Portrait pages from 44 3 sp11 cjet

how to shoot a

portrait Philip Greenspun teaches electrical engineering and computer science and researches the best ways to use the Internet. He is also a photographer. His advice about portrait photography is among the best any photographer can give another photographer interested in shooting portraits: “The most important thing about portrait photography is an interest in your subject.”

But advice about portrait photography does not end there. Portrait photographers and instructors offer helpful suggestions based on their decades of experience.

A great portrait makes you feel the emotion of the person that you photograph. When you look at that photo, it should make you gasp, stare and wonder if the emotion you detect is accurate.

A great portrait is well lit, meaning shadows are well balanced with the mood. The photo should tell the story without a caption.

TODD MAISEL, PHOTOJOURNALIST New York Daily News

Every portrait represents a unique story so unless you are shooting class pictures for a high-school yearbook, care involves incorporating elements that suggest the subject’s life. The elements do not have to be specific, but they should set an appropriate tone.

These rules have helped me both in stills and in video.

• Lighting is the key. The eyes tell the story.

• On men, you want the key light (preferably a reflector, softbox or northeast light) to hit the far cheek. You want the cheek facing you to fall into some degree of shade, but you want to make sure you have speculars, mirror-like reflections of light, in the eyeballs.

• On women, you bring your reflector around to over the camera,

20 WAYS TO TAKE STUNNING PORTRAITS

by Darren Rowse 1. Alter your perspective.

2. Play with eye contact.

3. Break the rules of composition.

4. Experiment with lighting.

5. Move your subjects out of their comfort zone.

6. Shoot candidly.

7. Introduce a prop.

8. Focus upon one body part – get close.

9. Obscure part of your subject.

10. Take a series of shots.

11. Frame your subject.

12. Go with a wide-angle lens.

13. Play with backgrounds.

14. Change the format framing.

15. Change the camera angle.

16. Take unfocused shots.

17. Introduce movement.

18. Experiment with subject expressions.

19. Fill the frame.

20. Find an interesting subject. http://www.digital-photography-school.com/10-waysto-take-stunning-portraits

high, or 5 degrees left or right of the camera. The goal is to create a glamour light so it reduces wrinkles and blemishes women spend zillions of dollars on makeup to hide. The use of a backlight that makes the hair pop is generally a good idea.

DIRCK HALSTEAD, EDITOR/PUBLISHER The Digital Journalist

When teaching my students about environmental portraits, they see the word environment and assume it’s about nature. That is not necessarily the case. It is a setup or posed photograph where the subject is the person and their environment. Both are essential elements in the photograph.

To tell a person’s story, sometimes it is best to place an individual in his/ her environment. Maybe that means someone on a basketball court or in a plush office. The story is inherent in both person and place.

KELLY GLASSCOCK, ADVISER Derby (Kan.) High School

Research the subject being photographed, not simply the story that is written or unwritten. Spend time learning about the individual, his/ her background, activities, résumé, continued on page 26

Compiled by Bradley Wilson • Photos by Rob Chron The most striking portraits are those that break all the rules. • Darren Rowse 24 • COMMUNICATION: JOURNALISM EDUCATION TODAY

SPRING 2011

RICKY: Not all people are born models.

It wasn’t till after my assistant spent 20 minutes rubbing him down with baby oil, ashes, and shadowing in muscles, that he was able to give me this fierce of a look. I often times have to make a fool of myself in front of a subject or even coax them into goofing around to get them comfortable.

SPRING 2011

COMMUNICATION: JOURNALISM EDUCATION TODAY • 25

TYLER: Basic photography rules say to never shoot into the light. Break the rules. Expose your subjects with a bright sunlight behind them. The light will wrap around them and give them an airy relaxed look that is not easy to achieve from some of the most wound up people. Use your hand or a lens shade of some sort to avoid amateur flares. • MARY: During the winter, commissions slow down so I have time to tinker and shoot things entirely for fun. I’ll come up with a theme and stretch in four or five similar directions, some more different than alike. I’ll slap a title on them and call them a series. People love the premeditation that goes into it. This photo is part of a series based on the theme of femme fatale. • RJ: Some people have the prettiest eyes. Make them pop by looking right into your light. It will make them glow. • BADE: Sometimes the best photos come at the most random intervals with the oddest of inspiration. I shot this photo on the return from a relatively unsuccessful shoot. I wasn’t happy with what I had taken so I pulled some pillows off my couch and got this on the grass in my front yard.

