lesson-06.pdf

Professional Portraiture

Those of you who are familiar with how I like to

explain things won’t be surprised when I tell you

that understanding portraiture is pretty simple.

You won’t be surprised I say this because I’m go-

ing to tell you that I can break it down into 5 main

categories. However you may be surprised when

I tell you that this is where the simplicity stops.

A good photographer will utilise all these outside

skills but also combine them with his or her own;

an exemplary knowledge of lighting, locations, com-

position, lenses, equipment and good people skills .

Unfortunately for “real life” portraits the subjects

(especially business portraits) are rather more re-

luctant in having their image captured than a pro-

fessional model. Photographers who work in the

more general commercial and advertising world ind

themselves having to work on a variety of projects

from still life, product photography, lifestyle to tour-

ism and business photography and many of these

areas require you to take pictures of real people

in a real world environment. For portrait and wed-

ding photographers the requirements can be slightly

different in that their subjects actually want to be

photographed but for the most part the information

and advice I impart will apply to these areas too.

The complexity of human nature, human emotion

and the multiple of environments in which portraits

are photographed mean that to obtain an effective,

artistic but true to life portrait of your subject can be a

testing task for even an experienced photographer.

For this article about portraiture I am going to give

a mention to photographs of professional models.

The reason? Photographers like myself use profes-

sional models to make our lives easier. We obtain

impacting images of people (portraits) that reinforce

an advertising message, by using professional mod-

els. The skills and conidence of a good model can-

not be underestimated. A good model will almost

predict, or at the very least work with the photog-

rapher to achieve the goal; making a good image

become an outstanding image. There are some truly

brilliant and innovative fashion photographers out

there who produce stunning images, but there are

also many photographers images that would simply

fall by the wayside without the collection and com-

bined skills of models, make-up, hair stylists, clothes

stylists and the retouchers involved in the project.

Even rather average fashion or advertising images

have become noticeable because a $10,000 a day

team of models, make up artists and stylists brought

a bit of otherwise missing “X” factor to the image.

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So let me break it down into the 5 categories that

I believe are most important for good portraiture

and then I will examine the complexities of each!

Firstly, the one factor I consider most important

is communication , second is the choice of

lens , third the choice of aperture , four the en-

vironment and inally number ive your light-

ing . Master your skills on these 5 with the abil-

ity to combine them at a moments notice and then

you will become an expert in the art of portraiture.

Another common mistake for less experienced pho-

tographers (one which I was also guilty of when

starting out) is succumbing to the pressure of time

constraints. However I soon realised that to take a

good portrait you could not surrender to this pressure

or you will not be able to produce your best image.

Communication

I believe there is nothing more important than

building a good rapport with your subject in a

short space of time. I cannot emphasize how

important it is to calmly place your subject at

ease based on your perception of their char-

acter and using your skills in handling people.

A good job takes a certain amount of time whatever

it is and you are the person who has to decide how

long that will be, not the client. If I am contracted to

take a shot then I will advise the client what will be

involved and give them an estimate of the time I ex-

pect it to take. I will usually try to arrange a site visit

or at the very least get an accurate description of the

location. If my subject is a CEO or other extreme-

ly time constrained individual then I have only two

courses of action that I follow. One; I be offered un-

restricted access to the area where the portrait will

be taken providing me suficient time to set up and

test the shot on my assistant, then be given a mini-

mum of 10 minutes with the subject to complete the

shot. The second course of action, if the irst one is

not an option, is to advise the client that I am unable

to undertake the shoot and ask them to look else-

where. Although many photographers ind the idea

of turning away work uncomfortable I have learnt

over the years that rushing a picture and turning out

a bad result is only going to waste your time, your cli-

ents time, probably result in you not getting paid and

even worse getting a bad reputation. If your client re-

spects your work and your professional advice then

they will usually at the very least accept option one.

In most instances people are afraid of having their

photograph taken. Many subjects have a fear of how

they will be portrayed and view the idea of having

their image displayed to the public as an unfortu-

nate side effect of their business. Insecurities can

often include; weight, wrinkles, hair or simply facial

expression. A photographer who has poor com-

munication skills or is unable to make their sub-

ject feel at ease has already diminished the qual-

ity of the inal result before the shutter button has

even been pushed. Another and often overlooked

factor is the photographers own projection of con-

idence, not just in communication but also in the

way he is setting up his shot and the adjustments

that he or she makes to their lighting. A fumbling

fool will always be perceived as a fumbling fool.

Once you have the time you hoped for with your sub-

ject it is a good idea to start some form of friendly con-

versation that you sense will help put them at ease.

This can be done whilst you are setting up (although

if you have an assistant it is always a good idea to

use them for test shots so that you have more time

available for your subject) and I always recommend

you start a conversation before you point a camera

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in their direction. If you don’t have an assistant then

calmly explain your process of setting up and testing

your shot to your subject and then continue to make

conversation throughout the process explaining that

you have a number of test shots to undertake before

the actual photograph. In most cases this actually

gets your subject used to the camera. Or if you prefer

test the shot on yourself with a tripod and self-timer

irst. If you do not engage your subject I can assure

you it will be ten times harder to capture a good im-

age. You won’t communicate well with all your sub-

jects but when you can your job will become easier.

start to feel more uncomfortable. But if you are too

far away your ability to communicate will diminish.

