Portrait shyness

[Digital]

I have come to the conclusion that photography would best be served if I stuck to landscapes. My portraits are best served for post office walls.




Bruce

[FootLoose]

Enigmatic.

[Shadowman]

Even post office wall portraits have rules so you must have the knack.

[Manfred M]

Bruce - I started to look at portraiture fairly seriously over the past 14 months after "dabbling" with it for many years. I've spend a lot of time and effort over this period, not just behind the camera and in PP. I thought about Henri Cartier-Bresson's famous quote; "Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst". Perhaps that applies to becoming good in a new genre too?

Let me ask you how many landscape images have you made? How many portraits have you shot? I suspect that you will probably find that you have made several orders of magnitude of landscape images than you have of portraits. Is it reasonable to expect your portraiture work to be up to the level of your landscape work?

[pendennis]

Portraiture is probably the toughest genre in which to practice. It requires invasion of a person's privacy, and often because of the close quarters, the fear of the camera and set.

You're asking a person, male or female, to allow in past their defense mechanisms; to virtually touch their souls, and get behind their masks.

That's a tall order, and not just anyone can ever master it. You have to have a bit of psychologist in you, able to read a person's fears and overcome them.

It took me several years, even with what I thought were good results, to learn how to gain a client's real trust, and use their vulnerabilities without violating their trust.

Some folks acquire those skills very quickly, others never do.

One of my best techniques was to have a chat session with the client lasting about five-to-ten minutes; generally just chit-chat to gain trust and relaxation. With women, I'd often take them by the hand, leading them to the posing area. Men generally didn't mind a hand on the elbow. Yes, men are as guarded, sometimes more.

I also worked to keep the client from thinking about the camera and lights; get them to talk to me. Most of the time the lights were preset to distance, and focus was generally zoned to minimize my time in the viewfinder. If they feared the lights, I'd usually have them trip the lights a time or two, to show the technique.

Mostly, you have to work to the individual; techniques must be flexible, and fit the client individually.

The Kodak Professional Portrait books were excellent in providing technical and personal techniques. I'm sure they're still out there in used form.

[rpcrowe]

This Miguel Quiles / Chelsea Northrop video suggests several techniques that are handy when shooting portraits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z58EcVPhFAw&t=95s

I really like the "hand-signal" technique which, IMO, is an unintrusive way to adjust the subject's pose without touching the subject. I also think that this technique would get the subject "onboard" with your posing instructions...

There are several other pointers in this video including the photographer's attitude and communications with the subject!

[Manfred M]

This Miguel Quiles / Chelsea Northrop video suggests several techniques that are handy when shooting portraits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z58EcVPhFAw&t=95s

I really like the "hand-signal" technique which, IMO, is an unintrusive way to adjust the subject's pose without touching the subject. I also think that this technique would get the subject "onboard" with your posing instructions...

There are several other pointers in this video including the photographer's attitude and communications with the subject!

Richard - I watched the video and find that the approach suggested is rather simplistic and one that does not work with all subjects. When I shoot, I find some people respond well to visual cues while others are better when verbal ones are used. Complex motions like the ones shown in the video are probably going to lead to confusion with inexperienced subjects.

That being said, when I shoot in the studio, the model is usually lit by modelling lights, usually with the house lights turned off, so visual cues are hard to pick up, so I will use more verbal direction. Location shoots are a bit different as they can be in noisier environments or in environments where it is easy to disturb others, so verbal cues are much harder to pick up and visual ones are easier to use.

[loosecanon]

My local post office has shut, all we get now is a metre of a shop counter far all transactions.