35 Rules Of Good Portraiture
Portraiture is about the face. No element should distract from it.
1. Clothes: tell the subject, “No sleeveless clothes in a head and shoulders portrait”
2. Clothes: tell the subject, “Avoid bright colors and bold patterns in clothing”
3. Avoid Clutter: use simple fabrics and blurry backgrounds.
4. Choose correct stool height.
5. Choose a long lens to minimize foreshortening.
6. Camera at eye-level for head-and-shoulders framing, chest level for ¾ framing, waist level for full-length.
When shooting full length, a slight upward angle makes subject appear taller. A slight down angle can make one appear thinner.
7. No Flat Lighting. Maintain shadows and highlights on the face, but generally avoid black shadows.
8. Hair and kicker lights should kiss the subject, not blast it.
9. Generally, light clothed subjects look best on light backgrounds and dark clothed on dark backgrounds. (Related to “High Key”: no dark tones in frame, and “Low Key”: no bright tones in frame.)
10. Sit tall
11. Avoid “football shoulders”: shoulders flat to the camera
12. Lean over the belt buckle for a feeling of motion
13. Females: lean slightly away from the camera, so the camera-facing shoulder is higher
14. Project the chin
15. Males: never incline the head toward the high (feminine) shoulder
16. 1-2-3 Posing Technique (especially for females): Body turned 45 degrees from camera and main light, head turned back 20 degrees past camera position, eyes toward camera.
17. Pyramidal Base: body at 45 degrees to camera, lines of arms point toward the face
18. If It Bends, Bend It: no straight limbs or fingers.
19. If the subject has two of them, make them different.
20. Avoid 90-degree arm angles
21. Hands look masculine from the palm or back, feminine from the edges.
22. Don’t Stack or Clasp the Hands.
23. Miss America pose: weight on the back foot, back knee slightly bent, front foot before back foot and turned toward camera.
24. Don’t shoot into a bare armpit. Cover it with hair or something.
25. Don’t shoot into the crotch. Cross the legs, use a prop, or something.
26. Don’t pose a bride kneeling: wedding dresses are made to look elegant when standing.
27. Eyes should usually face the camera with whites visible on all sides. Males: eyes should follow the direction of the nose. Females: look best with more whites visible on one side than other, more glamorous if more whites on bottom than top (shot from slightly above). If any part of an eye is visible, the whole should be.
28. Glasses? Beware of a broken cheek line, especially with a strong prescription.
29. Keep the line of the cheek. Don’t turn the head so far that the nose crosses the cheek line.
30. Crop between the joints, not at them.
31. Beware Foreshortening: if one hand is closer to the camera, it appears over-large. Same with legs.
32. Couples: No two heads at the same height
33. Couples and Groups: No head directly above another
34. Groups: have those on the edges face slightly inward.
35. Groups: no shorts allowed
TIPS AND TRICKS:
Lighting: Soft main light at 45 degrees from subject. Gentle hair light (behind, top) and kicker (behind, opposite main light). Fill light (-1 or -2 stops, on other side of camera from main light). Optional light on backdrop to frame face.
Colored Backgrounds: Use gels to change color of a gray backdrop.
Heavy Subject: Shoulders back, head tall, and projected chin. Leaning forward (over a prop, for instance) helps to sweep away a paunch. Letting shadow fall on one side of the face helps to give it a longer shape.
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