Spontaneous Photos Versus Staged Photos

By: Simon Bond

This is a subject that runs to the very heart of what makes photography special for many people. The convulsions that many had when Steve McCurry decided he was in fact a visual storyteller show just how passionate people are about this subject.
Indeed, a more recent example of this occurred when a photography contest winner was found to have submitted an allegedly staged photo. To a certain degree, we’ve allowed photography to be romanticized by believing amazing photos are all about the moment of capture. That’s certainly an idea many travel or photography magazines have encouraged. In this article, you’ll learn about staged photos, spontaneous photos, and why learning both approaches will improve your work.

A shard of light was used to light this man’s face.

Spontaneous photos

Getting the moment of capture is often what makes or breaks a photo. Landscape photography isn’t always about this, but a lone hiker in your landscape photo can add narrative. Of course, street photography is almost always about moment of capture. So what can you do that will improve your chances of adding that x-factor to your frame?

Visit places with lots of action

If you want to exercise your body, you go to a gym, visit the swimming pool or perhaps go for a run. If you want to get good at taking spontaneous photos, you need to visit places that have lots of decisive moments. These places will train your eye to be razor sharp and alive to the potential of a decisive moment before it happens. This is the opposite of a staged photo.
You’ll want to visit the following places:

• The local market – Find out where your local market is, and when it’s going to be busiest. Some markets are night markets, while your local fish market will be busiest at the crack of dawn. Vendors preparing their stock, street food being prepared, and interaction with customers all have great potential for a decisive moment.
• An event – Events are also great places to practice. These can be sports events, festivals, or parties. Again interaction between people caught at the decisive moment. You’ll often need a lens with a longer focal length to be effective in this setting.
• A busy street – Of course, street photography is what many will think of when you look to take photos with a decisive moment. Get your 50mm prime lens on the camera, and hit the streets looking for interesting characters. It’s often a good idea to choose a location and stop there for a while. Look for those moments of capture to come to you – perhaps against the backdrop of an interesting wall.

An event such as the balloon festival is a chance to capture moments.

Experiment with focal distance

The majority of decisive moment photos you’ll take will be street photos. These will be on the street, or perhaps within a street market. The general rule here is to use a 50mm prime lens, though experimenting with other focal lengths can also give you good results. Using a longer focal length means you can stand in a less noticeable location, allowing the action in front of you to unfold naturally. You’ll also feel more comfortable at a distance, and can anticipate your moments of capture and build your skill for anticipation. Once you have a knack for this anticipation, use wider angles and see how your results turn out. Of course, as mentioned before, sports and often event photography require longer focal lengths to capture the action.

In this photo, a longer focal length of 135mm was used. Markets are great for interactions between 

people.

Wait for the moment to come to you

This is a little like staged photos, except it’s a natural moment. It could be argued that this is the very opposite of spontaneous, but it is nevertheless a moment of capture. When you take this type of photo you will have a pre-composed frame, and you’re waiting for a person to walk into the right position within your photo. You will need a lot of patience, as you could well be waiting for at least an hour.

• A frame – Set up your photo and wait for a person to walk into the frame within your photo. This will immediately give your photo a greater narrative. If possible, wait for more than one person to walk into that frame, so you can choose the most interesting subject.
• A shard of light – A great technique to practice a decisive moment is to wait for people to walk into a shard of light. This gives you a defined condition when you need to press the shutter, so you will need to be fast. Look for an indoor location, and a gap in the roof to let the light through. Then expose at around -2 or -3EV for the background, and normal or slightly underexposed for the sunlit area.

In this photo, the scene was pre-composed. I then needed to wait for people to walk down the path.

Be quick on the draw

Of course, there are times you’re just going to have to be lightning fast. You’ll need to have eyes everywhere, constantly alert to possibilities, and seeing things to the side of you as well. Having your camera setting already setup is essential in this scenario. A more forgiving aperture of say f/8 rather than f/1.8 will also help with quick focus.
In some cases, you will have to use a larger aperture according to the light levels you are photographing in.
If you’ve been practicing in the market where there are many chances to capture a decisive moment, you will get quicker at bringing the camera to your eye and getting the shot immediately – the same skill you’ll have used to capture people walking into a shard of light.

There are times you need to be aware and very fast. These monks crossing the street is a split second 

moment.

Staged photos

The opposite of spontaneous photos is staged photos. This style of photography will be what you practice regularly if you work with models, or perhaps take pre-wedding photos for people. Of course, the recent controversy surrounding these is centered on travel photography, which is all meant to be natural moments. If you want the most striking photo possible, though, the ability to control all aspects of the photo will give you maximum creativity. So what goes into a successful photo of this type?

