Articles Tagged with: portraiture

Transitions

Wow – The last you heard from me on the blog I was selling off a bunch of gear, and then… Nothing.

If I wasn’t me and I saw that happen to another professional, I’d think that they gave up and closed shop.

2014 was my best year in the photography business yet, but by the end of it I didn’t appreciate that fact at all. I realized that the sole reason I got into photography was to be creative, and I started to become bitter at a lot of the business side of things. I already run a very busy consulting business and I was burning the candle at both ends. I hired staff to run my other business so I can focus on being more creative, but guess what? I ended up managing those people, which took up even more of my time.

I also began resenting requests to recreate what clients saw on social media from other photographers. I couldn’t help but think “Why don’t you find the person who shot that and hire them instead?” Combine that resentment with people contacting me for jobs and saying things like “I love your work but I don’t want to spend a lot of money” or the constant requests for usage with no compensation.

It’s more than enough to make someone walk away.

But I’m not walking away. I’m transitioning my focus.

I’ve been saying no a lot. Not to jobs that make me nervous, but to jobs that I’ve tried before and realized are not for me. It’s not about what I’m good at, it’s about what I love doing. If I’m not loving the work, there’s no point in doing it.

I don’t want to capture templates of life.

I wan’t to capture real moments and authentic emotions.

You know, actual life.

Furthermore, I want to create. But how do you create something using real life? Once I direct a subject, or manipulate a scene, aren’t I manufacturing reality and creating something that wasn’t there naturally? How the hell do I interpret a real emotion or moment and make something out of it without betraying the authenticity of the medium?

I just don’t know.

But I’ve got to ask myself, do I even care about the authenticity of the medium in that way anymore?

I do care about capturing life. I do care about making art. So I began focusing heavily on something else while looking for answers.

I found a group of artists from all walks of life, both amateur and professional, who attend drawing from life sessions at different locations in the area every week. I tried doing something I’d never done before – Drawing live models. The focus on drawing a timed sketch of a human is not on the exact realistic representation of the model. It’s about the gesture. It’s about the body language. The essence of the subject is more important than anything else.

I really liked this one tonight - Mary at #TheArtistsLoft in #MountPleasant

15 minute #sketch #FigureDrawing #graphite #fabercastell #livemodel

Pastel #FigureDrawing from life #20Minutes

Like photography, technique comes into play. There are also tools of the trade (although pencils and paper are pretty accessible in comparison to lenses and lights). I do find myself “geeking out” over a brand of pencils or a type of paper. It’s part of who I am. Give me too many pencils and I’ll stress out over which thickness is best for whatever I’m drawing. It’s just like packing too many lenses for a job. I make better work when I limit myself (I hope that sinks in one day). The gear is all a noisy distraction.

I also started to practice drawing from photos again. When there’s more time to draw, I find that the muscle memory of drawing gesture from a live model is taking over first. Once I realize that I have time to relax, I’m able to focus on the technique again. The more I practice both drawing live models and from reference photos, the better I’ll be equipped to capture both gesture and accuracy without even thinking about it.

Here’s a pastel drawing I recently made from a reference photo:

Trying a different medium tonight. #Pastel #FigureDrawing #PhotoReference #fabercastell #Strathmore #Female #Nude

This is a piece I made for my wife using a photo I took years ago as a reference:

Pastel Elephant Drawing for Amy by Joseph W. Nienstedt

So, what does this all mean?

What I’m looking to create photographically and through drawing and painting is starting to come a little more into focus for me.

I know I want authenticity, but not technical authenticity.
I want emotional authenticity.

But how do I achieve that? I guess the simplest way is for me to believe it first. I have to believe the image. If I know I’m not being genuine, then chances are everyone else knows too. I’m a terrible liar anyway. The challenge is to take that authentic gesture, or emotion, or general essence of whatever I’m trying to capture and use my technical skill to push the envelope. I need to marry the real with the surreal but not force it.

So while all of this is swimming in my head and weighing on my heart, I happened to catch a very inspiring talk at The Citadel last night by an artist and gallery owner named Robert Lange.

As he told his story and talked about his craft, I was mesmerized. Here’s a guy who’s clearly gone through all of this shit already and is still struggling with identifying himself to himself. I know it’s not necessarily news to most people that artists don’t tend to settle, but the honesty he used in conveying that was enlightening.

He reflected on his college years and how he worked harder than anyone in his classes – Staying up all hours working on his paintings and making work that looked exactly like his subjects, and when it was time for a critique from working artists, they all told him that art wasn’t for him. They said he lacked soul in his work. So, feeling dejected, he decided make paintings of his puppy and his fiancée because he genuinely loved them and they made him feel good about life. Lo and behold, when the artists saw these new paintings, they praised his work. They could see his passion through his brush strokes – He just needed to paint what he truly cared about.