In the fall of 2009, JEA began a new photography contest. Here are the specifics of that contest.

WRITE-OFF CONTEST 34: PORTRAIT (online submission)

NATURE OF THE CONTEST You will submit ONE of your portrait photographs that has been published in your scholastic media within the last year or that will be published this year. It must not have been entered in a previous national JEA competition. The photograph should be a portrait, either a formal portrait or an environmental portrait, taken by the entrant.

WHAT THE JUDGES WILL LOOK FOR Imaginative subject matter; technical quality and excellence; photo composition; visual impact; simplicity; cropping; lighting. The caption, although required, need be nothing more than the name of the individual in the photograph with some identifying characteristics such as grade, major, sport or activity. Students should NOT enter mug shots, sometimes called head shots.

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etc. The findings can suggest content possibilities for the portrait shoot — preferences such as location, props if appropriate, personal links. Who knows what you might find to help improve the picture and make it more than a fancy mug shot?

HAL BUELL, RETIRED PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR The Associated Press

A portrait is not simply a mug or a headshot. A portrait should be an accurate portrayal of the essence of the person, the team or the animal. That is the key. You can have the best lighting, most interesting subject and a unique angle, but none of it will matter without a clear vision.

As for technical help, strive for interesting natural light before adding a strobe light.

Create layers and texture through the lighting of the photograph. The light should have various levels and should not be even across the photograph. One part of the face could be in natural sunset light with the other in shade. If you add a strobe light to accent the backs of subjects, the portraits will pop. Good light is key to any interesting portrait. It can make a seemingly “ordinary” subject exciting.

PATRICK BREEN, PHOTO EDITOR Daily Nebraskan

Separation from your backdrop is key. Use a hair light or background light to make sure the subject stands out from the background.

EVAN SEMON, FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER Denver, Colo.

Having the subject get to know you is as important as you getting to know the subject.

Spend a few minutes chatting or talking with the person you are about to photograph. You will both be more relaxed. As a result, the final product will look better.

MATT STAMEY, PHOTOJOURNALIST The Gainesville (Fla.) Sun

Portraits are about intimacy so the goal is to portray the subject in a memorable way. Be personable and feel comfortable with your skill level and equipment. Your approach is important because you want to be able to connect with your subjects and make them feel at ease.

If you appear unskilled or awkward, it will be harder for the subject to open up.

Being personable is easier when you know as much as you can about the subjects (likes, hobbies, professions, accomplishments, community participation, etc.) and when you arrive with multiple plans in case something happens. Portraits are great because they give you a chance to meet and to get to know individuals from completely different walks of life.

BRIAN SCHNEIDER, PHOTOGRAPHER Baltimore, Md.

26 • COMMUNICATION: JOURNALISM EDUCATION TODAY

SPRING 2011

TAREK: Upon observation: Most young male clients want to look like a king. Give them what they want, with character. • MARLEY: Some things are hard to make interesting. Many things have been “over-shot,” things like lakes and pretty girls covered in water. When I take a photograph of people, or of anything, I try to open the viewer’s eyes to a new way to see something. One of the easiest ways of doing that is to slow down something that normally happens in a blink of an eye. This photo, part of a series on motion, shows people what they are missing. • ANNIE: Not everyone will respond well to a planned-pose shoot. Every once in a while, I have to break a subject down to truly capture them. Follow them around for a day. All day they will have their guard up. Plastered in make-up and full of coffee they will exhibit exactly what you don’t want to capture. But at the end of the day, when they sit down on their porch with a cup of tea, dog in their lap, you find they are too exhausted to hide their personality anymore. This is when you leap into action.

LIGHTING When portrait photographs are composed and captured in a studio, the photographer has complete control over the lighting.