Going on a photo-shoot with other members of a photography club can be a great learning experience.

Solo vs the group

The photographer who recently ran into trouble with their winning image allegedly used a staged photo from a group photography event.
Of course, it’s quite possible to make a staged photo look natural, and for it to carry a strong message. In fact, if it doesn’t, you need to go back to the drawing board.
The question is, however, when you’re photographing with a group of other photographers, how much are you in control of the creative process? How much is that photo really yours because you pressed the shutter?
Learning with the group is a great way to improve your work. However, to really allow your own creativity to come to the fore, it needs to be you (and only you) who controls how the photos are staged.

Organizing a photo session with a friend or model where you work one-to-one gives you much more 

control.

The narrative

Control the narrative, and you’ll get the photo. To be a good visual storyteller, you need your photo to have that strong story as you guide your viewer’s eye through the frame. So you no longer need to capture the decisive moment. Instead, you’re going to create it.
To do that you’ll need to think of the following:

• Design elements –You can choose your location to perfectly match the photo you want to take. Use frames, or perhaps even create your own frame. Leading lines such as paths or tunnels make for good photos. Good composition skills and a composition that harmonizes with the story you’re going to tell are things you are looking for.
• The story –This could involve your subject looking off into the distance, cooking some food, or perhaps talking with a friend. The aim is to make these moments look as natural as possible, even though they’re staged.
• The background – Lastly, the background should look after itself if you have applied the points made for design elements. Nevertheless, keep an eye on the background. Unless you’re in a studio, people can walk into the background of your photo, affecting the narrative of your photo.

This photo has been staged. An off-camera strobe is placed left of the camera to light the ladies face, 

and the smoke from the cigar.

Micromanage

The management of the photo can go beyond what’s list above. You will want to really micromanage your photo. That means controlling all aspects of it from lighting to what people are wearing in the photo.

• The time of day – The position of the sun is going to dominate your photo. With staged photos, there is absolutely no excuse for getting this aspect of the photo wrong. The same goes for spontaneous photos as well. You should only be attempting these with the sun in the right position.
• Lighting – You’ll need to decide whether you want to use natural light only. If if you only use natural light, you still have the potential to use reflective surfaces to bounce light where you want it to be. Beyond this, you can use strobes, and give your outdoor photo a studio look.
• Clothes – Ahead of the photo shoot organizing with your model what they’ll wear is another aspect that can be controlled. Spend the time liaising with them so that the clothes match the location you have in mind.
• Location – Where you choose to photograph can be controlled for any type of photo, whether it’s spontaneous or not. You’ll need to think about how this location will play off against the model and narrative you hope to acheive. Do you want the area busy with other people, or would it be better to choose a quieter time of the day?

In this photo, the framing was created by sticking together pieces of rice paper using tape. The chef is 

making fresh spring rolls, using rice paper.

Creative techniques

Unlike spontaneous photos, you can use creative techniques with your staged photos. In most cases, creative techniques take time to set up – time you only have when you stage the photo. There are many ways to be creative in your work. You don’t always need to use techniques like these. So take the following as some ideas you could use:

• Light painting – You’ll need to photograph at night, but light painting is a great way of adding interest to your image. You’ll also need a model who can stand or sit very still. Think about the pose position. Some poses are much easier to be statuesque than others.
• Refraction – Photography using prisms, fractal filters or lens balls can give your photo another twist. Your results with such techniques will be better if you stage the photo.
• Flour – Throwing flour in the air is a great way to add a more dynamic feel to your photo. You’ll need to combine this with off-camera flash. The flash needs to be directed so it correctly lights up the flour while it’s mid-air.

In this image, light painting has been used to highlight two monks who are standing still for the photo.

The commercial aspect

With staged photos, you are almost certainly aiming at the commercial market. You’ll be photographing with a model who it’s very likely you’ll pay. If you’re new to this type of photography, you might consider building a relationship with your model, where you both give each other time rather than money to build each other’s portfolios.

• Contests – Contests will ask for the model release of the person in a photo. So, to a certain extent, this rather says a commercial element to the photo is okay.
• Publishing – It’s always nice to see your work published. Look at the photography type you have produced, and see if you can match that to a magazines style. You may well need to produce a set of images, and even write the article that goes with it.
• Stock – As long as you can’t tell the photo is staged, staged photos work very well for stock photos. They’ll be model released, so you’re really ready to go. That extra passive income never hurts, and can pay for your next photo shoot.

