Portraits and people

Learning goal

You will be able to explain why photographing people is considered both the hardest and the most rewarding genre, and recognize the relationship that needs to be built before starting a portrait. You will see that a portrait carries not only the likeness of a face but a person's expression and character; you will tell apart a close portrait from an environmental portrait that shows the person in their own setting; you will try out why preparing the technical settings in advance and giving your attention to the person works; you will make it a habit to ask for consent at the beginning and the end of the shoot; and you will learn not to change a person's skin, freckles or marks without asking how they want to see themselves. At the end of the lesson you will also know which track you can move to in order to go deeper in this genre.

The question

You want to photograph the owner of the old record shop in your neighborhood. He is a man nearing seventy, light-skinned, his face full of freckles and sunspots, his glasses at the tip of his nose. He agrees, but the moment you raise the camera his shoulders go up, his chin pulls back and a forced smile settles on his face. The frame on the screen is sharp, well exposed, neatly framed; but the man you know isn't there.

You lower the camera and ask him about the oldest record in the shop. Twenty minutes later he has taken a record out of one of the shelves and, stroking its sleeve with his fingers, is telling you about the summer he first listened to it. The frame you take again at that moment is completely different. Why is photographing people both the hardest and the most rewarding genre? In this lesson we will talk about what makes the portrait hard and valuable: building a connection.

Context

A landscape or a building doesn't look at the camera. A person does: they notice themselves in front of the lens, think about how they look, sometimes stiffen, sometimes put on a role. The difficulty of the portrait comes from here. The photographer has to manage, at the same time, both the light, sharpness and framing and the comfort and expression of the person in front of them; and expressions often change in a fraction of a second.

The reward comes from the same place. A good portrait keeps the version of a person they want to be remembered as years later; families carry it from generation to generation, and sometimes it becomes the most precious image left of a person. This module opens a door onto each of photography's different genres. Each lesson introduces a genre's basic approach and shows those who want to go deeper in that genre the related specialty track. The first door opens onto the genre most people photograph and most people struggle with.

Simple explanation

What does a portrait capture?

A portrait is a photograph that puts a person at the center; but a good portrait carries more than the likeness of a face. Think of two photos of the same person: in one the face is sharp, the exposure right, but the expression empty; in the other there is a small flaw, maybe a hand is blurred, but in the person's gaze, at the edge of their smile, in their posture, there is something those who know them would immediately call "that's them." Expression is the state of a face that carries its thought or feeling of the moment outward, and it is often the real subject of the portrait.

Portraits can be built from different distances. A close portrait focuses on the face and the expression; the surroundings are either faint or not visible at all. An environmental portrait, on the other hand, shows the person in their own setting, among their work, their home or the things they love; like photographing the record shop owner in front of the shelves and records. The setting says things about the person that the face alone can't say. Which distance to choose is not a rule, but a decision about what you want to tell about that person.

How is a connection built?

Most people feel strange in front of the lens. Trust is a person being able to let themselves go with the photographer and the shoot, and it is usually built before the camera. Talking with the person before the shoot, telling them what you will do and where you will use the photos, and showing them the screen now and then during the shoot grow this trust. Instead of showering them with instructions, giving them a task, asking them to take a record off the shelf or stir their tea, keeps their hands and attention busy and loosens a stiff pose.

This has a technical precondition: preparing the settings in advance. Looking at the light and choosing the spot, setting the exposure and focus mode before the person arrives, lets you keep your attention not on menus but on the person in front of you. A person waiting in front of a photographer fiddling with the camera stiffens a little more every second. That is why many portrait photographers deliberately set aside the first few minutes for warming up; most of those frames aren't used, but they let the person get used to the lens.

Why are consent and skin thought about together?

Consent is a person clearly giving permission for their photo to be taken and for how it will be used. It is asked at the beginning of the shoot, but it isn't asked once and finished: a person who becomes uncomfortable in the middle of the shoot may want to stop, and after the shoot may dislike a frame and want it deleted. When photographing children, the agreement of both the child and their family is needed. Showing a photo to the person before sharing it both renews consent and strengthens trust.

