Portrait photography is my bread and butter…
Portrait photography is pretty much my staple when it comes to photography content for businesses. Most photographers will tell you that they’ve done some in their lifetime. Some don’t do so much, they might photograph product, landscapes, etc but we’ve all done portrait photography at some stage in our careers. The majority of commercial/marketing/branding (whatever you want to call us) photographers shoot portraits. Most people in business need one at some point or other and nearly everyone hates having their portrait taken. Me included!
Why do we hate being in front of the camera so much? Well because most of us are self conscious, never really happy with our appearance and wished that we looked 10 years younger, which is why you all tend to put off updating that LinkedIn profile picture. Again, me included. There are the odd exception who actually like having their photographic portrait taken and that’s generally because they are in the minority who are comfortable with their outward appearance and ooze confidence. These type of people make my life easier. However, like life, portrait photography isn’t easy. In fact it can be pretty challenging, as the majority of folk tend to find other distractions when I appear with my camera. I see that look of fear as faces hide behind computer monitors and the ‘wave of dread’ sweeps through the room.
So how do I combat this? How do I put people at ease and win them over so that they’ll stand in front of a camera with some big scary lights pointing at them? That’s where people skills come in. I’m not professing to be an expert at getting into their psyche, commanding a room or captivating an audience, but I’m OK at just getting on with nearly everyone I meet. No divine gift I’m afraid, I’m simply a people person. To photograph someone and change their facial expression from ‘awkward’, ‘fear’, ‘how quickly can I get out of here?’ to ‘relaxed’ or ‘this isn’t so bad’ takes a bit of time and some personal engagement.
Now not all portrait shoots are the same. Some are fairly straight forward, what I would call a standard corporate portrait, where we set up a backdrop, some lighting and have the sitter smiling confidently back to camera. Then there are more natural, lifestyle portraits, where the brief might be to capture a person going through a real moment in time. This can be a spontaneous shot, using available light, or something more staged with portable lighting. This all depends on the location, brief, weather and many other variables that get chucked my way. In fact the latter is often an easier way to photograph people as they feel less like a rabbit in the headlights.
Sometimes clients want something totally bespoke and these can be more interesting. How do we make our portraits stand out from our competitors? Well that’s often down to several factors. Brand, creative direction and confidence. Having the confidence to step away from the standard can be the difference that sets you apart from your competitors.
One of my first questions is to ask what the client wants, do they have a clear brief for me, what are the end purposes of the portrait shoot? What platforms will they be used on, will I need to allow for varying crops…….. are there good tea making facilities at their workplace? These types of questions are critical.
It’s also important to find out what they don’t want and when a client can provide a brief that stipulates this, especially with some visual guidelines, this really helps me to get the result that they want and avoid what they don’t want.
Portrait photography has kept opening doors and fuelled my love of meeting people. It’s taken me all over the country, often with lots of black cases and some big rolls of paper crammed in the back of the car. As much as I love the work that takes me into the wilder and more remote places, it’s the people that help put some of these places into context. Meeting them, learning a tiny bit about their lives, what their passionate about and what drives them is something I’ll always find interesting.
So embrace the portrait photo shoot, give me a challenge and let’s have a brew!