Why you need to learn both

There is a temptation to say “I’m going to be a street photographer,” and not look to other types of photography. There is merit in becoming the master of your field and not diversifying. However, a model can transition to photography. They have the advantage of knowing what’s going on in front of the camera. Taking the time to take staged photos will allow you to see the potential for spontaneous photos in a different way as well.
Having staged the photo using off-camera flash, and seeing where things should be positioned in your frame is a skill that can be brought across to the more organic environment of street photography. That is to say; you should be a fashion photographer for a day, learn those ideas, and see what you can bring from that across to your street photography.

The desire for that perfect photo is always there. The purist is likely to want to achieve this organically, using honed photographer instincts to get that moment of capture. There is a lot to be said for learning the other side of the coin and getting in touch with your inner visual storyteller.
Which style of photography do you prefer and why? Would you consider photographing in a different way, even for a day? Here at digital photography school, we’d love to see your example photos.
Please let us know if you took them spontaneously, or if you staged the photo. You can even post an image, and see if the community can guess whether you staged the photo or not.

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10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits

By: Darren Rowse

How do you take Portraits that have the ‘Wow’ factor?
Today and tomorrow I want to talk about taking Portraits that are a little out of the box. You see it’s all very well and good to have a portrait that follows all the rules – but it hit me as I was surfing on Flickr today that often the most striking portraits are those that break all the rules.
I want to look at some ways to break out of the mold and take striking portraits by breaking (or at least bending) the rules and adding a little randomness into your portrait photography. I’ll share ten of these tips today and a further ten tomorrow (update: you can see the 2nd part here).

1. Alter Your Perspective

Most portraits are taken with the camera at (or around) the eye level of the subject. While this is good common sense – completely changing the angle that you shoot from can give your portrait a real WOW factor.

Photo by striatic

Get up high and shoot down on your subject or get as close to the ground as you can and shoot up. Either way you’ll be seeing your subject from an angle that is bound to create interest.

Photo by TeeRish

2. Play with Eye Contact

It is amazing how much the direction of your subject’s eyes can impact an image. Most portraits have the subject looking down the lens – something that can create a real sense of connection between a subject and those viewing the image. But there are a couple of other things to try:
A. Looking off camera – have your subject focus their attention on something unseen and outside the field of view of your camera. This can create a feeling of candidness and also create a little intrigue and interest as the viewer of the shot wonders what they are looking at. This intrigue is particularly drawn about when the subject is showing some kind of emotion (ie ‘what’s making them laugh?’ or ‘what is making them look surprised?’). Just be aware that when you have a subject looking out of frame that you can also draw the eye of the viewer of the shot to the edge of the image also – taking them away from the point of interest in your shot – the subject.

Photo by monicutza80

B. Looking within the frame – alternatively you could have your subject looking at something (or someone) within the frame. A child looking at a ball, a woman looking at her new baby, a man looking hungrily at a big plate of pasta…. When you give your subject something to look at that is inside the frame you create a second point of interest and a relationship between it and your primary subject. It also helps create ‘story’ within the image.

Photo by paulbence

3. Break the Rules of Composition

There are a lot of ‘rules’ out there when it comes to composition and I’ve always had a love hate relationship with them. My theory is that while they are useful to know and employ that they are also useful to know so you can purposely break them – as this can lead to eye catching results.
The Rule of Thirds is one that can be effective to break – placing your subject either dead centre can sometimes create a powerful image – or even creative placement with your subject right on the edge of a shot can sometimes create interesting images.

Photo by reportergimmiâ„¢

Another ‘rule’ that we often talk about in portrait photography is to give your subject room to look into. This can work really well – but again, sometimes rules are made to be broken.

Photo by Bukutgirl

4. Experiment with Lighting

Another element of randomness that you can introduce to your portraits is the way that you light them. There are almost unlimited possibilities when it comes to using light in portraits.
Side-lighting can create mood, backlighting and silhouetting your subject to hide their features can be powerful.

Photo by Bukutgirl

Using techniques like slow synch flash can create an impressive wow factor.

