{"id":3870,"date":"2020-04-11T23:07:44","date_gmt":"2020-04-11T11:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.belindalansleyphotography.co.nz\/?p=3870"},"modified":"2020-04-11T23:07:44","modified_gmt":"2020-04-11T11:07:44","slug":"how-to-take-dark-portraits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/belindalansleyphotography.co.nz\/2020\/04\/11\/how-to-take-dark-portraits\/","title":{"rendered":"How to take Dark Portraits &#8211; A Personal Isolation Project &#8211; Part One"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5>Covid-19 why oh why?<\/h5>\n<p>So there is this whole Covid-19 thing and I had to think how to take dark portraits to represent it. \u00a0New Zealand has the most amazing Prime Minister who has closed down the country very early on to avoid a massive fast spread of this dangerous virus. \u00a0To my age group who are non-smokers and eat fairly healthy and are not immune compromised, the virus is probably going to be mild, however I have a 91 year old grandma who I love dearly and an 82 year old Dad who has had health problems but keeps going.<\/p>\n<h5>A dark project &#8211; how to take dark portraits<\/h5>\n<p>So my family which includes my long suffering husband (he loves tidiness and normality and our creative household is anything but that) and my three children, are in lockdown. \u00a0I decided to make a book. \u00a0This way I will actually do the work. \u00a0I decided 30 days in lockdown should produce 30 portraits of my family, however I&#8217;ve been a little slack and do them in batches rather than one per day. \u00a0So far they portraits have been particularly weird and dark. \u00a0I haven&#8217;t felt great some days. \u00a0Other days I&#8217;ve felt better but the darkness still hangs over from other days.<\/p>\n<h5>Double exposures<\/h5>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been into double exposures for a while now. \u00a0Probably 2 years all up. \u00a0They can produce some very interesting results. These dark portraits are all double exposures. \u00a0One photo of my children or husband, then one photo of some ink drawings I did recently. \u00a0To line up the face with the drawing takes time. Here are some quick steps on how to take dark portraits successfully using double exposures:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>use a zoom lens &#8211; this allows you to zoom in and out on the drawing to make sure it lines up with the eyes or nose or whatever I&#8217;m trying to line up.<\/li>\n<li>Fine some interesting lighting &#8211; I was going for shafts of light coming through the window, often filtered by a tree or in a geometric pattern. \u00a0It&#8217;s amazing what comes through windows. \u00a0Some of the portraits the subject is standing and some they are lying down. \u00a0The exceptionally dark ones the light is filtered through a wood basket. \u00a0Let your mind go crazy and try stuff out.<\/li>\n<li>take your time &#8211; sometimes I take ten minutes or more to line it up.<\/li>\n<li>put the drawing in the middle of a large white piece of paper. \u00a0This allows you to just have the drawing and then white all around, not the line of the paper where it finishes. \u00a0I&#8217;ve learnt this through a few mistakes.<\/li>\n<li>Experiment and go crazy &#8211; nothing is wrong &#8211; only you say it&#8217;s wrong. \u00a0Just do it. \u00a0Go crazy and make huge mistakes which can turn into genius works of art.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h5>An amazing book<\/h5>\n<p>I bought a book called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bispublishers.com\/ink.html\">&#8220;Ink &#8211; Do More Art&#8221; by Bridget Davies<\/a>. \u00a0I LOVE this book. \u00a0It was while I was in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christchurchartgallery.co.nz\">Christchurch Art Gallery<\/a>\u00a0shop one day when I saw it. \u00a0 I wondered who I could buy it for and then realised it was me! \u00a0Then I think got ink and brushes and a pen. \u00a0I can&#8217;t say I&#8217;m the best ink drawer in the world but gee has it been fun. \u00a0After six months though I realised I hadn&#8217;t done nearly as much ink drawing as I wanted to and this project is helping to increase my artworks.<\/p>\n<h5>The portraits<\/h5>\n<p>They are dark, they are moody and some are just darn weird, but this is the way I feel. \u00a0It is weird out there. \u00a0And dark if you let it get to you. \u00a0There is also a lot of light and I can see that. \u00a0I think blog part two will show a more lighter feel &#8211; I&#8217;m noticing nature a lot and I think nature will start to be drawn in ink and be put on the faces of my children and husband. \u00a0Watch this space!<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3890\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.belindalansleyphotography.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/untitled-6782web.jpg?resize=533%2C800\" alt=\"Christchurch photographer photography art arty creative dark portrait portraiture\" width=\"533\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3889\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.belindalansleyphotography.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/untitled-6781web.jpg?resize=533%2C800\" alt=\"Christchurch photographer photography art arty creative dark portrait portraiture\" width=\"533\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3888\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.belindalansleyphotography.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/untitled-6780web.jpg?resize=533%2C800\" alt=\"Christchurch photographer photography art arty creative dark portrait portraiture\" width=\"533\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3887\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.belindalansleyphotography.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/untitled-6187web.jpg?resize=533%2C800\" alt=\"Christchurch photographer photography art arty creative dark portrait portraiture\" width=\"533\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3886\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.belindalansleyphotography.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/untitled-6684web.jpg?resize=577%2C800\" alt=\"Christchurch photographer photography art arty creative dark portrait portraiture\" width=\"577\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3885\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.belindalansleyphotography.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/untitled-6682-Edit-2-Editweb.jpg?resize=533%2C800\" alt=\"Christchurch photographer photography art arty creative dark portrait portraiture\" width=\"533\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3884\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.belindalansleyphotography.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/untitled-6679-Editweb.jpg?resize=533%2C800\" alt=\"Christchurch photographer photography art arty creative dark portrait portraiture\" width=\"533\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3883\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.belindalansleyphotography.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/untitled-6676web.jpg?resize=584%2C800\" alt=\"Christchurch photographer photography art arty creative dark portrait portraiture\" width=\"584\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3882\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.belindalansleyphotography.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/untitled-6188web.jpg?resize=533%2C800\" alt=\"Christchurch photographer photography art arty creative dark portrait portraiture\" width=\"533\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center;\"><\/h5>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.belindalansleyphotography.co.nz\/personalprojects\/\">To see my other personal projects click here!<\/a><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Covid-19 why oh why? So there is this whole Covid-19 thing and I had to think how to take dark portraits to represent it. \u00a0New Zealand has the most amazing Prime Minister who has closed down the country very early on to avoid a massive fast spread of this dangerous virus. \u00a0To my age group [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9,12,14,15,17,20,21,26,31,40,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-black-and-white-photography","category-christchurch","category-creative-photography","category-creativity","category-double-exposures","category-fine-art-child-portraits","category-fine-art-portraiture","category-fujifilm-x-t2","category-lockdown","category-portraits","category-xf18-135mm"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to take Dark Portraits - A Personal Isolation Project - Part One - Belinda Lansley Photography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Belinda teaches you how to take dark portraits. 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