photography. Among his many awards, Joe has been honored as a member of Kodak-PDN Legends Online and was named a Nikon Legend Behind the Lens. In 2010, he was voted one of the 30 most influential photographers of the decade by Photo District News.

I like the concepts of his photos. I think his technical skills are one of the top levels of photographer. He takes pictures from different angles. He used low-angle shots to make the subject bigger and overwhelmed. I like how he decided to choose a background that fits perfectly with the subject. For example, he used a car garage for a welder and used a bar as a background for a musician. He used a strong shallow depth of field for his portrait photography to make the viewer focus on the subject first. Also, Lot's of his works have symbolism or identity. The object helps the viewer to understand what the subject wants to tell.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/expeditions/experts/joe-mcnally/

https://portfolio.joemcnally.com/index/G0000uB0VEgMG_LI

https://www.nikonusa.com/en/learn-and-explore/a/tips-and-techniques/joe-mcnally-shooting-a-portrait-with-speedlights.html

https://blog.joemcnally.com/2015/09/15/go-to-light-shapers/

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Martin Schoeller

Martin Schoeller (German, b. 1968) is one of the world’s preeminent contemporary portrait photographers. He is most known for his extreme-close-up portraits, a series in which familiar faces are treated with the same scrutiny as the unfamous. The stylistic consistency of this work creates a democratic platform for comparison between his subjects, challenging a viewer’s existing notions of celebrity, value, and honesty. 

Schoeller’s stylistic hallmarks include even lighting, standardized cropping, and a medium tonal range. “Like most portrait photographers, I aim to record the instant the subject is not thinking about being photographed,” he explains, “striving to get beyond the practiced facial performance, reaching for something unplanned.”

His works are very strong and direct. I think his portrait photography is standard. He used studio light on his face and removed everything that interrupted the face of the model. Viewers only can see the face. When I see the photos of him, I feel like the subjects are looking at me. He used a shallow depth of fields on subjects' faces so the viewer can focus on the subject's eyes, nose, and lip. 

https://www.martinschoeller.com

http://www.artnet.com/artists/martin-schoeller/

https://www.lensculture.com/mschoeller

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Brendon Stanton

Brandon Stanton (born March 1, 1984) is an American author, photographer, and blogger. He is the author of Humans of New York, a photoblog and book. He was named to Time's "30 Under 30 People Changing The World" list. Since 2010, Stanton has taken hundreds of portraits of people living and working primarily in New York City, accompanied by bits of conversations about their lives. He has also travelled outside of the United States, capturing people and their lives in more than 20 countries, including Iran, Iraq, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ukraine, Vietnam, and Mexico.

One of his famous works 'Humans of New York' was very interesting. He takes portraits of New York people to show differences about each person, and all of them have different individuality. I like how he takes pictures from different places with different people, but all of his photos link with each photo. Also, I like how he used a shallow depth of field to make the viewers focus on the subject's facial expression. I found the difference between his photography with other portrait photography. When I see his works, I can feel he captured the moment of the subject’s daily life, so I think that is why the photos are so friendly. He didn’t use any photography lighting for his photos. He just used daylight as his lighting, and it makes photos more natural and realistic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Stanton#:~:text=Brandon%20Stanton%20

https://www.shutterbug.com/content/brandon-stanton%E2%80%99s-humans-new-york-power-storytelling-documentary-photography

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Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz is a portrait photographer who in 1970 landed a job at Rolling Stone and went on to create a distinctive look for the publication as chief photographer. In 1983, she began working for the entertainment magazine Vanity Fair, continuing to produce images that would be deemed iconic and provocative. Having also worked on high-profile advertising campaigns, Leibovitz's images have been showcased in several books and major exhibitions around the world.

She is best known for her engaging portraits, particularly of celebrities, which often feature subjects in intimate settings and poses. She has a unique style and a great sense for making her portraits dramatic and intimate. 

Throughout her work, I like how she controls the aperture. When she wanted the viewers to focus on the model main, she used a shallow depth of field to make people focus on the model but, when she wanted the viewers to focus on the model with the background she used a large depth of field. Also, I like how she used objects and the environment to symbolise. She’s not only focused on the model's facial expression, She seems to have explained well what the model is like through all the objects and environments in the picture. Her photography is art, I can feel an aura throughout her work. Looking at her works I felt overwhelmed.

https://www.biography.com/artist/annie-leibovitz

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Leibovitz

https://expertphotography.com/portrait-photographers/

https://www.anothermag.com/fashion-beauty/3094/leonardo-dicaprio-with-a-swan

https://www.npg.org.uk/

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Antonin Kratochvil

Antonin Kratochvil is a photojournalist and portrait photographer from Czechoslovakia. His work is unique in that he has photographed everything from celebrities to war victims.

Kratochvil's unique style of photography is the product of personal experience, intimate conditioning, and not privileged voyeurism. Over the years his fluid and unconventional work have been sought by numerous publications stretching across widely differing interests. Kratochvil's ability to see through and into his subjects and show immutable truth has made his pictures not facsimiles but uncensored visions.

Antonin Kratochvil has a very unique portrait style compared with other famous portrait photographers. He takes pictures in the landscape with black and white style. He normally took pictures from outside, so the environments and objects in the background were also interesting. In some of his work, he used slow shutter speed for movement to show the realism of the photos. Most other photographers used a shallow depth of field to make focus on the person, but he used a large depth of field to make the audience know where the models are and what is happening around them.

https://filtergrade.com/best-portrait-photographers-to-inspire-you/

http://www.antoninkratochvil.com/html/

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Lee Jeffries

Born in the United Kingdom, Lee Jeffries lives in Manchester and constantly travels to major Western cities to meet people living in the streets, striving to capture their nobility. This humanist photographer explains that each image is the result of long discussions with each individual, a privileged moment that allows him to establish a connection that is particularly palpable in their gaze. The emotion is in the eyes, explains Lee Jeffries, whose majestic black-and-white portraits enable him to collect funds to assist and bear witness to the difficult living conditions of these isolated individuals.

He has collaborated with renowned French street artist Jef Aerosol - they organised together with the duo exhibition 'Synergy'-- presented in Paris in 2015 and 2016 at a French art studio in London. “Everyone else walks by like the homeless are invisible. I'm stepping through the fear, in the hope that people will realise these people are just like me and you.” His photographs have the gravity and the authenticity that emerges from genuine human connections. Lee Jeffries does know each of his subjects personally – sometimes even sharing their rough sleeping experience to build a real relationship. Through astonishing close-ups, Lee Jeffries expresses this heart-moving intimacy and captures the universal beauty of humanity.

Lee Jeffries's photographs are very strong, and some viewers might be scared. It’s black and white photos, and he zoomed in on the homeless people's faces. All of his subjects make different facial expressions, and that is interesting. I can’t concentrate on the light because he zoomed a lot on the subject's face, and their facial expression is strong and heavy, which makes me only focus on that part. He also used a black or grey wall as a background to not disturbed the facial expression.

https://www.yellowkorner.com/en/j/lee-jeffries/

https://www.artsper.com/us/contemporary-artists/united-kingdom/4371/lee-jeffries