Personality & Portraiture

Personality & Portraiture

by William Lulow

It’s an interesting phenomenon, but not uncommon. Every photographer’s portrait style is really indicative of his or her personality! People who are serious minded, make more serious portraits than people who are not. Many famous portrait photographers have photographed the same celebrities. Why is each portrait different? It’s because each artist approaches the same subject differently. I have often said that a portrait is just as much about the photographer as it is about the subject. So, the trick is to try to get a handle on what your specific personality traits are and try to make use of them whenever you do a portrait. My style tends to be more toward the serious. I’m interested in finding out enough about my subjects in order to make a serious and definitive portrait of them. I’m always looking for that one expression that will reveal the interaction between me and my subject.

One image I have used to demonstrate this is the following shot of my granddaughter, Haylie:

If you look at her expression here, she is obviously reacting to me as her “Poppy.” The expression is in her eyes and tells it all.

I have pointed to this portrait of the late author, Ira Levin as another example of an interaction caught by the camera:

This image was for his book “The Boys From Brazil.” I knew he had written “Rosemary’s Baby” and that he had somewhat of a macabre sense of things about him. I also found out from his publisher, that he liked a certain kind of wine. I made sure to have a couple of bottles on hand when he came to the studio. We managed to drink both of them during the shoot. I was amazed that I was able to operate the camera, because this image was taken with my 4×5″ view camera! I think I was able to make around 30 exposures overall. We had a great time and I caught a great and revealing expression. But, that’s what it’s all about!

Many portraits and headshots are successful if they catch a great expression or one that is somehow indicative of a bit of the subject’s personality. And, normally, as portrait photographers, we don’t always have a lot of time to do this. So, the technique has got to include being able to make a quick enough impression on your subject so as to facilitate a certain “ease” right from the start. You need to be able to shoot almost as soon as the person walks in the studio door and, at the same time, be able to engage your subject in meaningful conversation to establish some sort of bond almost immediately. Every photographer does this differently, but every photographer has to do it.

Good portrait photographers can achieve this by knowing their lighting, equipment, cameras, lenses and how to use each optimally.