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FREE
Photolearn portrait tutorial
Please
click on the back and
next arrows at the bottom
of the page to work your way through
this free portrait tutorial, or 
What
is a Portrait?
Whilst any picture of a person or a group of people can be described
as a portrait, what we mean by a portrait is a picture of an individual
in a contrived setting, designed to show the subject's features
and/or beauty/character at his or her best.
How much of the person is shown in the photo can vary tremendously
from just a part of the face to the whole of the body, and perhaps
some props too, and because of this both lighting and posing will
be affected.
A
Portrait doesn't need to look natural, it doesn't need to include
the whole face and it doesn't need to have either a 'standard
studio background' or 'standard' lighting - what it does need
to do is to suit the subject!
Portraits
are contrived shots.
What I mean by that it that they're not usually snapshots of something
that just happens, a degree of thought and planning goes into
their production - and like all planned shots the first step in
the plan has to be to decide exactly what it is that you want
to convey in your portrait. We are all complex subjects and most
of us have complex roles in life.
As
an example, if a woman in her twenties asks you to produce a portrait
of her it's very possible that she will be all of the different
people listed below and she's almost certain to be at least some
of them.
·
Daughter
· Mother
· Lover
· Employee
· Employer
· Friend
And
her parents, children, partner, boss, employees and friends will
all see her in different ways. Because of this your first job
is to find out why she wants the portrait in the first place -
is it for the Company brochure? Is it for her kids? For her partner?
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