Front And Behind Of Great Portrait Photography. A Closer Look
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- Опубликовано: 27 июл 2024
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00:00 Intro
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Friday night and it's time for a, slightly delayed, episode of TPE.
As per tradition, there is a small whoopsie in there somewhere just waiting for the eagle eyed to find it....
Answers in the comments below - a picture of a bowl of soup and £1 in used stamps to the first to let us all know.
'clue', it might be a spelling error, or, it might not ;)
Mr Nicholas.....
Actually he is Mr. Nicolas & not Arnold Palmer. His glove is his own brand. The Golden Bear.
If it's not the Arnold Palmer one, could it be the timing when you announce "Here is Churchill," as Martin Luther King Jnr is revealed?
Jack Nicklaus, not Arnold Palmer. 😀
Easy. "More stronger"
Amazing content as always! I'm studying with this channel and made the following summary for anyone interested:
1. Get close: Study the face.
2. Be proactive: Influence the sitter.
3. From the gut: Shoot instinctively.
4. Context: Include information or clues about the sitter.
5. Regroup: If things are not working, move on. Change it up. Try something different.
6. Focus on what matters: Don’t be a slave to the gear.
7. Challenge yourself: Have self-imposed limitations, a single style. Give a stage to the subject.
8. Say something: Have a voice in your photography. Communicate ideas.
9. Involve the sitter: Let the subject know what you’re wanting to achieve.
10. Break rules: Carve your own path.
Great summary
This is one of your best so far . everyone should watch it .
Thanks Steve, glad you enjoyed it. Great to have you here.
Yes, I enjoyed this video.
Sir, your advices are priceless. Thanks.
Your laughing after you said „I don‘t like people“. Priceless. By the way, same here. I‘m interested in portrait shooting and don‘t like people much either. Must be a kind of sickness. :-)
Very nice of You not to mention other photographers as en example! Very humble)
Thanks for putting yourself out there.
My pleasure! Thanks for watching
What a different channel to all these latest gear videos. Truly great. Thank you.
The Clint Eastwood and Andy Warhol’s pictures are two of my favourite portraits.
Nice commentary. You have such a unique take on the photography world. More on the artistic side and less about gear. We all enjoy these good discussions you have.
Found your channel this morning, thank you so much, this is better then any tutorial. ❤️👑🙌
Excellent video. The pointers are applicable to portrait as well as photography in general
Thanks for watching. Yes, I agree, they can be applied across many genres.
Love this channel!
You are summing up stuffs I been thinking for the last 16 years of working. And also. Providing new thoughts and inspiration! Your chanel representing something that I can keep watching and not only when I plan to buy new equipment!
I just came across your videos and I look forward to watching them all! BTW you were right the first go. It’s Jack Nicholas not Arnold Palmer. This is one of my favorite photos of Dan Winters. I have studied the lighting style and I’m fascinated by it. Anyway, again amazing videos and thank you for the great content!
With every video you make, I get new inspirations from photographers I've never heard before. This is amazing work and you're really doing a great service for the community.
Great video once again! Big fan of the image examples in particular...
Thanks
Love this! Extra inspiration for my shoot tomorrow!☺
Excellent, thank you!…👍📸🇬🇧
Fantastic video! Thank you!!!
Glad it helped!
Yup. You had it right the first time. That was Jack, not Arnold. But great tips, thanks.
Golf was never my strong point - the only person I can 100% identify all the time is Gary Player. Mostly because I spent a day on his ranch photographing him :D
So very inspiring and wise words!
Thank you so much!
Alex wonderful video. I very much enjoy all your video but something sparked when watching this one. Thank you.
Creators such as you have helped me throughout the COVID period. This was perhaps the most impressive collection of images and relevant commentary on portraiture I’ve seen in a long time. Genuine compliments to you.
Thanks Edward, great to have you here.
Great video as always.
Glad you enjoyed it
This is my favorite channel to watch when I'm out of inspiration or feeling stuck with my photography! Thank you so much for the great content!
I really love your channel. thanks man.
