Portrait photography

PORTRAITS FROM CONCEPT TO REALITY

(with apologises to some Comments taken from a Master class by Lord Snowden).

Portrait can sound too pompous, can I take your picture sounds too naff, can I take your image, sounds too personal. There is nothing magical about taking photographs of people. The most important thing is for the photographer, who really is unimportant, to be first of all inquisitive, and secondly to be totally involved, having done as much research on the subject a possible.

The secret of a great picture lies in understanding the person you are photographing. You are more likely to get something interesting if you find out a little about the person beforehand. And besides, it’s more flattering for whom you are photographing.

It’s good to be nervous. If you stop being anxious and start being too familiar with the subject, you’ve lost something. You need the adrenaline to keep your brain ticking over.

Technique should be intuitive. It comes with practice and that is the secret - to keep taking pictures. Enthusiasm is infectious, and can often reward you with a smile or an expression from the most isolated of figures.

But smiles aren’t everything. You set the tone of a photograph according to the mood of the subject. Photographing a person is an extremely intimate affair. You must light that person according to how you feel about them. If they are serious, perhaps one light from above will do, with hard shadows falling across the face. Watch for the nose though, there’s always a shadow present under the nostrils, often requiring just a small reflector to bounce light back into the dark areas.

Light s and camera are things that get in the way. They stop you from communicating with your subject.You don’t need lots of lights; daylight is fine. I often use of available light, preferring to use large white sheets of polystyrene to control and model the light. You don’t need expensive, purpose-built reflectors either, even though they are every good. In reality, a simple white hanky will do the job if you hold it close enough.

Don’t always go out of your way to relax people. Sometimes pictures of people work best if they are on edge. If somebody’s too relaxed, you lose control.

Look for mannerisms. They are the key to a person character. If you can establish a rapport and make that person feel at home in your company, they my reveal something intrinsic to their character. Then you are halfway to taking a good picture. The rest is luck.

And when you have finished taking your picture, always say thank you. Politeness is the key to a successful picture.