Photo by diskomethod

5. Move Your Subject Out of their Comfort Zone

I was chatting with a photographer recently who told me about a corporate portrait shoot that he had done with a business man at his home. They’d taken a lot of head and shoulder shots, shots at his desk, shots in front of framed degrees and other ‘corporate’ type images. They had all turned out fairly standard – but there was nothing that really stood out from the crowd.
The photographer and the subject agreed that there were plenty of useable shots but they wanted to create something ‘special’ and out of the box. The photographer suggested they try some ‘jumping’ shots. The subject was a little hesitant at first but stepped out into the uncomfortable zone and dressed in his suit and tie started jumping!
The shots were amazing, surprising and quite funny. The shoot culminated with the subject jumping in his pool for one last image!
While this might all sound a little ‘silly’ the shots ended up being featured in a magazine spread about the subject. It was the series of out of the box images that convinced the magazine he was someone that they’d want to feature.

Image by TeeRish

6. Shoot Candidly

Sometimes posed shots can look somewhat…. posed. Some people don’t look good in a posed environment and so switching to a candid type approach can work.
Photograph your subject at work, with family or doing something that they love. This will put them more at ease and you can end up getting some special shots with them reacting naturally to the situation that they are in. You might even want to grab a longer zoom lens to take you out of their immediate zone and get really paparazzi with them.
I find that this can particularly work when photographing children.

Photo by phitar

7. Introduce a Prop

Add a prop of some kind into your shots and you create another point of interest that can enhance your shot.
Yes you might run the risk of taking too much focus away from your main subject but you could also really add a sense of story and place to the image that takes it in a new direction and gives the person you’re photographing an extra layer of depth that they wouldn’t have had without the prop.

Photo by Mrs. Maze

8. Focus Upon One Body Part – Get Close Up

Get a lens with a long focal length attached to your camera – or get right in close so that you can just photograph a part of your subject. Photographing a person’s hands, eyes, mouth or even just their lower body… can leave a lot to the imagination of the viewer of an image.
Sometimes it’s what is left out of an image that says more than what is included.

Photo by Bukutgirl

9. Obscure Part of your Subject

A variation on the idea of zooming in on one part of the body is to obscure parts of your portrait subject’s face or body. You can do this with clothing, objects, their hands or just by framing part of them out of the image.
Doing this means that you leave a little to the imagination of the image’s viewer but also focus their attention on parts of your subject that you want them to be focused upon.

Photo by BigBlonde

10. Take a Series of Shots

Switch your camera into ‘burst’ or ‘continuous shooting’ mode and fire off more than one shot at a time.
In doing this you create a series of images that could be presented together instead of just one static image.
This technique can work very well when you’re photographing children – or really any active subject that is changing their position or pose in quick succession.

Image by diyosa

10 More ways to Take Great Portraits – Continued Tomorrow

Tomorrow I will complete this mini-series of posts on portrait photography with 10 more techniques like the ones above. Make sure you’re subscribed to Digital Photography School to ensure you get the second half!
Update: You can read the 2nd half of this series at 10 More Tips for Stunning Portrait Photography. Also check out What the Mona Lisa Can Teach You About Taking Great Portraits for a portraits tutorial with a difference.
Also – don’t forget the portrait section of our forum – an ideal place to discuss portrait photography and show off some of your work.

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9 Tips for Creating Great Street Portraits

By: Anthony Epes  

I love taking street portraits. Whether the people you are photographing are posing or just going about their day-to-day life, humans are the most captivating, strange and interesting of subjects.

Most of my portraits taken out on the street are shot with the permission of the subject. That’s my style. I love looking for people who intrigue me. I often signal them with a smile and gesture of my camera, then watch for their reaction. But I also shoot unposed portraits and life on the street, whatever catches my eye.
I know from my workshops that a lot of people find photographing strangers difficult and even, sometimes, terrifying. What is important to remember though, is that most people like to be noticed. It’s a compliment to be seen and thought of as interesting. But if they don’t like it, then the worst that can happen is that you have to delete the photo. Simple. Plus the more you do this, the easier it gets.

Here are some tips for creating interesting and evocative street portraits:

#1 – Simplicity

“The one guiding idea was to strip away the visual noise of the street so that the people emerge in a different and hopefully more surprising way.” Eamonn Doyle

I am a lover of simplicity in my composition and when it comes to street portraits, simplicity really is your friend. One thing that ruins so many portraits is a busy, complicated background. A background that’s too busy will make your image look flat because your camera can’t capture the depth that your eye can. You have to create depth yourself with your composition. A busy background will swallow up your subject and distract your eye.
One of my favourite types of backgrounds for street portraits is something clean, colourful, and strong, like the image below. The line in the middle creates a really strong balancing element for the subject. The strength of the colours and line contrast nicely with this older man, who with that slight smile looks like he knows a thing or two about life.