I didn't know that portrait photography could be somewhat subjective. Good to know.
Really value the playing with ideas and insights you keep sharing. So well worth it.
Excellent video, very inspiring!
Great video. Thanks!
Thanks Pedro
Thank you for the hard work that goes into this, Alex. This one is the best so far. It will influence my own work and I'm grateful.
I am not a portrait photographer at all, but these suggestions were quite practical and some applicable elsewhere, like having a voice and trying to convey to the viewer what your voice is. Well done video, thanks!
Great to hear, thanks Aleksander.
I agree with these things.
Me too :D
Really enjoyed this, thank you. I appreciate your work, your clarity and your breadth of knowledge. Thanks again.
This is such great advice!
Thanks
this video is amazing. all of the tips were executed perfectly, and they are things that all us photographers can at least acknowledge and appreciate, especially people just getting into portrait photography
My pleasure, thanks for watching.
Wonderfully useful insights as ever. Some great photographic examples too.
And dinner made at the same time to boot!
Love to see great portraits, like those you showed. Have 0 interest in taking them. However, your suggestions are equally valid for other types of photography when the subject instead of the sitter is adjusted for. I loved the portrait for which you won the award. It was beautifully posed and lit!!!
Thanks Erich. It was (that portrait) a result of a lot of these lessons.
This might be the best video yet :) Thanks for this!
Wow, thanks!
Brilliant, every time I watch your inspirational presentations I get impetuous to keep improving my photography 🤗
Great to hear that - It's my motivation to keep making these for you.
I am heading to my studio to shoot portraits right bow...Immediately after watching this video. I am in a more refined frame of mind than most ohf my previous shoots. We. Shall see what I produce
Wow i’ve seen numerous videos over the years and very few are as well put in such a short amount of time and helpful as this one. thanks for these perspectives!
Glad it was helpful!
I really appreciate your channel. In a sea of product placement, it highlights what's really important.
I appreciate you saying that.
So glad I found your channel. I feel like I took more interesting photographs before I "learned" much about photography, and watching these has really helped me start to get back to/find my own style. Also really like these videos of yours that have a lot of examples of photographs mixed in.
Great to hear! BTW in the UK it's spelt learnt, rather than learned :D
Thanks for being here.,
I appreciate this video. I’ve always wondered about your photography. Happy to see you’re super dope!
Awesome! Thank you!
Glad I found this channel! Discovered a passion for portrait a few weeks ago when my wife and I were practicing with our flash. I took her picture, she took mine and there was a connection with my wife that up until that point I hadn't had with her.
I want portraits. That's my current pursuit. We also want to go after Elopements and Micro Weddings. My head and my heart and my gut connect those two areas of Photography. But then my portrait can expand on its own.
Success is my only option here. I am leaving a 20 year career at UPS to pursue this. We have sold our house and we are moving to another State. My wife is inheriting a family home and a bunch of land. We will be debt free.
Strange
Wow another great video I am learning so much 😊
Thanks for this one, I loved it...well actually I do like all your vids.
Great job !!! 🤗🤗🤗
Thank you 🤗
What a great video! I will watch it several times because I want to be sure I can hold on to your advice.
I believe in synchronicity, and the timing of this video is perfect, and certainly a "meaningful coincidence" for me.
Portraiture has always been my favorite style of photography, but as a rather shy person, it is a style I actually did very little of. But, post 2020, I have found myself suddenly less shy about approaching people and I've actually taken more portraits this year than ever. I am beginning to feel that I am heading in a direction with my work that I wanted to be on the entire time.
Thanks for the tips!
A common axiom in the aviation community is "a good pilot is always learning." I think the same certainly applies to us as photographers.
So nice with a channel on photography completely disassociated from the gear. Watching these videos, brings back the joy of photography for me.
Great to hear!
Thanks a lot. Another great video, that very much spoken to me! Your videos and your ways to look at life and things is making addicted ;-)
Thankyou! The portrait is such a hard thing to pull off. Most sitters do not understand it. Their most common aesthetic for them in portraiture terms is the selfie and, often I am shooting differently from their expectation. The connection is important and I like the idea of communicating intent. There were some startling examples in the collection you showed and I feel my mind cooking up new ideas now.
