There may be as many ways to make a good portrait shot as there are subjects - and yet there are also a few ground rules you can keep in mind, applicable to most situations.
And when I say “portrait” I mean a picture where the emphasis is on the face(s) of the subject(s). A picture where you don’t see the face of the subject is not a portrait, IMHO. Usually the subject is a human being - although there can also be “portraits” of animals; in the latter case they tend to be pets, like dogs or cats. (ever heard of an “alligator portrait” or a “shark portrait”?)
Rule #1: The Eyes Must Be in Focus
Well, I’m sure you can come up with some example of a good portrait shot where the eyes of the subject are NOT in focus - but that is a rare exception to the rule. In 99.9% of all portraits, you expect that at least the eyes are in good focus.
OK, in the excellent portrait of an old lady from Sikkim here by “Sukanto Debnath“, the subject happens to have her eyes closed - but these closed eyelids Are In Focus!
There are other features of this picture which make it such an enormously successful portrait, such as:
- the dark blue cloth which frames the woman’s face
- the way the light emphasizes the sculptural qualities of her features
- the way she tilts her head, which is placed off-center, creating a strong diagonal line
- how that blue cloth also forms a diagonal line
- and then there’s the initimable expression on the woman’s face!
Rule #2: There Should Not Be a Distracting Background
This rule is something I keep ruminating about for ALL types of pictures, anyway in a portrait I find it particularly annoying to see a background which competes with the subject for my attention.
This fine picture by “striatic” shows how you can leave a lot of space around a subject and yet focus the attention squarely on the subject!
Also, what else is so striking about the picture? Well, here everything is perfectly symmetrical! The man is placed right in the middle of the picture, his posture is also symmetrical (like, both hands in same position); and he looks straight into the camera. Altogether, this creates a strong effect.
OK, and I do find dark sunglasses to be permissible in a portrait - at least in an informal portrait like this one…
By the way, did you notice there is ONE thing those two portraits - very different in most ways - actually have in common? Right, you can’t actually see the eyes of either subject… but there was another thing:
In both pictures, the camera was held a bit below the subject’s face - roughly at shoulder level! This is a good rule to keep in mind: people tend to look their best if the camera is positioned so the face is shown a little bit from below. Sure, you can experiment with other angles too but if you like to keep things simple then stick to this rule.
Rule #3: The Subject Should Be at Ease!
Sounds self-evident maybe, but many (perhaps MOST) of the portraits I’ve seen violate that simple rule. A portrait where the subject looks strained and not relaxed at all can never in my opinion count as a good portrait - regardless of how technically perfect it happens to be.
Yes, this includes most pictures with smiling people also. We all like to see smiling faces BUT: what if you clearly feel that the smile is not a genuine, spontaneous smile but just a fake? Do you like to have people fire off fake-smiles at you? No, probably not - personally, I’d feel very uncomfortable and begin to think something is seriously wrong!
And yet… we are so used to see those fake-smiles in many portrait shots - even some made by “professionals”. Usually, a relaxed person simply looks RELAXED! People typically only smile if they are feeling amused about something in the moment, or just extremely happy about life in general.
Those are precious moments, - but you can’t force them. What you CAN do as a photographer is to simply make the subject feel at ease. And if you have excellent rapport with your subject, you MIGHT be able to say something that provokes a spontaneous smile! Otherwise, be content with that relaxed look.
The image shown here, by “lakshmi.prabhala“, is an excellent example of a relaxed portrait.
Compare this image with the first one, of the old woman - the composition is somewhat similar: subject off-center, head tilted, diagonal lines. And that formula is indeed used very effectively in this case also.
Let these portraits sink in, and reflect on what you can learn from how they are executed. (It’s probably pure coincidence that 2 out of 3 chosen portraits in this article are from Asia - I simply picked what I considered the *BEST* while browsing through hundreds of portrait-shots.)
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