Most photo tips are easy to incorporate into your arsenal of winning photography ideas, and so is this one! Actually it is easy to do, but really HARD to make ourselves do!
Most photo tips are easy to incorporate into your arsenal of winning photography ideas,
and this one is no exception! Actually it is easy to do, but really HARD to make ourselves do!
Today's photo tip is a fairly short one: Study your subjects face!
By that I mean, sit them on a stool and LOOK at them. Decide which side is their "better" side. Look for flaws like acne or scarring. Check for bent noses. Check for too large noses, or too small. Check the ears, the hair, the neck...
Have you ever done this? I don't mean surreptitiously - I mean out and out staring at them and moving around studying their face.
Easy to do, but hard to make yourself do - because both you and your model will be very uncomfortable with the process. Your subject is going to feel really uncomfortable being scrutinized in this way. There is a very good chance that no one has ever studied their face - trying to pick out the flaws.
And it goes without mentioning that YOU will feel really uncomfortable doing it! But the finished portrait will be worth the effort.
As photographers, whether professional or a hobbyist, it is our job to make the subject look like a million bucks! We can't do that without "fixing" the various problem areas. And we can't fix them if we don't know what they are!
Bottom line, it is hard and uncomfortable to study your model's face, but you have to do it. In other words, you will be uncomfortable - get over it!
Once you have noted all the good and bad features (we all have them) you can employ photo techniques to magnify or minimize them.
Got one side that is noticeably better than the other? Turn the head so that the "bad" side is toward the back. BTW - as a rule of thumb, the best side is usually (but not always) the side that is opposite their "handedness."
For a right hander, the left side is usually best, and for a left hander, the right side.
Is one eye - or one ear - is larger than the other? All you have to do is turn the head so that the best one is showing. Hide the offending one or put it in shadow to minimize it's affect on the portrait.
Crooked noses can be "straightened" by shooting from the side the nose curves toward. A too long nose can be fixed by shooting directly into it.
Most scarring and acne can be handled by the way a portrait is lit.
But you won't know to employ these photo techniques unless you study the subjects face. Try this photo tip and I think you will agree that the results far outweigh the minor embarrassment you and your subject have to endure.