This video strongly resonated with me. So many photographers I've seen, but the context you added is getting my own creative juices flowing, thinking, considering... Great stuff.
Great stuff Gavin. There's so much good stuff out there to learn from, but it sometimes gets lost under the 'academicness' of the discussion about it.
As ever, brilliant content Alex, to be honest portraiture frightens me somehow but you have reignited the desire to have another go, after I have rewatched this a dozen times of course! Best wishes.
Carpe Diem Derrick. Get a model and photograph them. Using a friend can be a minefield for the newcomer. A model will take some of the pressure off.
Thanks for another motivational video.
Thank you for watching.
Great Content!!
Thanks Scott.
Great lesson…thanks!
Glad you liked it!
Great video, thanks 👍
Glad you enjoyed it
Light is a key and good edit skills. :)
Wow, great advice !
Glad it was helpful!
Good one.... Jack Nicklaus was wearing the glove.
Great vid
Great thoughtful content
Thanks, good to see you again
Thank you for your thoughtful approach to the subject matter in each of your videos. Your channel is in refreshing contrast to the vast majority of photography channels on RUclips.
Thanks Glenn!
You are great!
Thanks
Emotions and photography are directly connected. Your teaching is brilliant every time I watch them I come back multiple times as I discover things I missed and look forward to the next one 😊 gives me motivation to SHOOT portraits as I do find portraits confronting and difficult to do Great thanks 🤗
Great to hear that James. Thanks for watching
James, actually what you want to do is CREATE portraits.
One word is passive and the other active.
As always, your entire presentation offers gems for thought. 'Tight-in' perspective is the easiest concept to digest. Newman's Kennedy image and Brandt's shot at 11:47 inverted my understanding of convention.
Thank you for prying the door a bit more open.
Glad they helped expand your understanding. Thank you for watcing
Excellent. Sharing with my students
Please do!
Love this video, more like this please… I’m making notes to buy some books as well
Will do!
awesome 👏
Thanks ✌️
Thank you ONCE AGAIN for an excellent session. I am not, by nature, a portrait photographer but I have been parachuted into the situation a few times and much of what you say rings true for me.
I think Nadar was revolutionary because he was originally a cartoonist and ended up in photography to help his brother out, who was making a mess of his photographic portraiture. Perhaps because of this he dispensed with the bulk standard painted backdrop, and tables with bric-a-brac that were a hallmark of early Victorian portraiture. He let his subjects come through without those encumbrances. It is a pity his career in photography was so brief!
One of my favourite contemporary photographers is Sean Tucker - although his main interest is in photographing light, and a good proportion of his videos are more like yours, and also quite philosophical. I think you two would get along very well! {:-)
Thank you again for this excellent channel. It is a breath of fresh air.
Thanks Trevor.
Nadar sure was a character.
Maybe one day I'll discuss his balloon studio shot :D
As for context, August Sander is the master.
very very good Alex. Thank you
Glad you liked it!
Good advice even if you are not a portrait photographer (I am not). One take away for all I noticed is somehow bring out the subject. And while doing this do not be afraid to go for the 'unusual' framing, exposure, etc. as long as it brings out the subject.
Many years ago I followed Jack Nicholas during a practice round before the Masters in Augusta, GA and got some photos of him. That was last year he won the Masters. Now if I can find them or negatives.
Yep, the subject (or more accurately, the 'sitter') is the thing.
It's early in the morning here, but I think in all of photography, portraiture is the genre most laden with cumbersome rules. Especially in the camera club field.
Once had the pleasure of spending a day with Gary Player on his farm. We had lunch and then went with him to see one of his horses giving birth. IIRC he was also on the phone at some point, while I was photographing in his office, picking a Ryder cup team.
Great discussion of your points. Some of the tools I have stumbled upon by accident, some I have missed entirely (am a bit dense at times). It all starts with the initial Steichen quote that the portrait is made on either side of the camera. Very useful to see how the masters have used these techniques. I would love to see examples from you of both success and failures in portraiture. Thanks for the video.
