Portrait Photography

This week's post will be about portraiture. Candid, posed, whatever you decide. A portrait does not simply need to be a person's face, awkwardly smiling into the camera. Make it whatever you want; change it up. Here's a link to some basics of a portrait shoot.

A portrait should say something about the subject. Time for a little quiz! (Stop your groaning, I can hear you.) Look at the three above images. Can you guess a characteristic about each of these girls? I'll help you out. Image one: Asian American, likes to read, and really enjoys art, especially things pertaining to her culture, as displayed in the pictures in the background. Image two: this girl plays hockey, is a good student. and is one of my good friends. ISN'T SHE PRETTY? Third image: she is from Canada, loves her friends and family, as shown in the pictures on the wall.

Play with lighting! It can honestly make or break an image. If it works right, it will look LEGEN-wait for it-DARY (You better get this reference, if not, we can't be friends anymore). Shadows at night are a ton of fun. Also, it can still be considered a portrait, even if you can't see the face (Example - top left picture). 

Candids are a fun way to surprise your friends and then they thank you later because the picture came out really good and they end up using your picture as a new profile picture. Go ahead, pat yourself on the back for it. Anyways.... just keep snapping that shutter, one of 'em is bound to be good, right? Here are some of my winners:

 And now for the scariest of all portraits: THE SELF-PORTRAIT. And no, I'm not talking about selfies in the mirror or using Snapchat on your smart phone. I am talking about thinking about an image, and all the components of it, and then hitting the shutter. 

Below will be my self-portraits. Please do not be heartless. I get scared enough putting up my regular images on the web, and now here I am, showing you how I perceive myself. Remember, portraits tell you something about a person. I'm letting you into my life, take me as I am. 

Look at the emotion, the eyes, the smile. Do you feel something when you look at these images? I hope so. Black and white to intense colors. Happy to sad, action to still. Taking pictures of yourself makes you vulnerable to other people's opinions? What do you think?

Recap for today!

Tips for portrait photography:

• Capture some sort of emotion, even if you can't see the face in the frame.
• Try to make it your goal to understand a little bit about the person from the image. What did you learn about the person?
• Remember that the face doesn't even need to be seen. Sometimes, it works to your advantage and adds a bit of mystery to the image.
• Don't be afraid to mess around with lighting. I think I say this all the time, but it's so true. Try to shoot outside as much as possible; the lighting is so much better and you get to use a lower ISO. If you read last week's post, you'll remember that the lower the ISO, the less grainy your picture will look.
• Candids aren't planned; they just happen. And I think that's the best part about them. People look surprisingly pretty when they aren't aware there's a camera focused on them. There's no fake smile, no pretend poses; it's just natural.
• For self-portraits, don't be afraid to really show emotion. I'm crying in one of them for goodness sake! 
• Admit it, no one can take a good picture every time they are photographed, except for him...
• So just take a ton of pictures without looking at any of them in between shots, and then cross your fingers and hope that one of them is good! Don't be afraid of looking ugly. Express yourself. Show a part of your life through the image.
• And like I say every week: HAVE FUN! Seriously, do it. Otherwise, what's the point?