#2 – Break the world down into elements

You can simplify the purpose of composition into the idea that you are simply breaking down the world into elements and organizing them in an interesting way.
I find it really helpful to look at composition with this in mind – that all you are doing is organizing the world’s elements. It helps because our eyes make things very complicated for us photographically as we see everything in 3D. Not only do we see and sense hundreds of thousands of pieces of visual information every minute from all around us, but our senses can pick up on things happening behind us as well.

To break this visual overload created by your eyes when you are bringing the world into your frame, start by breaking down what you see around you into elements – an interesting mural, strong lines on the road, beautiful shadows, etc. Then build your composition up from there. You only need one or two interesting elements to make a photo. Ones that work together and say something through their balance, shape, or placement.

An example

This photo below is super simple. Very little going on, but I like it. What do you think makes it work? There are a couple of strong elements here that make it an interesting photo. Firstly it’s the hand holding the newspaper with a glimpse of the face reading. Then the man farther ahead walking.
Now these two men, combined with that strong line of the wall, makes it look to me like a conveyor belt. You know that it’s morning, partly because of the sun, and then the newspaper, that’s the kind of thing you do on the way to work right? So now you have a little story, perhaps about the repetitiveness and the monotony of the human experience?

I don’t always see a story in an image when I am shooting; often that comes after when I’m looking at my photos and sharing them. But what I do concentrate on is looking for interesting elements and figuring out how to place them together to make an interesting composition.

#3 – It’s all in the eyes

“The face is a picture of the mind as the eyes are its interpreter.” Marcus Tullius Cicero

When you are starting out taking photos of people it can be a scary experience. So much so that you often rush too much – perhaps in an effort to get it done as quickly as possible and to not offend or upset anyone. But the more you shoot street portraits, and the more effort you make to relax into the experience, the more you can work on revealing the deeper emotions of your subject.
When you take a more relaxed and patient approach you give people the space to unfold and reveal their thoughts and feelings through their bodies, faces and, most powerfully, their eyes. Eyes tell you how the subject is feeling, and often thinking.

This is where having a camera is an advantage. As humans we don’t usually look into someone’s eyes for long periods of time. It’s too powerful! It takes the interaction with that human to another level. If you have a camera between you and your subject though, it acts as a sort of safe barrier. So you can then spend time observing them, seeing what their face is doing, looking into their eyes, and seeing how they really feel.

#4 – Be patient humans do funny things

“You don’t have to enhance reality. There is nothing stranger than truth.” Annie Leibovitz

For me taking photos of people on the street is all about opening yourself up to, and noticing the comedy of being human, as Elliot Erwitt calls it.

“You can find pictures anywhere. It’s simply a matter of noticing things and organizing them. You just have to care about what’s around you and have a concern with humanity and the human comedy.” Elliott Erwitt

#5 – Find a great background and wait

There is a tradition in street photography that you find an interesting location; a background, a road, or sign, and then you wait for someone or something to happen in front of it. It requires patience, which is a very good thing to develop. I’ve noticed that patience is something that beginners often lack. Possibly because we live in a world that is so used to immediate gratification that we expect good shots to come in abundance.
It rarely works like that. I therefore like this idea of finding something interesting out on the street – some elements, or a place that fascinates you, then waiting for something to happen. It’s a great way to train your eye, and perfect your timing. Plus, when you continually gaze at one place you become very familiar, very intimate with it. You’ll notice things that initially you didn’t see.

#6 – Use colour

“I paint because colour is a significant language to me.” Georgia O’Keeffe.

Colour is also a significant language for me and I have always preferred shooting colour over black and white. I love the feeling you can communicate with colour and I think it moves me as much as light. So for me it’s an integral part of my style.
Street photography is often dominated by black and white photography. Although what I am doing is often not strict street photography (however, Bruce Gilden, controversial street photographer extraordinaire, did say “If you can smell the street by looking at the photo, it’s a street photograph.”).

Whether you use colour or black and white, do what excites you the most. The more excited you are by your subject and what you are creating, the more you’ll imbue your photos will feeling and depth.
Colours communicate different feelings and ideas (e.g., yellow is warm and happy, green is peaceful, red signals confidence and aliveness). I love to use them to contribute to the story that I am telling with my images.

#7 – Your camera is your licence to be curious

“I love that having a camera basically gives you a license to go up to anyone and ask them what they’re doing and why.” Andrew Hinderaker

Most people are perfectly happy to be photographed. That’s the key when you’re going out and about. My mantra when taking photos of strangers is – be confident (this comes with practice), friendly, curious, and ethical. In other words, I prefer to photograph people who are okay with the experience. I don’t generally photograph kids and the obviously vulnerable, etc. That’s my ethical line. For me photography is an exchange and I respect everyone whom I photograph.