Glad you found it helpful and interesting.
I will dig out my very first portrait, which was totally focused on just the subjects watch and not his face!
This video is perfect timing. I am about to shoot some tight portraits of my mother with my Hasselblad and TRI-X 400 film.
Enjoy. Great thing about that is you can't simply machine gun.
Every frame different, every frame a painting.
@@ThePhotographicEye Machine gun a 503 😳. LOL never heard if that before :) I want to get three poses all very tight in for a Triptych. Then hopefully also make a contact print to frame of the 12 images on the roll.
Jane Brown was somebody I wanted to emulate and she was brilliant at working in a minimalist fashion . Usually with the standard kit lens of the day - 50mm and using only natural light that she assessed the exposure from the back of her hand. She also was particular at using developer that was exhausted and disclosed for processing her film and prints .
I too had wanted to be a photojournalist , although romantic as that appeared , I am not sure I could have coped with that kind of life style etc .
I can think of a few other names , but that does not distract from the message you are putting out here .
I was fortunate to have once been exhibited at the Photographers Gallery back in the day .
Enjoyed the video .
thanks for watching
A wonderful piece of photography education - as usual. PLEASE, PLEASE do a video on the work of Alex Kilbee. I would be intrigued to see your own journey in photographs as I suspect many others would too.
Thanks John, the BW portrait in the thumbnail is one of mine as well.
I will get round to it one day :D
Haha Not only dId you spell Palmer incorrectly , but that is indeed “The Golden Bear” Jack Nicklaus.
It must be a Friday! My mind was all over the place :D I even doubled checked and got it all mixed up!!!
@@ThePhotographicEye It's as you said. Dan Winters gives you clues ;) Love your vids by the way!
Excellent video. One small point: Newman’s portrait of Kennedy was taken 7 years before he assumed the office of the presidency. I see it as a prophetic portrait rather than one about the pressures he felt. Other than that, the video is a great tune up: I’m resuming portraiture as a subject after a 30 hiatus, and this has helped me align my approach a bit.
Thanks - I mentioned presidency, though of course the weight of office could apply to all.
Shows how we all interpret images differently
Thank you.👍😎
Thank you too!
I haven't scrolled through all the comments. But if you haven't already been so informed, the photo at 5:30 is, in fact, of Jack Nicklaus.
Haha, yes. It's the almost traditional TPE blooper!
Great video! Thanks... Small typo - Karsh's Christian name is spelled Yousuf Best regards.
Thanks for watching - yep, it was only after I uploaded I saw that typo.
FWIW, you're the first person to call that out, well spotted.
I believe that my weakness in portraiture is that my own stress in turn stresses my subjects out. I feel more comfortable sticking my camera in the face of a bear than doing the same with humans. As well, the bears seem more at ease.
Funny thing, I never shoot portraits, ever. But, I'm most attracted to portraits. I see faces and people everyday here in ZA that I think would be wonderful models for portraiture.
I shot the behind the scenes video when Dan shot Jack in his office many years ago. Great to watch him work and is a really nice guy!
I think I watched that video.
It was very interesting to see the process - I wish there were more examples of great photographers when they are shooting and interacting with the sitter.
OFC I managed to confused myself totally with the name of the golfer! :D
Very good video. The two bit of advise I would give (and I am guilty of) is to give your frame space. So often portrait photographers crop so tight to their subject, that they either cut something off or don't give the image room to breath and it is always the case that the subject will give you the perfect expression on the image that you just frame too tightly.
I would also say for portraits to learn how to pose hands. So often you get a great facial expression and then the hands look out of place.
hands take a lot of practice and unfortunately, particularly for women it can be difficult to get them right even with knowing technique. I have never been able to pose my wife's hands but I have posed many brides hands beautifully even thought they first said to me " I have terrible hands". Most surprised to see the result. Just practice a lot on yourself and others if you can and watch some folks particularly women who have naturally wonderful hands. Watch how they naturally position their hands, and watch the lighting etc but also learn technique.
