The Portrait | mslearmonth

What is a Portrait?

And what is the difference between a picture and a portrait?

Is a 'selfie" a portrait?

Is one person - or a group of people - considered a portrait?

What about a painting?

Or a piece of sculpture?

Can animals have portraits done?

Does it matter what status you have?

And has portraiture changed over time?

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From the Oxford English Dictionary:

Portraiture has historically been understood as: “a painting, drawing, photograph, or engraving of a person, especially one depicting only the face or head and shoulders.”

There are other forms of portraits, such as group portraits, portraits of couples and families as well as self-portraits, but we’ll be focusing on the individual portrait, which has historically been implied by just saying “portrait.”

Historically, only dieties or those with high status and money could have portraits done.

And portraits changed over time from stylized realistic, to very realistic, to abstract. Do any of these styles have advantages the other styles do not?

Is there a difference between a self portrait and other types of portraits?

Who are the 'royalty' or 'dieties' of today? Who today has large portraits all over their walls, on their clothing, or in the public eye?

Do we photograph our portraits differently today than in other times?

Are we any more artistic than historically?

What can we do with our technology that could not be done before?

Are 'selfies' really new?

Portrait Assignment:

For your new portrait assignment, think about fashion photography, as well as historic, contemporary, documentary and abstract portrait photography. Research some artists of each genre.

What are your favorite types of portraits? Are they individual portraits? Groups? Selfies? Animals? Do they contain artistic or historic elements? Typography?

Who can you photograph that is the 'royalty' of your peers? How can you make a self portrait stand out from something you take on your cell phone? Can you think about lighting and posing? Can you do a selfie in the studio? What makes a good fashion or documentary portrait?

What can YOU do with our technology and cameras that would tell a story about you or someone else? Think about if you were a professional photographer. What would you want to do to show off your client in their best light? Think about color psychology as well. What can you tell about a person by how they are clothed or lit? Bonus marks if you can make me believe the same person is someone else in each photo by use of make-up, clothing choice, posing, lighting, lens choice, etc.

Criteria:

Do 5 different portrait styles that show a variety of:
close-up vs. full body shots
different angles and viewpoints
different lense choices
different aperture choices
color vs. black and white
different feelings, mood, story telling
formal vs. informal portraiture
different 'class', rank or social status
at least one in studio and one 'on location' - variety of location choices
exposed properly
portrait has impact through use of color, line, composition choices, angle, etc.
has been edited, cropped and added to template
reflection shows insight into what was learned in taking different styles of portraiture and what insight into the human condition we may take from looking at how we the photographer, decide to shoot different types of people and how the viewer reacts to different viewpoints and other elements, such as formality or cropping choices.

Information, Research and Resources:

A few things to consider when taking portraits:

A. You really need to think about lens choice.

For instance, wide angle lenses distort and widen people. Standard lenses for shooting people are 80 to 400 mm. However, this can change, depending on where in the frame you position the subject. Also, this can be used to your advantage if you want to create a different mood or feeling than expected.

B. The closer you are to the lens, the more distorted your face will appear.
For example, when you take a selfie at arm’s-length with a smartphone, since most cameras have a wider lens than we would use for portraits, you end up with a slight fisheye effect, which widens the face.

Also, when cameras take photos, they separate the foreground, middle ground, and background very differently than human eyes do. This exaggerates the depth difference between parts of your face, making them look disproportionate. Your nose can appear significantly larger and rounder, relative to the rest of your face, while your ears can look much smaller. The rest of your face tends to look slightly rounded off and less structured, with minor asymmetries exaggerated.

This also is true for the rest of your body.

Depending on someone’s actual features, lens distortion can work for, or against them. This is why some people look significantly more attractive, or significantly less attractive in photos. Also, this is part of the reason people say that the camera 'adds pounds.' The less 'structured' someone looks, the more body fat they are perceived to have.

C. Lighting matters.

Research different lighting styles. Think about why Hollywood used a certain type of lighting so often that it is now known as 'Hollywood lighting." Think about whether you want to highlight texture or not. Why are you using the lighting you are using?

D. So does posing.

See me for more information on this. Whether or not you use 'traditional' posing styles or not, you need to pay attention to how you pose your subject. Also think about whether they are comfortable and whether that shows. Or not. Is that what you had planned?

Videos that can help:

Video Insight into artistic choice:

A photograph is shaped more by the person behind the camera than by what's in front of it. To prove this we invited six photographers to a portrait session with a twist. ‘Decoy’ is one of six experiments from The Lab, designed to shift creative thinking behind the lens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-TyPfYMDK8

Videos about what clients need... how do you fulfill an impossible image?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxq9A_IJMjI

Change your lens, Change your story:

Join journalist Lisa Wilkinson, and adventure photographer Krystle Wright, Canon Master, as they explore how our landscape, portrait and sports lenses add a creative new angle to their photography - in our latest 'Eye versus Eye' lens challenge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVmVfDuw57E

Shooting in natural light:

Many factors go into creating a good portrait image: depth of field, sharpness, suitable lighting, but most importantly emotion. In this tutorial Steve Huddy, from the Canon Collective, shows you how to get them right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bts4CGbm7Q0

Shooting children's portraits and other information:

Learn how to shoot great portraits in this photographer tutorial. Graham Monro, EOS Master and Professional Commercial Photographer, talks about his tips on taking portraits and the gear he uses such as the Canon 5D Mark II.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_vsd5Lvzao

Ideas of artists to research:

Here are just a few artists of each genre to look into:

Fashion Photography:

Helmut Newton Annie Leibovitz Steven Meisel Richard Avedon

Louise Dahl-Wolfe Irving Penn Inez & Vinoodh

Photojournalistic/Documentary/Street Photography:

Henri Cartier-Bresson Dorothea Lange Diane Arbus Yousuf Karsh

Steve McCurry Stephanie Sinclair Edward Burtynsky Mike Brodie

Kitra Cahana

How to pose a Portrait: The Portrait Photographers Guide:
By Bill Hurter
http://soul-foto.ru/photo_books/Bill%20Hurter.%20The%20Portrait%20Photographers%20Guide%20to%20Posing.%202nd%20edition.%202012.pdfLinkhttp://www.techradar.com/how-to/photography-video-capture/cameras/54-portrait-ideas-free-downloadable-posing-guide-1320788

Reference
A Glossary of Digital Photography Terms
Web Site: B&H Photo
Link
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/buying-guide/glossary-digital-photography-terms

Reference
12 Colours and the emotions they evoke
Web Site: Creative Blog
Linkhttp://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/12-colours-and-emotions-they-evoke-61515112

Reference
Poll: Selfies Now Make Up 30% of All Photos Taken by Young People Web Site
Relevant magazine
Link
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/slices/poll-selfies-now-make-30-all-photos-taken-young-people