Humans are built to want to connect with other humans, and photography is a powerful form of connection when you use it as such. When you are taking someone’s photo you are basically saying – I see you, you interest me. And for most people that’s a wonderful compliment.
For me the portrait above is about two things, the light and the couple smiling. The warmth of their smiles match the warmth of the light, as well as the lush, summery background of grass and trees. I took this photo by just smiling at the couple and gesturing with my camera. Of course the fact that it was a beautiful summer’s evening and we were in the park helped. People who are relaxing and enjoying themselves are, of course, easier subjects to approach.

#8 – The power of the gesture

The more closely you watch humans the more you see how they reveal themselves in so many ways. This was a photo I took for a project I was doing on people’s bellies. Each photo was totally different because the way that people presented their bellies and the gestures they made, showed so much about their personalities, what they felt about themselves, and their bodies.

Keep watch of people’s gestures. Along with the eyes, hands are very revealing of people’s feelings and thoughts (and apparently hands are easier to read than eyes if you want to tell if someone is lying).

#9 – The key to original, interesting photos is to be yourself

“I’m photographing myself out there. Not myself physically, but mentally. It’s my take on the world.” Bruce Gilden

A lot of people in workshops worry about how over-photographed the world seems now and will they ever have anything interesting or original to contribute? Hasn’t it all been done before? Well, this is the wrong way to think about it. Of course the world is very photographed now. Especially places that I visit, London, Paris, Venice, Istanbul, etc.
But the world isn’t a staid thing – it’s an ever-changing, ever moving, organism. Nothing stays the same. Having humans moving around the world makes the possibilities for original and interesting photos infinite.

More importantly though, photography is an expression of who you are. When you start out perhaps you’ll take photos like everyone else. But the more you do it, the more you’ll create something unique and original that’s a total expression of who you are – your passions, experience, style, and way of seeing the world. This creates the unique and interesting photographs that you are aiming for. It’s just like famous jazz musician Miles Davis says:

“Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.”

I’d love to know what you think. What do you do to create interesting street portraits? Comment below, I’d love to hear your ideas!

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How to Create Portraits With Depth

By: Ben Evans  

Would you like to make portraits that show more about the person’s character than what they look like? In this article, you’ll learn some new ways to look at your subjects so you can better understand them; and therefore create portraits with depth and more interest.
A portrait is a picture of a person. So, what separates the pictures we make from those made by a photo-booth?
Leaving discussions about mind-body duality aside, it’s safe to say that we’re all flesh and blood. Our photographs, therefore, are of surface appearances. But beauty is more than skin deep.
What we call character, or soul, or ‘I’ is the driving force that makes, shapes, and motivates our bodies; and our inner thoughts and emotions are often written on our faces.
This is my personal approach to portraiture and particularly portrait photography, gleaned from countless hours of reading, and a degree in Literature, Philosophy and Psychology. It’s compressed a lot here, but should be useful if you explore each area independently.

Reading your subject’s character

Portrait photography aims to capture and communicate some aspect of a person’s character. I think this shows itself in a few ways

What are their habits?

What we do often changes us; makes us. Whether it’s Aristotle talking about excellence as a habit, or Warren Buffett urging graduates to develop the habits of success, habits are an important part of who you are. If you exercise regularly, you get fit. If you eat well, you’ll be healthy. Habits are hard to fake, because they have to be consistent in order to have much effect. Look at your subject; how have habits transformed them?

What decisions have they made?

Satre said that making no choice is still a choice. If I let my beard grow, it can either be a decision to do so, or an unconscious decision not to shave; so decisions can be active or passive. Do they have an afro, or dreadlocks? Both take commitment to grow and maintain so why did they bother? Ask them about the choices that they’ve made with their bodies; it says a lot about their character.
A tattoo is a good example of a decision to pay attention to when making a portrait. It might indicate teenage rebellion, artistic expression or even affiliation with the Japanese underworld. It’s a choice to permanently mark the body; so it’s likely that some thought has gone into it. Likewise with piercings. Is it a yearning to be different? Or to be the same?
This is also a space to think about what they spend most of their time doing; and that’s generally going to be their career. Are they following their passion, living their dream? Or are they worn down in a job they’d rather forget? Both tell stories. Uniforms may be one indicator; but it’s not too difficult to tell a rock star apart from a senior diplomat.

