Beyond Phototips

Photo: TopGun2000What makes the most powerful portraits powerful? What makes them stand out and look you in the face? Why do you feel like the person is looking at you, with meaning?

Possibly because they looked at the photographer, through the lens.

When you’re taking portraits, the most difficult thing to do, and the most important, is to get a great connection between you and the sitter.

After all, your intention is to convey the personality of the person in front of the lens. How do you do this? They’re usually pre-occupied with the makeup, their hair, their clothes… whether you’re going to show them as they are, or going to show them as they don’t want to be shown… How do you get them to get out of their shell, so that you can get “The Shot”?

WHEN DO YOU GET ‘THE SHOT’?

When your sitter looks at you… Not at the camera, not at the lens, not at a black something… When the sitter looks at you; through the lens! Then you’ve got it. That’s when your connection with the sitter comes through… Through the lens, to the photograph. It gives them life, it gives them personality, it makes the photograph real.

HOW DO YOU DO THAT?

Keep it real. Keep that inter-personal connection real. Make it last. If you don’t care, its apparent that you don’t really care about your work; they’re not going to either.

Get the technique out of the way. If you’re constantly fiddling with the lights, or your camera, your sitter is constantly reminded of the unnatural situation that they’re in… In front of the lights, or in front of a camera. It only helps them get more nervous. Get your technique worked out in the days before the shoot, and you’ll be able to focus more on that connection!

Make them laugh. Laughter helps create a bond, especially when the time in which to create that bond and bring out those really interesting expressions is very limited. Keep your session light hearted, and you’re likely to gain their trust; and get that photograph.

Take a lot of photographs. If you take only a few photographs, its likely that each of those photographs is going to become an “event”, bringing your sitter’s focus back to the camera, and not to you. When you become the “event” then the sitter is more likely to look at you. Not the camera, not the lens… you can take a cue from the previous tip.

Photo: Simon Pais-ThomasLet them loosen up. Usually, the best shots from a session happen towards the end. Unless the sitter is a professional model, its always difficult to open up and be themselves. Being in front of the camera is difficult if you’re not experienced. Get the sitter to talk, chat, tell a few jokes, let them loosen up and lose that rigidity!

Let it go… Some people just don’t like to be photographed. They may have come to you for a portrait, or for a commercial shoot, but sometimes, they just don’t have what it takes to be themselves in front of the lens. This is usually where the photographer’s people skills and experience comes in to play, but sometimes, you just cant get a photograph with real connect, because they’re not connected! So let it go.

This post was inspired from an interview with British Celebrity photographer Rankin (some of it NSFW) do head over to his website to read the full interview and see his brilliant work.

Here are some links to some beautiful portraits with connect.

Here are a couple more links to get you started off on your portrait photography!

• A collection of Portrait tips from DPS
• 5 Technical tips for better Portraits
• Top Five Tips For Better Portraits
• The portrait photographer’s motivation

I hope that this gets you started off on some really interesting portraits. We’d love to hear from you if you have some more ideas… Do mail me, or leave a comment.

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Cities provide us with a wonderful resource in juxtaposed objects. Magnificently textured drain covers from a different era next to a modern paving and street markings, an ultra-modern skyscraper freshly sculpted out of the earth, yet forever posed against the immortal sky… they’re all there for the taking.

This project intends to test your skill at seeing these juxtapositions, to fashion shapes that have meaning to us in language, out of shapes (objects) that are intended for other purposes. You could also do variations of this, and create an urban alphabet out of interesting lettering that you see around you in the city.

For this project, you will have to look at lines, outlines, textures, parts of objects, and techniques that you can use with your camera (such as using depth of field) to take shapes that are not quite what you want, and re-shape them into the english alphabet.

Try to find a diverse range of things to work with. Try macro, landscape, square crops, diagonal frames, whatever it takes… The idea is to see everyday objects in a new light.

You can find more such projects at the Photo Project home page.

Pic: maloupictures

by Charlietyack

Photography is all about light. How you see it, how it affects a scene, and how that affects the person viewing the photograph. The dark black & white photograph taken with fast film, with its characteristic grainy ‘texture’ will always draw people to it…

Lets take a peek into what equipment you’ll need and what you can do with it…

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Great Photography is more about the photographer than the equipment. The equipment is just the tool. As with any trade, its the craftsman who makes the final product, not the tool. The same applies to photography.

With the Photo Projects series, we’re hoping to help you take more photographs in different styles, for different purposes so that you’re well practiced when its crunch time.

Keep checking back at this page or subscribe to our RSS feed, and you’ll be updated as we keep adding the projects.

Photo Project: Photo Stories
Photo Project: Environmental Portraits
Photo Project: Low light photography
Photo Project: The Urban Alphabet

Portraits
Portraits try to evoke an understanding between the viewer and the person being photographed. Or at least that’s what the photographer is trying to do most of the time. Other times, he’s just trying to make the subject pretty, but that’s a different kind of portraiture…

When you look at a portrait (taken in the first school of thought,) you wonder what the person in the photograph is like in character… are they serious, jovial, nutty or geeky? Apart from their usual outlook, what other emotions are they likely to face on a daily basis? These are the questions that a strong portrait makes people think about; and hopefully find answers to.

Environmental Portraits

by Katrijn Michiels

Now, Environmental Portraits introduce an exciting factor into portrait photography. You guessed it, you dawg, it introduces the viewer to the subject’s (sitter) environment. Big words? Ok. Its a picture of a person in a place that has some connection with whom they are and what they do… So, instead of just the person being the subject of the photograph, elements of the surrounding area become part of that subject too.

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Back to school, Baby! We’re doing essays!

photo by arndalarm

Don’t you remember how you hated doing essays in school? First you had to come up with a topic, or you’d be assigned one, then you’d have to research the essay, make notes and finally write the essay! Oh, the piles of books that would have to be read and sometimes referenced! and do you remember the library? [sigh] I mean, want to forget the library?

Well, now here’s a chance to get back at the establishment!

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