Capture Real Expressions for a Better Portrait
“smile! say cheese…” Oh for heaven’s sake!!!!
If you really want people to connect with your portraits, you’ll need to capture shots that transmit genuinely natural expressions rather than enforced smiles (Get this - some people don’t smile all the time). And, unless you especially want your portraits to look like amateurish selfies taken on a mobile phone, avoid the ‘selfie pout’ which seems to come automatically these days.
I heard a great piece of wisdom from my photographic inspiration, Peter Coulson. He says that female models typically have 3 groups of expressions:
The selfie pout -
The looking in a mirror face
The ‘I look great and I’m in my happy place’ face
Guess what, you want #3.
The ‘I look great and i’m in a happy place’ face is something that will only happen by building a bond with the subject. The photographer will need to find that trigger, that piece of magic that releases the tension and seduces the subject into being themselves. Try asking the subject about their dog, or horse, or boyfriend/girlfriend, or favourite holiday destination - frankly anything that puts them in that ‘golden circle’. Interestingly, I’ve never seen anyone relax when speaking about their cat!!! ;-). Never ever, under any circumstances, say “show me your bedroom eyes” I really can’t think of anything more creepy (and deeply insulting) than hearing a male photographer asking a female model for this.
More often than not, we see portraiture expressions as a black or white choice: stern looks or big smiles. But in between those two polar opposites, there is an ocean of raw emotions waiting to be explored.
Nothing feels as magnetic as genuine emotions frozen in time within a still image, which is why candid shots are one of the biggest photography trends of 2019. When working with clients, you’ll often see how frequently they choose blurry or improperly exposed images over those technically perfect shots. This is because they are simply looking for real representations of themselves.
The slightest changes in your subject’s facial expression can completely change the mood of the image. Because of this, you should try to capture a wide range of emotions from which you can choose during the post processing stage.