How does the subject present themselves?

How are the subjects presenting themselves to the world? This can be intentional, like putting on a smart suit with finely polished shoes, or passive, when they are wearing clothes that were chosen ages ago. Chances are that they spent quite a bit of time choosing what they are wearing; at the shop, and on the day. Steve Jobs had his iconic turtleneck sweaters with jeans, and Doctor Who has his bow ties. Which identity have they bought (and bought into)?
Somebody might think of themselves as belonging to a certain nationality, a subgroup or clan; but photographs are silent, and you’ll want to look at the outward expressions of this in order to communicate this message. People often have ‘props’ that can say a lot about them. It might be an expensive watch; a necklace; a well-designed house; or if they’re young, a light sabre or cuddly rabbit. Assuming your subject isn’t naked, what have they brought with them? Ask them about what they’re wearing; you’ll likely be surprised by the answers you get.

Facial expressions and body language

Make them laugh! I met the chap who photographed the Beatles back in the 60s and he talked about making people say ‘cheese’. I always thought this was just a quirky thing to say to break the tension, but the idea is that the mouth forms a smile when you say the word ‘cheese’. This works better than telling someone to smile; but not by much. Mainly because expression isn’t just in the mouth; it’s a product of a whole range of muscles in the face. Ask the robot designers in Japan who are trying to replicate human emotions on an android’s face!
So the best way is to actually elicit emotions to create the gestures that you’d like to photograph. There are lots of ways to achieve this, but most need to be taught in person. It is worth noting that people are never just the face they show you; there’s a whole host of different identities that make up their sense of who they are. It’s a matter of bringing them to the fore.
Body language is also an incredibly revealing aspect of non-verbal communication. Every portrait photographer should have an awareness of different postures, and how they can help in reading a person. And of course, it’s possible to pose a subject too. One part of Holistic Photography (which is the philosophy that photography needs both craft/technique and art/vision) is a study of micro-expressions and how to see, and photograph them. Our faces will register emotions before we have time to control them. So you can photograph someone’s ‘real character’ by eliciting these micro-expressions, and then capturing them in the photograph.

Physical attributes – what can you focus on?

One thing I didn’t mention, partly because it’s hard to avoid doing, is the ‘flesh and blood’. Some people just have fascinating faces, topographically. It might be that their eyes are bright green. This is a rare and beautiful eye colour, so chances are other’s reactions to it will have influenced their sense of self – rather like Kafka explores in The Metamorphosis. Likewise, my ginger cousins have developed an identity around their red hair. People, unconsciously or otherwise, live up to these imposed identities. I’m 6’2″. It’s a number; my height. But does it mean more than that? What about a ‘Perfect 10’? It’s just an arbitrary measurement; but numbers are intrinsically linked to our self-worth in our consumerist society. Look for physical features that stand out, that are striking. How is your subject restricted by their physical identity? How are they empowered by it?
For more on portrait photography see this YouTube video:

Summary

Hopefully this gives you some different things to think about when you’re photographing people and want to make portraits with a bit of depth. Holistic Photography goes a lot deeper within each category but my writing isn’t good enough yet to properly communicate what’s pretty simple to demonstrate and explain in person. Therefore, have a look at portraits you admire, both photographic and painted, and look at each of the different categories to see what fits.
Then practice really going beyond the person-as-object photography by finding out more about your subject. Think like Sherlock Holmes. Push like Platon. Light like George Hurrell. And feel like Edith Piaf. Portraiture is like a game of chess; ‘you must think first, before you move’!

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3 Body Language Hacks to Improve Your Portrait Photography

By: Dee Libine 

I’m going to ask you to put your camera down for now. I know it’s a lot to ask, but the secret I’ve discovered to better portrait photography has, in fact, very little to do with your camera.
One of the most common mistakes budding portrait photographers make is to be so focused on getting the technical aspects right, they completely forget about the most important feature of a portrait – the person standing in front of their lens.
I’m not saying that your camera and technique aren’t important, they absolutely are. But even when you have the best technique in the world, you will not have a good portrait if your subject feels, and looks, uncomfortable.
The secret to helping your subject be relaxed and look good in pictures is body language – both yours and their’s.