He showed us the different bodies of work that he’s created, and his natural progression of creativity covers 15 years of artwork. 15 years is a long time, but it’s also a blink of an eye. It’s easy to download a band’s whole catalog of music, or see an artists whole portfolio of work and get discouraged. We get this instant gratification but lose the sense of time that went into creating that work. We immediately think “I’m nowhere near as talented as that guy” and put down our camera/guitar/paint brush in disgust.

There’s something missing in conveying that time in the creative world. The journey is just as important, if not more important than the work for an artist. In the end though, the work is what lives on. It’s sad until I think of the current popular culture of people being famous for being famous. When they die, there’s no work to show for their fame so their fame dies with them.

During Robert’s talk, he mentioned that photographers should take as many portraits of strangers as possible. He does that to capture people off guard and being themselves. If he uses their portrait to create a painting, he sends them a print of that painting. They have no idea that he’s going to do that either, so there’s no pretense to it for them – I imagine that they’re just signing what amounts to being a photo release and then months later a print of a stunning piece of artwork shows up at their door.

After his talk, I ran to my car and grabbed my camera. I decided as the talk came to a close that I would take his portrait. Who knows, maybe I’ll make a painting of it one day…

Very inspiring talk from @paintdifferent of @RobertLangeStudios at #BehindTheLens tonight at #TheCitadel - I took his portrait when he was done #CHS #CHSArt

So, what exactly is it that I’m transitioning my creative focus to?

I’ll let you know when I find out.

Until then, I’m going to enjoy capturing the search.

Thanks for reading.

-Joe

Portrait Vs. Headshot

There’s a fine line between a portrait and a headshot. The main difference being that a headshot is a professional representation of the subject for the desired use of the photograph, while a portrait tells more of a story. It doesn’t have to be a complicated story either, just something that makes you wonder what’s going on. Dramatic lighting, coloring, and expressive poses can take the same subject wearing the same outfit with the same hair and make-up and transform the image completely.

The photo above is of Amanda Cruz, who came by to get this headshot made for her new real estate business:

These shots are only a few moments apart – The difference in her pose and expression coupled with a change in the lighting setup and you have a completely different product. Sometimes the difference can be subtle, so the best way to determine whether you’re making a headshot or portrait is in the story. Is the photo showing the subject being themselves? Is it displaying something in their character? Then it’s most likely a headshot. On the other hand, if the shot is implying an emotion, or leading you to imagine a scenario that is playing out for or in view of the subject, then you’re most likely looking at a portrait.

Personal Connection

It doesn’t feel like that long ago when I decided that my passion in photography involved the connection to people. I dabbled and still dabble in still life, landscape, and architectural photography, but the photos that mean the most to me are those frozen moments of humanity that I’ve captured. And I think I’ve figured out why. It’s something that isn’t entirely tangible. It’s the magic that happens between the subject and the 4th wall (which is usually the photographer).

This is not a spiritual thing, but there is certainly an emotional bond that photographers have with their subjects. There’s a trust and a connection that radiates in their expression, whether it’s a candid shot or a completely staged portrait. If that connection is lost or broken, the image is cold. The subject looks out of place. It’s like they don’t want to be there, or worse, it’s like they don’t believe in the photographer.

This is something I’ve been struggling to identify for a while now. Why do some photogs take amazing scenic shots, but fail miserably with people shots? Why do some people know every single lighting and exposure rule and live by proven compositional theories but come up with off-putting portraits? I think it comes down to personality.

There are photographers that can make a building come to life, and others that can make you feel like you’re in the habitat of a wild animal. There are ones that will make huge sacrifices and fly all over the world capturing the perfect light at the perfect time of year. Then there are those that can peel back the walls and bring out a person’s soul. An introvert may not be the best person to capture the light of humanity. They might be amazing at seeing leading lines and balancing the exposure of natural light with artificial light. But, they make people nervous when they attempt a portrait.

On the flip-side, I see a lot of photographers struggling with the technical side of things, yet they make amazing portraits. I was reading a thread on one of the photo forums the other day about a photographer who was upset by the popularity of a local photographer in his area who he thought was terrible because she didn’t know the difference between a RAW file or a jpeg. He then posted a gallery of some of her shots and they were really good. He didn’t get it because he didn’t have it when it comes to shooting people.

What is “it”? I think it’s a deep love for your subject – an appreciation for their inner beauty as well as their outer beauty. “It” is also something that someone who lights up a room has because “It” is a drive to bring everyone up a notch. “It” is not just one thing, it’s also a creative eye, an eye for detail, and an eye for spotting a good story and conveying it in a single image. Whatever you believe “It” is, I don’t think you can find it in a manual. I don’t know if “It” can be taught in a class. That special attraction that some people possess is different for different people. I do think “It” can be nurtured and grown. I do think everybody is capable of their own version of “It”. Confidence, skill, experience, morality, emotion – these are some of the key ingredients. The recipe is unique to all of us and it’s our job to be honest with ourselves in realizing what our passions are and if we’re serving the art over some unrelated motive.

