Portraits & Approach
How do you approach the making of a portrait?
And more specifically, are there any golden rules in the approach, or is each image made under its terms?
I’m an emotional photographer. By that I mean that I’m not really consciously aware of what it is I’m doing – I tend to go with a gut feeling. My friends say that I’m an open book and that I tend to be aware of others feelings – emotional intelligence. Without putting too fine a point on it, I think that this is really at the core of people pictures. You need to have a sense of empathy for your subject. I know that when I approach someone, I go in there with an excitement to make an image of them because there is something about their pose or aesthetics which has inspired me. But I also go in there with an appreciation that I am entering into someone else’s life. And each and every one of us has our own thoughts, feelings, aspirations and agendas. I never really know for sure how my advance is going to be interpreted, but I feel confident that I’m able to read body language well. I can tell sometimes when it’s not going to happen. They’re either blatant at moving away, or it’s more subtle – a stiffening of their pose, a hardening of expression…. I just get a feeling and I know if it’s going to work out.
I heard two stories about Steve McCurry. One contradicts the other. The first is that he communicates with people on a body language side only. This I can appreciate because it’s exactly how it works for me. Most of the time there is very little said in the exchange. It’s all done in a non verbal way and like I said, if you show empathy and respect for your subject, then the karma starts to flow. The other story I heard just recently was from a couple who went to Pakistan and said that the village they were in were fed up with Steve, because he’d been there for three weeks, orchestrating them into doing what he wanted – and giving nothing back. I personally doubt that this is true – it would go against the grain and we would see it in his photos.
About my photos. Well, the first one at the top of this posting, is of an old man in Jodpur. I like nothing better than getting up early and heading out for a wander. I just roam and roam. Sometimes I see someone and think they’re interesting – something catches my eye and with this old man, I’d specifically asked him for his photo. Many people go into a ‘ridgid’ pose as soon as you enter into a dialog (verbal or non), but he was pretty cool. I like his pose – he seems almost inquisitive as to what I’m doing. The head is tilted to our left, and his hands are carrying a bucket – but they’re in a nice position to seal off the bottom of the frame. Then there are the colours – they’re all very complentary.
The second image, that of the girl happened in an entirely different way. Just outside Jaipur there’s a little village run by the Bishnoi tribe. We were taken on a guided tour and I came upon this girl just leaning against the wall. The dialog was non-verbal. She didn’t change her stance or anything (which made me happy – as I could already see the photograph right there). I nodded, held up the camera and shot, then smiled and she nodded back and I could see the trace of a smile as her eyes creased at the sides. It was non invasional, and like I’ve said – if I’d approached and she wasn’t happy, I feel confident I would have picked up the vibes. Sometimes that’s all you’ve got to go on.
Hi Bruce, I’ve been enjoying these portraits over the last few days, so thanks for posting them. The tonality is fantastic, which with the interesting subjects makes for very nice viewing.
I’ve been meaning to ask you something for a while, which relates to portraiture. I’ve recently photographed a whole bunch of stuff on Portra, but I cannot bring myself to get the lab to scan it (£££). I’m going to try scanning it on an Epson flatbed, but in the past my results have been very dissapointing in the colour stakes. So my real question relates to the dark art of converting colour negative film on a computer. Could you offer any starting points or advice for us novices who are lusting after accurate/nice colour negative scans? Sincere apologies if you’ve already talked about this, and if I’m bothering you with too technical a question feel free to ignore it :)
Cheers,
mike
Comment by mike — 7 July, 2009 @ 5:36 pm
Hi Mike,
It’s a big topic, and something I’m not an expert on.
I can give you my opinion though.
Firstly, going back to film is a dilemma for most : film means scanning, and scanning means either buying a scanner (which is cheaper in the long run) than getting a lab to do it. But the down side is that it’s a mine field out there as to what scanner to get.
I was lucky. I first used a Nikon Coolscan 8000 (which had problems – banding unless you turn single CCD scan on and accept that that the scan times will multiply by a factor of three). And now I own a 9000 which is a slight improvement but a very fine scanner all the same.
Flatbeds. Forget them. I’m so fed up with the mis-information out there about these items. I’ve had Large Format photographers who have spent over 6K on a system of lenses and body say that the flat beds give as good a scan as a Hasselblad Flextight. It simply isn’t true – because I tried it myself. I a friend of mine had the Epson V750 so I did comparison scans on my 9000 and the v750 and the difference was night and day. Halos around any extreme contrast and wishy-washy colour.
So in terms of getting the colours you see in your films, you need to get a good scanner. A second hand 8000 at the moment is perhaps going for around £600 or slightly more – a complete bargain.
Then we have the difficulty of getting the scan to match what we see on the light table. That is a huge topic and something I don’t have space to go into here. But suffice to say that there are those out there who like to have their systems calibrated using IT8 targets and are angst if the colour is not exact. I’m not that inclined.
Comment by Bruce Percy — 7 July, 2009 @ 5:46 pm
Hi Bruce,
On a related subject – how do you go about getting model releases from people you photograph? I can imagine it being difficult, especially when you don’t know the language.
I’ve always wondered about this.
Lovely photos, as always.
Mark
Comment by olwick — 8 July, 2009 @ 7:16 am
The simple answer is ‘I don’t’. But the longer answer is that model releases are required if the images are going to be used in a commercial way, but for editorial stuff such as news articles, they’re not required.
I’m not into making money from people from third world areas. I make money from landscape photography and from workshops. People are just subjects I love to interact with – it’s not just the photography that I’m into, I also like the whole exchange and using my camera allows me to get involved with other people that I’d normally pass by on the street and have nothing to do with.
I think it would be very hard and calculating to stick a model release below some Indian person. Having said all this, I got the distinct impression that Steve McCurry does not get model releases. Perhaps I’m wrong. I really don’t know – it’s not an area I want to get into.
Comment by Bruce Percy — 8 July, 2009 @ 7:22 am
Hi Bruce,
Many thanks for such a detailed response, much appreciated. And sorry for bogging down your posts with boring gear-related questions..!
In terms of actually converting a raw scanned colour negative to a positive, does something like a Nikon 8000 do a good job automatically? I’ve seen lots of (confusing looking..) software out there claiming to do a better job than scanner software.
Cheers,
mike
Comment by mike — 10 July, 2009 @ 3:41 pm
I haven’t done much of that Mike, but at times I’ve found certain films don’t scan so well, so I would scan them as positives (even though they were negatives) and then invert them and they have looked fine. But I’ve only done it a few times.
You really need to try the scanner for yourself. There is so much mis-information out there on the web, which is a real shame, because these Nikon Coolscan scanners are really excellent and miles away from the Epson flatbeds. The Epson’s are ‘OK’ if you just want to scan something to send to someone on email etc, but if you’re looking to do superb prints, then the Coolscans are in a different world.
Comment by Bruce Percy — 10 July, 2009 @ 3:58 pm