Three-point lighting, a basic plan, uses three lights to bring out details and depth of the subject’s features.

Key light • Also called a main light, the key light is usually placed to one side of the subject’s face, between 30 and 60 degrees off center and a bit higher than eye level. The key light is the brightest light.

Fill light • Placed opposite the key light, the fill light reduces the contrast or softens the shadows on the opposite side of the face. The brightness of the fill BACKGROUND light is usually between onethird and one-fourth that of the key light and expressed as a ratio (3:1 or 4:1). Kodak sugRIM LIGHT gested the 3:1 ratio, sometimes called Kodak lighting, in the company’s booklets.

The two main lights (key and fill) mimic the natural light FILL LIGHT KEY LIGHT (25%-33% power) (100% power) created by placing a subject in a room near a window. Key light simulates window light falling on the subject, and fill light simulates the light reflecting off walls of the room. Such Rembrandt lighting, as it is called, can be found in the works of classical painters and early artists.

Rim light • Also called a backlight or hair light, the rim light is placed behind the subject, out of the picture frame and often higher than the key light or fill light. Rim light separates the subject from the background by highlighting the subject’s shoulders and hair. n SPRING 2011

DEFINED MUG SHOT Technically, a mug shot is a portrait taken of a person under arrest to allow law enforcement to have a record of the arrested individual.

Informally, mug shots are used to identify a columnist or source. They are typically cropped tightly on the person’s face.

PORTRAIT A portrait displays the likeness, personality and even the mood of the person being photographed. Unlike the mug shot, which is more of a snapshot with a clean background, the portrait is more formal and is a composed image of a person in a still position. A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the painter or photographer to engage the subject with the viewer. Portraits are often taken in a studio setting.

ENVIRONMENTAL PORTRAIT An environmental portrait is a portrait taken in the subject’s usual environment, such as in the home or at the workplace, to illuminate the subject’s life and surroundings. By photographing an individual in his/her natural surrounding, the photographer can better illuminate character and therefore portray the essence of the person’s personality rather than merely a likeness of physical features.

COMMUNICATION: JOURNALISM EDUCATION TODAY • 27

ENVIRONMENTAL: An environmental portrait by Beth Reynolds shows a good reaction from Veleta Inez Curry, part of Reynolds’ book Sisters of Courage: Survivors of Breast & Cervical Cancer. • MUG SHOT: By Kelly Glasscock, this image illustrates even lighting and a background that is not distracting.• SELF PORTRAIT: By Greyson Prutting of Cypress Creek High School (Houston, Texas).

the portrait flashback

Portrait photographers develop the art as they learn from talented artists who have worked both on refining pragmatic approaches and on conveying inspirational messages in visual form. The suggestions made in JEA’s magazine during the last decade provide pragmatic help for advisers and publication students when they prepare for photographic competitions and for routine shooting no matter the media. The insights make it possible to learn as part of the preparation and as a way to produce images of which publications can be proud.

On Location

CommuniCation

Journalism Education

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Junco, Victor; Beth Reynolds, Mike McLean. “On Location.” Communication: Journalism Education Today, spring 2000 (Manhattan, Kan.: 33(3)) Shooting environmental portraits requires mastery of all photography components, including technique and composition.

1. Find out more about why you are taking a picture of this person, what he or she does for fun or as a profession.

2. Pay close attention to the light and to the background.

They become as much a part of the image as the ­person.

3. Plan to spend time with the person. While you can run in and take a mug shot in three minutes, you cannot do that with an environmental portrait.

Victor Junco, photographer (Riverview, Fla.): “I like to get to my assignments early so I can look around, get familiar with my subject/surroundings, look for a vantagePHXtremes point and, most important, see what the lighting conditions are like. I always prefer utilizing the natural light because of its warmth and the beautiful, soft images it creates.”

Beth Reynolds, Hallmark Institute of Photography: “While I am shooting, I constantly talk with subjects. It relaxes them, and sometimes I get good reactions. I followed one subject, Veleta, while she gave me a tour of the house and her property. “After about six frames, she asked how Ha ppy

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Spring 2000 • Volume 33 • number 3

JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism conventions

many more I was going to take. I told her I did not drive 250 miles to take five or six pictures. She laughed.”

