More Portrait Techniques

More Portrait Techniques

by William Lulow

I have often written about portraits and what makes them a special part of photography. But, I keep coming back to the notion that a portrait is as much a statement about the photographer as it is an image of the subject. It is the photographer who is asked to make an image of someone. It is the photographer who decides what kind of image it will be. It is the photographer who chooses the lighting and the background. So, even though he or she is not actually in the picture, it is very much his or her image. It reveals as much about the photographer in the choices made on how the photograph will look as it does about the subject.

It is also about the special relationship that exists between the photographer and subject during the portrait sitting. For the time of the shoot, however brief, both photographer and subject find out a little about each other. It’s important that the photographer engage the subject in some meaningful conversation. This should really be focused on the subject more than the photographer. But a useful technique to get the subject to relax more could be having the photographer talk a bit about him or herself as well.  Sometimes, I even talk about what I’m doing technically as a means of engaging the subject. It’s a bit like having a doctor describe a procedure. It doesn’t have to be in complete technical jargon, but just enough to try to put the subject at ease. You definitely want to aim for a kind of “give and take.”

Obviously, the more technique you master, the easier it is to execute. If you are constantly worried about exposure, focus, lighting or anything else, the less you will be able to concentrate on communicating with your subject. The portrait photographer should have complete control of all elements and yet be ready for unexpected expressions, moments or reactions all at the same time.

I have learned a technique for engaging subjects from a writer friend of mine. During the course of an interview, she would sometimes pretend to be dropping things or be distracted in some way in an effort to elicit sympathy from the interviewee. In reality, she used this technique in order to garner some feeling of friendship from her subjects. When working on articles for a local newspaper, I was amazed at how much attention she paid to things she saw. I was the photographer on the job, and yet this writer often saw more things than I did.

I have tried to use this technique when I thought it was appropriate, and have gotten some great results.

As I mentioned in the last BLOG piece, the effect of a portrait on the viewer is determined by many factors like camera angle and lighting. Here are some lightings meant to deal with various human face types.

If you are dealing with a round, full face, try a “skinny lighting.” Here is an example:

This is called a “narrow light” or “thin lighting.” Notice that shadow covers a great deal of the face only highlighting a “thin” portion. The shadow here is intentional so that you can see the effect. In an actual portrait, there would be some fill-in light on the left side here. But the effect is to give the face a narrow look by keeping the largest part of it dark.

Remember: light colors tend to stand out, darker ones are less noticeable.

Conversely, if you are dealing with a narrow face to begin with, you might want to try a “broad lighting.”

Here, the smaller portion of the face is in shadow while the “broad” part of the face is the highlight. This gives the face a broader look. 

This is the same person but look how different they appear.

Also, if there are any prominent scars or blemishes on someone’s face, you can always try to hide them in the shadows (or retouch them out). You can do the same with a person’s “lazy eye.” Just make sure it’s in shadow. With all this said, it has become far easier to retouch portraits than ever before, thanks to Photoshop. Just make sure you follow the retouching rules I laid out in an earlier blog piece.