Portraits

Jul

2021

Photographing Men

I find there is quite a difference photographing men to photographing portraits of women. The way I shoot and approach my subjects anyway. Perhaps I’ve changed over the years and become a bit seasoned with age. Don’t know for sure.

Posing, editing, lighting, all these I do a little differently. It has been said that one should first learn the rules extremely well, and only then one can or should be able, if one wants, to break them.[read more]

Shoot one style to the point there is no ‘thinking’ involved. Then test the boundaries.

It all goes back to what the photo, or you and the model, are communicating. For example, having the shoulders of the model square on to the camera is normally a pose for a man or boy. Women often, one might pose with one shoulder back and the other forward. One pose is more aggressive than the other. One might be interpreted to invite you in whereas the other might be telling you to piss off.

One of the aspects of photographing men I’ve come to like is being able to play more with textures and contrasts in the editing. Generally, it is frowned upon to show a woman’s ‘flaws’. Again, it’s all about how and what you are trying to communicate. A bit of what is accepted and what people want to view.

That said, check out these few photos of Jordan. He should likely be modelling but that’s up to him. [/read]

Jan

2021

Self Portraits

Dec

2020

Warrior Women

I’ve been taking photos for years. I always kinda wanted to learn Photoshop but I’m quite competent with Lightroom and have made do pretty well with that. I could always find a way to do most of what I needed with Lightroom. And silly as it sounds I always had difficulty understanding ‘layers’. Fairly recently, having the need or desire to actually change a background and do a couple of other things that I couldn’t do well with Lightroom, I figured it out.

I was searching videos on how to emulate Sean Archer’s techniques. I didn’t necessarily want to take the same photos but there were a few things that I liked about his photos, one being how he installed his backgrounds. On Youtube, I came across Irene Rudnyk. One simple video of hers helped everything fall into place. I’m by no means an expert yet, ‘the devil is in the details’ and I need a lot of practice with those details but here are a few photos that where I changed the background to fit what I had envisioned when I took the original photo.

There are certainly a number of factors that have to be taken into consideration when combining a couple of photos and I know that I’ve not done a perfect job on taking lighting into account and the edges are 'weak' but for me it was a blast. I’m totally excited that I was able to get these three photos to the stage they are.

Feb

2020

Portrait or Landscape for Headshots?

Studio Headshots and Senior Portraits - Portrait or Landscape?

The standard for years for individual portrait photos is vertical. Particularly headshots for actors and actresses. With the advent of the internet and the wide computer screen, it is often more attractive to go with a horizontal exposure.

There are other factors that can make this equally or even more appealing such as the use of negative space. Negative space is part of the picture that is not your subject. For example, if you were taking a photo of a tree or a couple of trees, then the space around and between the trees would be ‘negative’ space.

Shooting wide or using a landscape or horizontal image can give you more of this negative space which can be quite effective if used wisely.

I've included a few examples shooting in a landscape or horizontal mode.

This is a Senior shot for graduation. The railway tracks add some dimension or depth to the photo without distracting from the main subject.

Here, in this next photo, the girl in the hat is turned ever so slightly to her right, so giving extra space in that direction makes it all look more natural. And that space is used with light/shadow add some dynamic to the photo.

This next is from a series. A studio headshot for an marvellous opera singer. A series of simple headshot but using the wide frame. Again, the body is turned, to the left this time, and giving space there, makes sense again. The same with Mikayla in the outdoor shot (right). (We agreed that was the coldest of that type of photoshoot ever!)

The use of ‘Landscape’ layout allows for more creativity in many instances. You can give more depth and focus to your image without in any way detracting from your main subject. Use this negative space to take advantage of eye trail, perspective, colour and host of other techniques the will help focus on the person you are photographing. Or some aspect of the person that you want to accentuate.

A ‘wide’ photo like this will actually look just fine and often better on websites and enlarged fit a computer screen almost perfectly. If you do an image search for example for real estate agents, almost all of them are using the Landscape format. Same for insurance agent. And doctors. These photos fit better on the screen. And they can communicate much more. That little bit of extra space can give dimension that is otherwise very difficult to create.

I also find, doing portraits using this wide frame aspect, allows for a more relaxed subject. The person you are shooting has a bit more flexibility in movement and can appear to being ‘doing’ something instead of looking so static. The wide frame portrait, if done reasonably well, will draw the viewer in. And that’s always a good thing.