Mike McLean, photographer (Dallas): “I’ve always loved shooting people in a place where they seem to be more at ease. In most cases, folks will let their guard down more quickly if you take pictures of them in a place with which they are familiar.

“The first thing I do before getting to the assignment is to find out as much as I can about the story. Often I’ll talk with the reporter about what they may know about this subject’s life and environment. If time allows, I’ll even go to the location to find the best option for an environmental image. The best-possible option is to shoot in a place that tells a story. Always look at other options when shooting environmental images. Make quick friends with your subject, and they will do all they can to make your job easier.”

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28 • COMMUNICATION: JOURNALISM EDUCATION TODAY

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The Mug Shot

Wilson, Bradley. “The Mug Shot.” Communication: Journalism Education Today, winter 2001 Attack on America (Manhattan, Kan.: 35(2)) Mug shots need not be bad. They are easier to take than any other photograph — even with a point-and-shoot camera — because the lighting conditions are completely controllable and the subject is stationary. The photographer has a choice of shutter speeds And how high school journalists responded Winter 2001 • Volume 35 • number 2

SPRING 2011

SPORTRAIT: Evan Semon produced a series of portraits on high-school athletes for the Rocky Mountain News. • SPORTRAIT: Melissa Lyttle and Brian Cassella spent days scouting out locations for a series of portraits for the annual football review supplement • FORMAL PORTRAIT: Rebecca Lichtig shot a series of formal portraits that involved studio work with light and makeup.

and apertures. As usual, low-numbered f/stops result in a lower depth-of-field and blurry background. Because the photographer can control the location of the photo, there is no excuse for having poles growing out of people’s heads.

The hardest part about taking mug shots is getting the subject to cooperate. The first step is selecting the background, a plain one in light without shadows. Ask the person to stand at least three feet away from the nearest object, especially when using flash, so there are no distracting shadows or background objects. Plain, neutralcolored walls make the best backgrounds.

Then make sure the subject is not standing with shoulders parallel to the film plane. Ask the individual to turn either the right or left shoulder toward the camera about 45 degrees. The position lends an air of informality to the photograph. Ask the subject to point his or her nose toward the camera and make sure the person is not tilting his or her head or squinting. Then shoot the picture.

Evan Semon, photographer (Denver, Colo): “I wanted to prove that I could make this assignment interesting if we took a little more time. I shoot a lot of athletes.

From Lebron James to John Elway, Barry Bonds to Shaq, I always get a whole day or more blocked off in preparation for these big names. I hate the fact that we tend to treat high-school athletes as lower athletes rather than invest the time in making quality images of them.

“I have decided to treat them all with the same respect and make the best images of all of them. After all, what would have happened if we had taken a Sports Illustrated or ESPN magazine style portrait of Tiger Woods on his high-school golf team?

“Even if the person students shoot a portrait of doesn’t become a big-name star, as photographers they are growing in their art and craft. And that may be the most important lesson.”

Football Portraits

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CommuniCation

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The Self Portrait

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“The Self Portrait.” Communication: Journalism Education Today, summer 2002 (Manhattan, Kan.: 35(3)) An environmental portrait is an image that tells the viewer something about the subject either through other elements within the image or as a psychological study.

Examples include the work of Arnold Newman, Annie Liebovitz and Mark Seliger.

Writing restaurant revieWs and PhotograPhing Food

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Spring 2002 • Volume 35 • number 3

Portraits of Athletes Semon, Evan. “Portraits of athletes.”

Communication: Journalism Education Today, summer 2005 (Manhattan, Kan.: 38(4)) A good portrait is more than a mug shot. It shows off the personality of the individual.

Professionals used high-class profile photography and innovative design to spotlight high-school athletes in Colorado and Indiana.

