I've been avoiding portraiture up until now... for good reason. Personally, I find portraits to be the most difficult kinds of images to capture well. The whole point of a "good" portrait is not only to convey the likeness of a person, but more importantly, to capture the personality, mood, the very essence of the individual. Any powerful photo (of a person or not), should make the viewer feel something... my gut check is that if my reaction is simply "that's nice," it's a snapshot, not a photo. And it's vastly easier to capture the feeling of a landscape or a still life that doesn't move while you're adjusting camera settings and composing the photo.
Not to mention the fact that we as humans are biologically pre-programmed to recognize and examine faces. Newborn babies demonstrate a preference for looking at faces or face-like images. There's even a specific brain area called the fusiform gyrus that is heavily involved in recognizing faces. Several studies have associated damage to this area with the inability to recognize faces - a condition common enough to have its own name and Wikipedia entry - prosopagnosia. But the psych major in me digresses.
All that said, the face is ultimately where human emotion is expressed. According to psychologist Paul Ekman (one of my heroes in the field), there are 6 facial expressions that are universal to humans regardless of cultural upbringing and correspond to the following emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, fear, and surprise... and capturing these emotions genuinely and powerfully is really what a good portrait is all about.
Another added level of difficulty is that portraits are generally posed and most people develop a sort of anxious air about them while they're waiting and wondering what they look like and if their muffin top or wrinkles or whatever their chosen insecurity is showing. Thus, as the photographer, I'm simultaneously adjusting aperture, shutter speeds, and composing the photo all while trying to engage the person in conversation to keep them distracted and natural as possible. No wonder many photographers work with assistants to distract their subjects.
In any case... attempt #1 in portraiture yesterday afternoon was pretty weak by my reckoning. I still consider these to be snapshots, not real portraits, but at least they're good snapshots of Niki and her pup, Woody!! Thanks, Niki, for being a willing subject!!
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| A girl and her dog |
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| Woody, the Wonder Pup! |
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| Woody did not understand our attempt at the latest internet craze of dogbeards |
Hours to Date: 14