Originally Posted by
brenz105
nka basa ko ani sa lain nga forum...ako lang i-share kay nindot man...
sharing is loving ingon si master michael...hehe!
six things you should never do:
1. Make sure the face is never turned away from the main light.
2. Make sure the shoulders, waist, and hips are never squared off to the camera.
3. Make sure the arms are never posed in contact with the side of the body.
4. Make sure the chin is never lowered to a point where it diminishes the catchlights in the eyes from the main light.
5. Make sure the spine never forms a vertical line and the shoulders never form a horizontal line in the frame.
6. Make sure to never have an expression on your face you don’t want on the client’s face in the portrait.
Number One: The Angle of the Face
I, like most photographers, work with a lighting ratio that is approx- imately 3:1 without diffusion, and 4:1 with diffusion. This means if the face is turned away from the light, the shadow on the side of the nose will increase, making the nose appear larger. There are two solutions to this problem: turn the face more toward the main light, or decrease the lighting ratio.
Turning the face toward the main light (left) illuminates the mask of the face and creates shadows that shape it nicely. Turning the face away from the main light (right) creates unflattering shadows.
Decreasing the lighting ratio produces a flat look in the portrait.
Decreasing the lighting ratio produces a flat look in the portrait. I call this “mall lighting,” because the inexperienced photographers employed by most national and mall photography studios tend to use this very flat lighting to avoid shadows if the face isn’t posed properly.
If, instead, you turn the face toward the main light source, whether in the studio or outdoors, you light the mask of the face without increasing shadowing in areas of the face where it shouldn’t be. An added bonus: turning the head also stretches out the neck and reduces the appearance of a double chin, if the subject has one.
Number Two: The Shoulders, Waist, and Hips
The widest view of any person is when the person is squared off to the camera. By turning the shoulders, waist, and hips to a side view, preferably toward the shadow side of the frame, you create the thinnest view of the body—and we all want to look as thin as possible.
When the hips and shoulders are square to the camera (left), the body looks wide. Turning the body to an angled view (right) is much more flat- tering to the figure.
Number Three: The Arms
When the arms are allowed to hang down to the side of a client, the body isn’t defined. It is one mass, making the body appear wider. When the elbows are away from the body, the waistline is defined and appears smaller.
Number Four: Lower the Chin, Lose the Catchlights
Having no catchlights in the eyes is a problem I see in images by both young photographers and more seasoned ones. This comes from the knowledge that lowering the chin produces a more attrac- tive angle of the face, but being too lazy to lower the main light to compensate for the pose.
Adjust the lighting each time you pose your client. Raise the main light to a point that is obviously too high, as shown in the top left photo, which has heavy shadows under the eyes and nose, a dark shadow on the side of the face, and diminished catchlights. Slowly lower the light until the effect is what you are looking for (top center). To complete the lighting, add the reflector underneath the sub- ject bouncing light up onto the face (top right). To the right, the setup for this image.
Strong catchlights in the eyes are the single most important aspect of a portrait (from a lighting standpoint). The main light should be adjusted with each client, in each pose, to ensure the proper placement. I tell our young photographers to elevate the main light to a point where it is obviously too high (with no appar- ent catchlight) and then slowly lower it until the proper lighting effect is achieved. This forces them to adjust the light with each pose and ensures that each client will have catchlights in each one of their poses.
Number Five: The Spine and Shoulders
This could be called the “anti-stiffness” rule. When you see a por- trait of a person in which their shoulders are running perfectly hor- izontal through the frame, or in which the spine (if you could see it)
If the subject’s body is perfectly vertical in the frame, they will look rigid and uptight.
is running perfectly vertical in the frame, the person in the portrait appears stiff. Visually, you are telling everyone who sees this por- trait that your client is up- tight and very rigid.
By posing the person reclining slightly backwards or leaning slightly forward, the shoulders and spine go diagonally through the frame and achieve a more relaxed look. The portrait will have a professional look and it will be more visually appealing.It will also create a more flatter- ing impression of the sub- ject’s personality.
Number Six: Your Expression This is by far the most important of the rules. The first “photography saying” I heard was “expression sells photographs”—and it’s true! You can have the perfect pose and the perfect lighting, but if the expression doesn’t meet the client’s expectations, you won’t sell the portrait.
Again, this is another area where photographers think they know best. Most photographers like serious expressions with the lips together or glamorous expressions with the lips slightly separated. Among the public, however, mothers are the dominant buyers of professional photography, and they like smiles. Women tend to be the decision makers about photography, and they generally like por- traits where the subjects (whether it’s their kids, their parents, or their neighbors) look happy. Happy sells—and if you want to profit from your work, you had better produce what sells.
Many photographers have a problem getting a subject to achieve a pleasant expression. Most of the time the problem comes from the photographer not realizing an important concept called “mirror-
six things you should never do
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