Summer 2005 • VOlume 38 • Number 4

SPRING 2011

Jesus “ Chuy Garcia Hyde Park ” High School

Lyttle, Melissa and Brian Cassella. “Football portraits.” Communication: Journalism Education Today, winter 2006 (Manhattan, Kan.: 40(2)) Melissa Lyttle, photographer, St. Peters­ burg Times: “The high-school football tab, an annual project in our county, is a huge undertaking — 28 high-school football players need to be photographed as well as a cover shot and a doubletruck — and it has previously been the feat of one photographer. When that photographer decided he did not want to do it for a fourth straight year, Brian Cassella and I jumped at the opportunity — to work together as well as to take it to the next level.

“The teamwork was tremendous from the beginning. After the sports department gave us the theme for this year’s tab (‘Sunshine State,’ soon transformed into ‘Sunshine County’), Brian and I brainstormed. Everything ‘Florida’ came to mind. Pink flamingos. Oranges. The beach. Heat. Ice cream.

“Once marketing saw the potential for doing something spectacular with our photos, they made hundreds Winter 2006 • VOlume 40 • number 2

8/18/06 1:33:31 PM

10/12/06 9:06:15 PM

continued on page 30 COMMUNICATION: JOURNALISM EDUCATION TODAY • 29

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of scorecards for each high school, with the photo we took of that school’s player on the front and with the team’s schedule and a St. Petersburg Times logo on the back. They had hawkers, wearing specially printed St. Petersburg Times football jerseys, at the first home game of every school to pass out the scorecards as well as to distribute extra copies of the football tab. “Success happened because of our teamwork: collaborating on ideas, prodding one another on techniques, assisting on shoots, maintaining consistency. It was also incredibly rewarding for Brian and me to see other departments in the newspaper respond so positively as they took our initial idea and made it bigger and better than we had imagined.�

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Portraits

Lichtig, Rebecca. “Portraits.�

Communication: Journalism Education Today, spring 2008 (Manhattan, Kan.: 41(3)) John Beale, senior lecturer/communications, 
Pennsylvania State University: “An effective portrait reflects the personality of the subject. ‌ On many traditional senior pictures, the subject’s shoulders are positioned at a 45-degree angle Spring 2008 • VOlume 41 • number 3

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away from the camera, and then the head is turned back toward the camera.�

Randy Flaum, assistant managing editor/Visuals, The York Dispatch: “Composition, lighting, exposures — these are all important elements in putting together a portrait. They give us a technically attractive photo. A portrait also needs a “soul.�

The image needs to tell us who the subject is and give us an insight into the person we’re looking at. Also, it should speak out right away. First, a portrait needs to tell a story. Then the longer we study it, we should be able to see other facets of the picture, the person.�

Bill Ragan, photographer: “Portrait photography can be challenging and rewarding. Considering all of the lighting techniques, styling options and spontaneity involved, capturing a certain look or expression can be difficult.� n

30 • COMMUNICATION: JOURNALISM EDUCATION TODAY

digital

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• Transition your staff to digital media • Improve writing, design, photography & story-telling skills • Tracks for staffs & advisers • Ask about CEUs for teachers See examples of 2010 participant work at www.jeanc.org Contact: Tracy Anne Sena, JEANC President 415.596.1792 • tracy.sena@sbcglobal.net

SPRING 2011

assignment

the self-portrait An environmental portrait is an image that tells the viewer something about the subject either through other elements within the image or as a psychological study. Examples include the work of Arnold Newman, Annie Liebovitz and Mark Seliger. Using this concept and these photographers as a guide, take a portrait of yourself. You must set up the scene, the lighting and the camera’s setting. Someone else can click the shutter if your camera doesn’t have a self-timer.

TOP LEFT: Melanie Shafranek, Allen (Texas) High School • TOP RIGHT: Daniel Reese, Westlake High School (Austin, Texas) • MIDDLE LEFT: Greg Samms, Trinity High School (Euless, Texas) • MIDDLE RIGHT: Andrew Hefter, Allen (Texas) High School • BOTTOM LEFT: Kristen Warner, West Brook High School (Beaumont, Texas) • BOTTOM MIDDLE: Rachel Klein, Trinity High School (Euless, Texas) • BOTTOM RIGHT: Taylor Todd, Arlington (Texas) High School.

SPRING 2011

COMMUNICATION: JOURNALISM EDUCATION TODAY • 31