Choice of Lens

The choice of lens has a dramatic effect on how

your subjects head, face and body will be ren-

dered in the inal photograph. Too long a fo-

cal length and they will look stocky, to low a focal

length and they will look distorted. Your choice of

focal length will also be relative to the environment

that you are placing the subject, the scene that you

wish to capture and whether the subject will be

displayed full length or head and shoulders only.

I ind a good working distance at about 6 - 8 feet

and my choice of lens on a 35mm format (full frame

sensor camera) would be 85mm to 100mm. On

very rare occasions I have used a 50mm or 150mm

because the subject was just not photograph-

ing well on my preferred focal lengths. On my 645

format digital Hasselblad then the lens of choice

is a 150mm which is an incredible portrait lens for

a realistic representation of the subject. I had in

the past used a 200mm lens for this format, only

to ind that most of my subjects looked stocky so

I reserved this lens for people who were too thin!

Aperture

With most portraits it is the upper body or head

and shoulders area that will be photographed and

it is important to consider how a subject perceives

themself. We see ourselves most frequently in

a mirror, at a perceived distance of about 3 to 4

feet away (1.5 – 2ft away from the mirror). Hav-

ing two eyes we are viewing in 3D allowing us to

perceive depth accurately and also enabiling us

to see slightly “around” ourselves. A camera does

not. Photographs are two-dimensional as if view-

ing through one eye, so choosing the right focal

length is important. This will also affect the camera

to subject distance which is also important; if you are

too close to your subject (less than 5 feet) they will

The choice of aperture is linked to the choice of

lens and the format, but essentially the answer is

the same. Purchase a lens with the largest aperture

you can afford. The ability to reduce depth of ield

and blur the background is crucial to most portraits

as is the requirement to sometimes work in the low-

est amount of available light. With a large aperture

lens you can always close the aperture down if you

require more depth of ield but with a smaller ap-

erture lens you do not have the ability to reduce

depth of ield to artistic levels. On my 85mm lens

(for the 35mm full frame format) the maximum ap-

erture is 1.2, on my 645 format camera 150mm

lens the aperture is 3.2. Lenses for larger format

cameras appear to have naturally shallower depth

of ield, this is due to the larger format size com-

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bined with the focal length and the effective cam-

era to subject distance. For my 35mm camera my

1.2, 85mm lens is an exceptional but expensive

ground, usually to the detriment of the message,

the subject and the image. How many times do you

see the businessman photographed badly infront

of the company logo? If you don’t believe the im-

age will work then tell them why, even show them

a version of what they have in mind compared with

what you have in mind. Don’t be afraid to offer your

opinion, after all that is what they are paying you

for. In many instances it is safer to go with some-

thing neutral or not too busy (or at least not to busy

with shallow depth of ield) and often slightly dark-

er than the skin tone so that your subject appears

more prominent; the exception to this is a portrait

on a pure white background which can have a clean

fresh appeal to it. Most of all look for depth try to

piece of glass. If you are restricted on budget then

at the very minimum aim for an 85mm or 100mm

lens with a maximum aperture of 1.8 for portraiture.

Environment

I’ll deine environment as the location where you

place your subject and in most cases it will be your

choice. If as a photographer you choose a poor

location or background or do not point out to the

client that the location they have chosen is not

suitable then it really is only your own fault. When

considering your location think about whether the

background will enhance the subject or distract

ind somewhere with a bit of space so that you can

add a sense of depth to the image and allow you

more lexibility in controlling your depth of ield.

Lighting

from it. Consider if your choice of background is

in keeping with the subject and the message to

be portrayed and if not why have you chosen it?

Often business clients get hung up on including

something to do with their company in the back-

Lighting is a dificult one for me to explain in this arti-

cle as there can be so many variables based on the

location or whether you are skilled in using studio

lighting on location or if you are just working with a

simple on camera lashgun. So I’ll run through this

briely. If you have no lights and you are working

outdoors then a scrim and a relector would be an

advantage. At the very least a collapsible relector is

esential so that you can back light your subject and

then bounce some softer light back on them. A scrim

is useful to soften harsh light but you would need an

assistant to hold it. If you are indoors positioning your

subject alongside a large window is always a good

bet with a large relector on the opposite side to ill in

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light on the shadow side. If you have a lashgun then

don’t ire it straight at your subject as the light will be

too hard. A much better idea would be to aim it at a

nearby white or neutral wall to create a relection of

larger soft side lighting. If you are using studio lights

then you have many options available to you but I

ind as mentioned above that soft side, slightly front

lighting to be the most lattering. Then simply place

a large relector close to the shadow side of the face

keeping a second light free for backlighting your

subject or lighting your background. I always choose

my lighting based on the location and what it has to

offer and what I can turn it into. This may be four stu-

dio lights on location or it may simply be daylight –

theses creative choices only come with experience.

So those are my 5 key areas and you can see that

combined it can be a lot to think about, especially if

you are having to work fast on your feet. One inal

tip I would offer is to position your subject at an an-

gle to camera not front on, that way the shoulder

furthest away can drift slightly out of focus with shal-

low depth of ield and your subject will not look too

wide. The head can be looking at camera or looking

away if you are going for a “reportage” style. Finally

don’t restrict yourself to shooting eye level with your

subject, I ind many people look more lattered when

you have a slightly elevated viewpoint looking down

to your subject with their eyes looking slightly up.

Learn more from Karl Taylor at

http://www.karltaylorphotography.com

www.karltaylorphotography.com

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