The Complete Portrait – Revisited

Note: I published this article about six months ago but its importance deserves to be restated. I like to refer to it as a primer on doing great portraits and headshots every time. There’s a lot more to doing really quality portraits than just making sure your lighting and exposures are correct.

The Complete Portrait

by William Lulow

Imagine a cover shoot for a major magazine. There are usually any number of people all working to make the shoot as professional as possible. There is an art director, an editor, one or two photographic assistants, a clothing stylist, a hair stylist and a makeup stylist, in addition to other people from the magazine who may just be curious about what goes into a major photo shoot.

Although this kind of thing doesn’t happen every day in every main street portrait studio, it’s important to note that when there is some attention to detail, some styling and, more importantly, a concept behind the shoot itself, the results are usually way above what might normally be expected. Many people think that if they need a portrait or a headshot for business or even personal use, all they have to do is to come to the photographer’s studio and pose. Well, it never is quite as simple as that if you want superb results. I always recommend hair and makeup styling whenever I think it might be appropriate. Sometimes, even with men, that’s the case. But most of the time, women will benefit from styling a bit more.

But there is another reason to hire a stylist. The preparation stage gets quite a bit of attention and that serves to involve the subject much more in the process itself. It is literally an investment in time and money and always yields impressive results. Here is one example from a shoo I did a couple of years ago:

Now the “before” shot is just a snap, but you can see how the makeup, hair, and lighting all play a part in the creation of a top notch image. The makeup and hair part of this shoot took the better part of an hour. The shoot itself, took maybe 45 minutes. Here’s what that looked like in my apartment/studio:

                                                                 (Photos: Courtesy of Jill Harth)

Here I’m using my large, portrait umbrella with a fill-in softbox, a background light and an accent light in the back. Once the hair and makeup styling is done, the subject often feels more a part of the whole process and it shows in the images. It is what I like to call a “complete portrait” because all the players are on the same page in trying to make the subject look and feel great! If someone feels good about themselves, it will show in the photographs. So, all the prep work, plus some degree of coddling along the way, making the subject feel comfortable and “part of the process,” adds to them feeling good about the whole thing. That’s the effect we, as photographers and especially portrait photographers want. We want our subjects to feel good while being photographed. For many, it’s not easy looking at themselves in photographs. Some are uncomfortable being the center of attention. Others love it. But even for those who don’t, it always makes them feel better about the final images. Here’s another from the above shoot:

I have often said that you can tell how a person is feeling about their photographs by looking at their eyes. Expressions are always in the eyes. You can smile for a photograph, but if you are not feeling good, it will show in your eyes. Look at how the subject’s eyes in this photo seem to radiate her confidence, even though she is not smiling! That’s what photographers should be seeking in their results. For me, the “complete portrait” always involves some “patter” on my part. I try to engage the subject in some kind of conversation to keep them involved in the process. All the while, I am mindful always to be ready to shoot. Often, the best expressions are caught when the subject least expects it.

My particular technique also involves the client/subject in the editing process. After I think we have enough images to edit, I bring the subject to my office and put the images up on the computer screen. Usually using Adobe Bridge, we go through each and every image and begin weeding out the ones that obviously don’t work. They could include blinks, bad expressions, too much of a laugh or other little blemishes that might be interesting, but do not contribute to what we want. I use Adobe Lightroom as well, but I find Bridge is a little easier to use because I can blow up the image to the size of the full screen with just a tap of the space bar, and make selections by hitting just one number key. Then, when it comes time for some retouching and other edits, one click brings the image into Photoshop. So, the post-processing is really streamlined and usually works quickly:

                                                    (Photo courtesy of Jill Harth)

This way, when the client leaves the studio, he/she is given a flash drive of everything we shoot, one 8×10 print of their choice plus five or six images that are retouched, sized and edited so that they can be uploaded by the client right away. I include the print as part of the price of the shoot because these days, if you are going to give the client all the images, they can always get prints made on their own. So, I have always included them because I have photographed digitally since about 2001. Some portrait studios charge a nominal fee for the shoot then get exorbitant prices for prints. I don’t do that because my business model is built on commercial accounts which mostly require me to submit unedited images of the whole shoot. I have just gotten used to doing it that way. So, I charge enough to make up for the print costs.

That’s my take on what I call “The Complete Portrait.” As long as the images are well thought out, you should have a successful shoot every time.