Consent extends to editing the photo too. A person's skin, freckles, scars, vitiligo patches or wrinkles are themselves. Showing dark skin lighter, light skin pinker, or deleting freckles or marks without asking is giving that person a face that isn't theirs. The simplest way is to ask: how do you want to see yourself, is there anything you don't want me to touch? While editing, comparing the skin on the screen with the person's real face in the same light also shows whether the face stays true to them.

Visual evidence

You go to the record shop once more, this time in the late afternoon. You look at the light in advance, choose the spot where the window light beside the display falls on the man's face from the side, and set the exposure and face tracking before he arrives. Before starting the shoot you tell him you want the photos for a neighborhood book, and explain that any frame he doesn't want won't be used. Then you just talk; the camera on your lap.

When the man takes his favorite record off the shelf and puts it on the turntable, his eyes close and his head tilts slightly toward the music. You take that frame: his freckles and sunspots are distinct in the window light, and in the lenses of his glasses is the record's turning label. You also ask the dark-skinned young apprentice arranging the shelves at the back, and when you get their agreement you bring them into the frame too. After the shoot you show the screen to both of them. The man says, "Don't erase my spots, they're me." The apprentice, on the other hand, notices that their face on the screen came out a little lighter than their real skin; while editing, you bring the warm brown of their skin back to the color you compared by looking at their face in the window light.

Common mistakes

Summary

Photographing people is hard because the person opposite notices the lens, their expression changes within seconds, and the photographer has to deal at the same time with both technique and that person's comfort; it is rewarding because a good portrait keeps the version of a person they want to be remembered as years later. A connection is built by talking before the shoot, preparing the settings in advance and giving your attention to the person, giving them a task and showing the screen; consent, on the other hand, is asked at the beginning of the shoot and renewed to the end. Showing a person's skin, freckles and marks while staying true to how they want to see themselves is part of the portrait's respect on every skin.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will photograph a portrait of someone you know, first building a connection.

1. Look at the light and the spot in advance; set the exposure and focus mode before the person arrives.
2. Talk with the person for at least ten minutes before the shoot; tell them what you want the photos for and that frames they don't like will be deleted.
3. Photograph them while they do something they love: cooking something, playing an instrument, leafing through a book; take a close portrait and an environmental portrait.
4. Show them the frames, delete the ones they don't like, and while editing compare the color of their skin with their real face in the same light.

Check yourself

• Is there a difference in expression between the first frames and the frames you took after talking?
• Does the environmental portrait say something about the person that the close portrait doesn't?
• In the portrait you edited, do the person's skin, freckles and marks stand as they know themselves, whether light or dark?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. What is usually the real subject of a portrait?

• A) The camera's resolution
• B) The blur of the background
• C) The person's expression and character
• D) The lens's brand

2. What is a portrait that shows the person in their own setting, among their work, called?

• A) An environmental portrait
• B) A close portrait
• C) A bird's-eye view
• D) A silhouette

3. Why does preparing the settings before the person arrives work?

• A) It shrinks the file size
• B) It saves the battery
• C) It makes consent unnecessary
• D) It moves your attention from the menus to the person and keeps them from stiffening while they wait

4. While editing, you notice that a dark-skinned person's face came out lighter than their real skin. What should you do?

• A) Leave it as it is
• B) Compare the skin with the real face in the same light, bring it back to its own color, and ask the person
• C) Turn the photo black and white
• D) Lighten the skin even more

Answers

1. C — A good portrait carries expression and character beyond likeness.
2. A — An environmental portrait makes the setting part of the person's story.
3. D — A person waiting in front of a photographer fiddling with the camera stiffens.
4. B — Staying true to the person's skin is part of the portrait's respect.

Summary card

• A portrait is more than likeness: expression and character.
• A close portrait looks at the face, an environmental portrait at the person and their setting.
• Connection before the camera: talk, give a task, show the screen.
• Prepare the settings in advance; let your attention stay on the person.
• Consent from start to finish; don't change skin, freckles or marks without asking.

Bridge to the next lesson

If you want to go deeper in portraits, Track R1 · Portraits and People takes you through fourteen lessons, from the portrait lens to communicating with the model, from posing to the eyes and window light. The next door in the reading order, on the other hand, opens away from people, onto open land. A landscape you see from a hill feels breathtaking, but when you get home the photo looks like a flat, ordinary postcard. What saves a landscape photo from being a postcard? The next lesson talks about landscape, the foreground, light and patience.