It makes me cringe when I see people obsess over F-stops and focal lengths. There are articles written about what aperture is most used in the most popular photos. While the technical information is very important to learn and it’s great that there is so much educational info available, I feel like many people never escape from it. They’re so concerned with technical perfection that they’ve never tried to capture a meaningful photo. In a perfect world, you’d use that information to help you capture an image you’re envisioning, not capture a photo to demonstrate technical skill.

The magical moment that a beautiful image comes together because of the personality and interaction between the photographer and the subject, combined with technical skill and artistry is what we should all be hoping to achieve. Those images are the culmination of lots of hard work both with the camera and more importantly with relationships. What it all boils down to in my opinion is that the moment and the “It” factor are far more important than the technical stuff will ever be when it comes to shooting people. It’s what I’m currently focusing all of my attention on. How can I be a better communicator and make images that resonate?

Doing Shots

I shoot a lot of headshots. To some, it may seem like a pretty vanilla practice in the world of photography – A plain background and a simple shot of a face. To me, I think it’s one of the most intimately challenging things to do with a camera!

The expression says it all. The reality is that they are reflecting the vibe you put out to them. You want them to forget about the camera and just be themselves, but I’m under no illusion that that’s consistently possible in a 15 minute session. Most of my headshots are for business people who don’t have 2 hours to nail their headshot perfectly. For most of my clients, it’s a very quick interaction. For that, I’ve got to influence them as positively as possible.

Injecting confidence into a subject is tough, especially if you have 10 of them to do in a day. I’m challenged with not only keeping my spirits up, but lifting theirs within minutes of meeting them. Shooting a lot of event portraits has really tuned my skills for this kind of scenario. Once I get a rhythm going, I know the sessions will be good.

I’ve also put together a mental rolodex of lighting setups for various types of clients. the shot directly above was done with just the modeling lights and a very wide open aperture to give the portrait a shallow depth of field. This works well for some girls because of the extremely soft lighting. For guys, I like to have a sharp edge light on their cheeks like in this shot below:

My favorite setup at the moment is to literally bathe my subjects in soft light from above and below. It’s what I used on the photo at the top of this post. It’s so flattering, and also quite forgiving as it fills in laugh lines and eyes so nicely. It makes post production a breeze! Here’s another shot with this lighting setup:

Natural Light Portrait

Here’s one of my clients who today became an unknowing portrait subject of mine. I received a really cool book for Christmas by Chris Orwig called “People Pictures: 30 Exercises for Creating Authentic Photographs“. The title of the book really spoke to me, and the cover of it screamed “BUY ME!” so I had to add it to the wish list 😉

I just started reading it this morning, and I was happy to see that the forward was written by one of my favorite photo authors David duChemin, who’s latest book, “Photographically Speaking: A Deeper Look at Creating Stronger Images” I’ve also received for Christmas and have been reading.

So the first exercise is to take a very quick portrait with minimal equipment. I was working with Bobby at his office replacing some computer equipment when I saw that the clouds had covered the sun at one point enough to get an environmental portrait outside in front of his doorway. This was the initial shot I made:

I framed him just outside of the entranceway to his office with his sign hanging overhead so that it looks almost like it was put there in post. He’s in the light and the background is in the shadow. The short-lived cloud acted as my light diffuser and I chose the slight angle to keep all of those elements together while avoiding as much of the reflections in the windows as possible. I positioned Bobby dead center to balance the sign in the shot. The shadows of the entranceway formed a natural vignette, although I did add a little more vignetting in post even it out on the bottom half of the frame. I shot this with a 35mm prime lens at f/1.8 & ISO 200. I was in Aperture Priority with a +1/3 EV and it chose 1/1250 of a second for the shutter speed. I shot a few frames to nail the composition and a few more to adjust the exposure, and got my shot within a minute. It was that easy, and that was the point – don’t worry about lenses, lights, or filters. Just grab the camera and take a simple portrait of a person without forcing it.

The problem is that once I get the bug, it’s hard to squish it. Inside, I shot a few more shots, including the one at the top of this post which I really ended up liking. He’s sitting between two windows, which made for really cool rim lights. I shot it in manual mode at f/1.8, 1/40th of a second, and ISO 200. I got in close to throw everything past his eyes into a slight blur. I also removed a few blemishes and smoothed the skin slightly in Photoshop (a backlit natural light portrait can be a little unforgiving on anyone over the age of 25) and that’s it. The book is really not about flattery though, it’s about connecting with people, which I believe was a successful attempt here.

There’s also a Flickr group based around the exorcises in the book, and so far there are some really talented photographers participating.