I would be very interested to hear tricks that other people use to get
good portraits of people. Which is a subtly different problem than
getting a good photo of them, as good photos aren't necessarily the same
as flattering photos. The technical aspects are often the easiest part.
The hardest part is to get someone to feel comfortable in front of the
camera.
Most of the people I photograph insist that they are not photogenic.
The reason for this is simple, almost all of the photos they have of
themselves were taken by some relative or acquaintance shoving a point
and shoot camera in their face and insisting that they smile, right now.
I've found that the advent of digital photography means that I can take
hundreds of frames, and out of that one or two are statistically almost
certain not to have a bad expression on the subject's face.
My process, that seems to work fairly well, is to start off with a
couple of practice sessions. Set them down, adjust the lighting, don't
insist that they smile. Spend a while trying various poses, maybe crack
a joke or two. I then upload the photos into the computer, delete the
bad ones, then let the subject go through and select the ones that she
likes. For many of my subjects, this has been the first time that they
have gotten pictures of themselves that don't suck.
We then shoot another session, with the subject feeling more relaxed in
front of the camera, and having a better idea of what works and what
doesn't. These photos are almost always much better than the first set,
and the subject comes out of that review session even more enthused.
It is important to stress to the subject that they should not spend a
lot of time reviewing photos. If she has any doubts as to whether to
keep a photo or throw it away, keep it, we can toss it later. We don't
want to spend all day reviewing photos.
At the end of the day, I make a pass through the photos that they
selected, choosing the best of those, then let them make a pass through
my selections. Multiple passes by different people does a great job of
selecting only the best shots, especially if each person throws photos
away for different weaknesses (bad smile, bad focus ...).
Another thing that I've found works great is to give my spare camera to
a close friend of the subject, and let the friend take the photos.
Meanwhile, I stand back, using my primary camera, and let the chemistry
of the friendship bring things out that I can't.
In a similar vein, and this is something that would work well for
getting photos of your partners, is what I call a portrait party.
Rather than just taking photos of one person, take portraits of each
person in a group of friends. It turns into a fun, social, afternoon.
They can share and swap outfits, they are having fun with each other,
which comes through on the photos, plus they can help review each others
pictures assuring them that they really do look just fine. Something
that they are less likely to believe from their spouse than from their
friends. The other advantage of portrait parties is that you can share
the setup among several people, plus you can be photographing one person
while another is looking at her photos.
Shortly after we started dating, I used the first technique I mentioned
(take lots of pictures, weeding out the worst) in a session with Zab.
They were taken with an FZ20 using clamp lights, and as technically
cringeworthy they are now:
http://www.red4est.com/lrc/pix/efllrc061226/
At the time they were so much better than any other pictures anyone had
gotten of her that both of her parents had prints made from the set.
Though the set I made last year (four years to the day later)were a lot
better: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellarsee/sets/72157625554834337/
Zab now has no worries about posing for pictures and getting something
she'd like. The problem is that she hates to sit still without at least
a book to read, which makes it difficult to set up the lights.
Anyways, those are my tricks for getting portraits that don't suck. The
biggest trick is to explain the process and make the subject feel
confident enough that she'll like the outcome.
I'm very interested in learning what tricks and techniques other people
use to get good portraits.
--
Larry Colen [email protected] (from dos4est)
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