Some things to consider when determining (and creating) solid portrait pictures. These are not all of the things to consider but are what I thought of sharing tonight.
Show Prep
Tonight myself and +Susan Marinello are doing a live show where we'll be quickly reviewing 50+ submitted portrait albums.
I figure it's a perfect time to share how I myself look at portrait photography.
Submit and/or Watch
To see more details about the show and perhaps even submit an album in the next 3 hrs check here:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/109486822103622036238/albums/5787749627481544897
1. EMOTION AND EXPRESSION
- In fact an awesome expression which conveys a lovely feeling may in fact trump many of the following factors. I may indeed love a blurry picture with terrible framing just because of a moving expression.
Many of these things may be so spectacularly great in one particular arena that I may be very forgiving of the others. The grand objective is to succeed in all areas but it doesn't always happen that way and with people moments are fleeting and we must take the opportunities we get and make the best of it.
2. COLOR
By this I mean the colors all throughout the picture but I in particular pay close attention to the color of skin. I happen to like the color of skin in a picture to be the way it is in life. There may be room for artistic licence but I like to know it was a purposeful choice and not simply because the artist was not capable of true color and therefore masked it with something else.
And if it's B&W then they better pay close attention to Contrast
3. CONTRAST
There are many ways to work with contrast levels in a picture. In lightroom I use the contrast slider, the blacks slider and the point curve the most to effect the contrast of a picture.
I like seeing strength in the areas of both the dark and bright pixels. But I can be convinced by pictures that don't focus on contrast. I know that my own style does have contrast.
4. SHARPNESS
I'm not a pixel peeper that will zoom in on your picture to inspect every inch for sharp pixels… but I do want… no… require that it have a sense of being in focus.
Our eyes do not like looking at out of focus things… and the more and more we look at pictures the more we're able to recognize sharpness in pictures.
Sharpness in the right places and this may lead to certain areas not being sharp which helps to strengthen the attention to the sharper areas.
In portrait photography most all of the time I feel the background should not distract from the human element and therefore should be significanly less sharp. Unless for a purposeful reason the artist believes having the background play an equal role to the subject is important.
5. DISTRACTIONS
Namely my long time motto I created to teach photography years ago:
"Create attractions and avoid distractions"
Ask any past intern and they'll say this is one of the keys of my photography and my photography teaching.
What things are distracting me from the main subjects in the pictures?
The key is that the brighter and the more in focus that thing is the more of a distraction they may become.
6. FRAMING
A lot of the things I mentioned previously are very technical things that depend on knowing the camera well. Emotion and expressions deal a lot with your people skills and ability to create a great mood for people AND/OR your astuteness with Timing.
Framing is one of biggest Artistic things that we have control over.
It's closely related to distractions because "what did you decide to cut out and what did you leave in and is there anything in those decisions that may be distracting?"
When I look at framing I often think of borders: What borders did you put around the subject. Was it just an accident that you cut it where you did… or was it a purposeful and meaningful decision. I feel like good borders/frames are one of the signs of an experienced photographer. I can't say they are the biggest factor of a great picture but they are often the most telling of the signs of a good photographer.
7. STORY
There are stories behind every image and some of them are good and some of them are boring. Some of them can make us laugh and some can make us cry. Even a less than awesome picture can have an amazing story that can make us cherish that picture for life.
People grow attached to pictures because of those stories and can easily overlook the other 6 things that have been stated previously.
Photographers should appreciate those stories and aim to foster an environment for awesome stories. However they should also do their job and take asthetically pleasing pictures to go along with those stories.
For instance tonight during the show I will not be evaluating pictures based on any stories and so my evaluation will be lacking in this 7th area. But I can't say this is a bad thing either.
ADVICE WHEN LOOKING AT PICTURES
Don't get hung up. (Don't have tunnel vision
Meaning don't fixate on one particular bad thing going on in the picture.
So a hair is out of place… if you can't look past that you'll never get very far.
Yes there may be things to fix in pictures… but if you're viewing a picture you need to look at the whole picture and evaluate how good or bad they achieved overall in items 1 through 7. I know it's easy to simply talk about one particular thing (i do it) but a good critique takes into account everything.
Perfectionism
A perfectionist who fixates and can't move past will never make it in this industry. But someone who seeks perfection and can accept progress for what it is will do very well.
Stop excusing your weakness by calling it perfectionism.
And stop getting tunnel vision and refusing to see the big picture.
Last of all… the obvious:
I will like different pictures than you will like.
However we try to understand what other people like because Art is seen by others… and it's nice for it to be liked by others.
And I recognize that this will only be valuable to those who value my opinion
Google+: Reshared 12 times
Google+: View post on Google+
Post imported by Google+Blog. Created By Daniel Treadwell.
