What Is Portrait Photography?

 Portrait photography also called portraiture is the capture of the likeness of a person or a small group in which the facial expression is predominant. The goal is to capture the likeness, personality and even the mood of the subject.

When taking portraiture the rule of thumb here is to have your subject in full focus and the background out of focus since you want the emphasis to be on the person rather than the location; and you don’t want distracting elements in the frame. You might choose a particular background based on how it might look blurred, but the emphasis will always be on the subject.

With a group shot you usually want to keep everything sharp. You also want to pay attention to the type and amount of light around. You control the amount of light striking your subject by manoeuvring them and changing their position in relationship to yours, being able to choose the angle at which light strikes your subject is what allows you more control over the final result.

It is this requirement for control over lighting that has bought Studio Portrait Photography into its own. Here using the increasingly sophisticated cameras and lighting equipment available, the imaginative photographer can experiment to their hearts content.

Focus in portraiture is the Eyes, with the camera at eye-level and if not, ensuring the eyes is still looking into the camera. The aim is to enhance and highlight the positives in the facial features while playing-down the negatives. A full portrait is where the whole body is also included in the focus and, photographers have responded by coming up with props to enhance the other areas of the body. These includes things like chairs, stands and beds, to name a few.

The camera and lighting equipment available, for example the use of different coloured backlights coupled, with the props; in which you are only limited by your imagination, has allowed photographer to be as expressive as they choose in generating, or accentuating subjects based on their artistic interpretation of the subject’s feature.

Sophisticated lighting has made Studio Portrait Photography an artform and photographers are now able to use the finer control they have over lighting to try and engage audience by presenting their own unique artistic interpretation of the subject and thereby generate emotions in their audience.

To be a portrait photographer you have to have very good communication skills, you have to be able to project confidence, assurance and relaxation so as to make your subject/s feel relaxed, comfortable and safe enough to be vulnerable or let down their guards. Telling funny jokes during multiple camera capture is a very good way of getting natural looking shots. For the family portrait photographer, more emphasis is in dealing with kids, while a pet portrait photographer must love animals.

Tips

Prepare; where are you going to do the shoot, indoors or out door. Outdoors; what will the light be like at that time of the day? What will the weather be like, do you need to reserve an indoor location? What to do to ensure there is enough lighting. Scout the area, which background do you want to use? Indoors; what kind of lights do you have available? do you need batteries or is electricity assured. Which equipment; cameras, batteries, lens, memory card. You can either use prime or zoom lens with large aperture; the best is from f/1.8, because it is this wide aperture that allows the shallow depth of field (bokeh) that is so prized in portrait photography.

Nero Benga is a photography enthusiast with over five years experience teaching people how to take good photographs. He lives at the airport.