Body Language

Body language is how our bodies communicate our feelings and intentions, and it makes up for a majority of how we communicate. Some studies found that as much as 92% of our communication is nonverbal, and experts all agree that, as humans, we rely first on what we see and feel, before believing any spoken word.
Why is this important in portrait photography? Because body language is the language spoken in our portraits.
Within one second of seeing a photograph, we make a snap judgment about the person – or people – in the image, and what our brain relies on to make this judgment is their body language. Big cues like slouched shoulders or crossed arms are obvious, but it’s also the small cues like a fake smile, tense hands, slightly pursed lips, or squinting eyes, that tell our brains on an instinctive level, how that person is feeling. Furthermore, if the feelings are negative, it can ruin your portrait.
So, what can you do? Let’s look at three things you can start doing right now to help your subject settle into relaxed and positive body language.

1. Identify discomfort

It’s pretty uncomfortable for most people to have their portrait taken, even if they are really looking forward to it. This tension appears mainly through blocking and pacifying cues.
Blocking gestures occur when we put something between ourselves and an uncomfortable situation. Crossed or closed arms are the most obvious signs, but the person may also be holding something like a bag or a laptop in front of them, turning their bodies away from you, and even crossing their legs tightly when standing.
Rubbing or pressure movements are called pacifying gestures. You will observe this when she’s playing with her necklace, rubbing her arms or legs, or he’s playing with his clothes, or squeezing his fingers together. Another place to look for pacifying gestures is the mouth. Lip pressing and licking, and tongue movements pressing inside the cheeks or lips show high levels of stress.
When you see this happening before or during the shoot, your subject is feeling uncomfortable and it’s going to show up in your portraits. Let’s look at how you can help them relax.

2. Show, don’t tell

People feel uncomfortable during a photo shoot mostly because they don’t know what to do. It’s really stressful to be in front of a lens and be told to pose or act natural. They have no idea what you want from them, and telling them doesn’t help.
A client of mine shared this story with me;

At my last photo shoot, the photographer asked me to smile. So I smiled. “No! Not like that!” he said “you know, relax and smile!” All I could think is “Damn, I’m not relaxed, how do I relax?” which made me stress even more, and the more he was telling me to relax, the less I was! It was horrible! I look like I’m growling in all the photos. I hate them!

So if telling them what to do doesn’t help, what can you do? Show them! People can easily mirror what you want them to do. Ask them to mirror you, and show them exactly the pose you want them to take. Not only this will help them relax, it also allows you to get them into the right body language for the picture. When working with children, you can turn this into an imitation game, and they will be playing along with you in seconds.
Mirroring is a key bonding behavior in human body language. This interaction creates an immediate connection between you and your subject, and allows them to shift their attention away from the lens and focus on you instead.

3. Be in control -even when you’re not

From the minute you meet your subject, until they walk away from the session, it’s vital that you appear in control by using confident body language, keeping your energy up, using positive words, and never showing any signs of stress – even when you’re freaking out because the settings you’re trying aren’t working.
I know this one is tough when you’re starting out, and you have to think of a million things – camera settings, composition, lighting, backgrounds, etc., and now I’m asking you to also think about what your client’s body is saying! But let’s think about this for a minute. How do you think your subject feels when they are working with a silent, stressed out, and fidgety photographer who is focusing all their attention on the camera or the lights? Not so great right? Guess where that’s going to show up? In your pictures.
They need to know that you’re in control, even when you’re not! This is a, “fake it until you become it” moment in your life. Talk to them. Explain what you’re doing. You might be concerned that they won’t take you seriously, but really, they are just curious about what’s going on. If they feel that you’re in control, that you know what you’re doing, you will keep the connection with them and help them to relax.
The best part is that you’re also going to feel more in control. Recent studies on body language have found that by changing our posture and behavior, we actually change our feelings too. Not only will you appear more confident, you’re actually going to feel more confident.

What’s next

This is really just the very beginning of how body language can help you with your portrait photography. The choice of body language cues you’re going to use in your portraits will also have a huge impact on the feeling and quality of your images, and your relationships with your subjects.
Understanding body language is not just an option if you want to be a portrait photographer, it’s a vital skill; as vital as breathing is to a singer, or taste is to a chef. You will not be able to consistently create beautiful portraits of people, or create a fun experience for them if you ignore it.
The good news is that this is a skill you are born with, and have unconsciously practiced since your youngest age. However, most of us simply don’t pay attention to it because nonverbal communication is not part of our training curriculum, at school or later. Just like a musician will be more alert to sounds through practice, and a chef to taste through experience, I’m confident that you will soon become attuned to your subjects body language if you put in a little work.
Soon you will have mastered an amazing skill that will not only be useful in your work as a photographer, but also in everyday life.
Do you have another other tips about body language? Please share in the comments below along with any images demonstrating body language in your portraits.

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