NOT BAD BUT THIS PICTURE NEEDS TO BE CROPPED!
+EJ LaFleur haha funny
well said +Scott Jarvie. Lots to take in there.
I look forward to seeing the notes from tonight +Scott Jarvie as I have to get up at 5am =) Thanks for the tips, I appreciate them as I'm just trying to start shooting more people =)
+Scott Jarvie so looking forward to this show!
I'd submit an album but I don't think very many of my recent shots are appropriate for this
oh, yours are a lot different +J. Rae Chipera
Thank you very much for the tips +Scott Jarvie! I have yet to try portrait photography. I will practice your guidelines. Thanks again!
IN MY CAREER I SHOT PROTRAITS OF OVER 200,000 PEOPLE. AFTER A WHILE
EVERYONE YOU SEE YOU BELIEVE YOU TOOK PICTURES OF THEM. THERE ARE ONLY SO
MANY FACES OUT THERE.
IT IS A FUN OCCUPATION BUT IT GETS MUCH HARDER AS YOU GET OLDER.
A LITTLE SECRET, PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHERS WOULD HAVE YOU BELIEVE THAT ALL
OF THEIR PICTURES ARE GREAT. THEY NEVER SHOW ANYONE THEIR SCREW UPS.
I bookmarked this in Pocket so I can read later
+Scott Jarvie it could be my monitor, but while I generally enjoy the composition and framing of your pictures, they are way too red for my tastes. What I mean is that the reds are saturated a bit too much. In this portrait I can see the redness in the child's eye. It doesn't look very flattering imho. Again I don't if it's my monitor or whether it looks fine on your end.
+Jay Gordon monitor may be the reason… or perhaps you just don't like my style of pictures. It's cool they're very different than yours.
+EJ LaFleur I thought your first post was just a mistake to be on all caps lock… But please turn off caps lock and re-edit your post. pretty please. with cherries on top.
P.s. I didn't really talk about the picture here… it was just a post holder… it's a post first, picture second. I thought that this was readily apparent.
In fact I'm removing the picture so people focus on the words
+Scott Jarvie I like the style indeed, you have a lot of cool angles in your portraits. I don't mind saturated colours either. I should look at your pictures on another screen. Just something I noticed and was wondering.
+Scott Jarvie I don't have a portrait album, but I posted a portrait recently. Would I be able to submit that? (sorry for not asking in the original post). As for the advice, I think it's great. I had written something on my tumblr about capturing the moment, and that when you're able to do that, the technical things don't always have to be perfect. Some motion is ok if it tells the story, the framing doesn't have to be perfect if the moment you captured is priceless. I certainly haven't tuned my eye to know when I've caught a good moment that's worth keeping in spite of technical flaws, but I think you've put together a great list.
edit I threw an album together instead. It'll be great to witness this. I'm doing my first (small) wedding next year and I'm throwing myself into viewing portraits and photos of people in preparation.
IN SEMI PROFILE THE NOSE SHOULD NEVER BREAK THE FACE LINE, LIMIT THE
EXPOSURE OF ARM SKIN BY ZOOMING IN ON TIGHTER SHOTS, LOOK FOR CATCH LIGHTS
IN THE EYES (WITHOUT THEM EYES LOOK DEAD), SEE THE LIGHT, IN GROUP SHOTS
ALWAYS FEWER HANDS THAN THERE ARE PEOPLE, HIGH CAMERA ANGLES AND LONGER
PHOTO LENGTH MAKES PEOPLE LOOK THINNER, LEANING AWAY FROM THE CAMERA IS
PASSIVE AND FEMININE, LEANING TOWARDS THE CAMERA IS AGGRESSIVE AND
MASCULINE. IF LOOKING DIRECTLY INTO THE CAMERA EYES SHOULD FOLLOW THE NOSE.
IN GROUP SHOTS THE TOP OF A PERSONS HEAD SHOULD NEVER BE BELOW THE EYE
LEVEL OF THE PERON BEHIND THEM. JUST SOME OBSERVATIONS.
i value your opinion
Ditto.
back in the days, typing in caps/capital letters only was considered yelling / shouting.
that distracted me a bit
Ok can I post now?
dOES THAT INCLUDE THE TITLE TO THIS POST?
Ok that chat on the even locked me out
Great read! Thanks!
Divertido
Can anyone see that this young Lady was happy to smile for our friend +Scott Jarvie? I'm glad she did,, It's Beautiful !!
Can anyone see that this young Lady was happy to smile for our friend +Scott Jarvie? I'm glad she did,, It's Beautiful !!
Please don't remove it +Scott Jarvie.
Please don't remove it +Scott Jarvie.
I love these tips! Thanks! Today I had a super successful shoot and I feel like I’m on cloud nine! Photography is the greatest!