Excellent stuff. Just yesterday when I was photographin street portraits of youths I was wondering why I don't go more close to them because I can.
There's always next time. Thanks for watchng
2.51. Churchill?? Quality video, as ever... Thanks
Thanks for taking the time to watch.
Yes... I used to think portraits happen by shooting a thousand different frames of someone either sitting or moving any which way they want (and you clicking and kinda getting lucky at what they're going to do) instead of you clueing them in first on what you'd like to achieve and see if they have ideas in a collaborative effort too so in the end both people are on the same page and then hopefully with that the question of "what lighting should I use here or there" gets answered through it.
It surprising to me that just talking with the sitter never gets mentioned when discussing portraits.
About 80% of my session time is me just chatting with the person I'm photographing. Obvs I'm not under any great time constraint, but still..
How many of us have watched a model session where the photographer just photographs the model with no interaction at all....
Thanks for watching
@@ThePhotographicEye Right… Your last remark reminded me of photographer meetups I used to go to where I thought I was learning studio portraits but it was really just, mainly older guys waiting their turn - most fired the cameras one after another. Some communicated but it wasn’t clesr to me how much prep went into the photos.
Interesting and educating, as usual. I have an issue with the "break the rules" advice. I noticed that some (many?) novice photographers take that as an axiom too, and seem to assume that not following them automatically makes their work a masterpiece.
yes it becomes an excuse to do anything and believe it is acceptable. One of the best things someone can do is to do a quick search for the book by Joe Zeltsman which is still available even though he did pass away a few years after reaching the age of 100. Not everyone has a style or ability to communicate in a way that gets that "winning" image but photographers can learn better technique and provide all clients with a better image than they might have done without good information. Besides Joe, folks can look for work by Al Gilbert, Van Moore, Monte Zucker and a host of others from the past and I am sure there many others that I don't know now having been retired for almost 22 years.
Thanks for the book suggestions.
I agree with both of your comments re being lazy/not bothering with rules.
It does boil down to 'you can't break the rules until you know them'.
My perspective is that I know the rules, and how to bend, or break them. If you don't know them, then things just look like a mistake, which is not the same thing at all.
I'm hoping in some small way that the content on this channel can help people discover the rules, and how to use them.
Schoeller seems to have asimilar style to Platon. Not sure who came first though.
Interesting that both Schoeller and Platon both seem to skirt the generally accepted feeling that 35mm and wider angle lenses for portraiture, should be avoided. All those close up portraits show distortions in the face. Chalk it up to that being their style.
Thanks for this, is just what I needed. I watched it this morning before travelling two hours to get to Manchester to take street portraits. I need to get a book on Arnold Newman with that portrait of Alfried Krupp can you suggest one? Also what would you recommend for a good overview of Bill Brandt. Loving the channel, thanks for sharing your vast knowledge
Keep them coming. Brilliant!!!!!
Funny, I did look for some good Brandt books, but he seems to be one of those photographers who seems to have been overlooked in the book dept.
There are some links in the description box to what I could find on Amazon.
@@ThePhotographicEye cheers, loving the channel!!!!
Exactly break the rules & light them till they look good you move make them move get involved 😉 and then take it beyond what it spostta to be (NY NJ slang) lol
Thanks Warren - I won't try and answer in NY slang (which is limited to Beastie Boys and Goodfellas)
I always loved that photo of Krupp by Newman. It's background is so busy yet it doesn't take your attention away from the portrait at all. Which is very hard to achieve in my opinion.
over 50 years ago when I worked for Al Gilbert, he had that image, one of his favorites but as I recall it was printed differently with the background burned in so that more emphasis was on the face of Krupp and was in B/W. A very powerful image of the man by a great photographer.
I think I first saw it in a TimeLife (?) collection of books.
A lot of these older images are quite tricky to find a 'proper' example of
@@ThePhotographicEye I think when I retired I sold or gave away my Time Life series but then again I could have stored them and others. Now I learn digital imaging from YT and tutorials such as this and those related to ON1, Affinity Photo, PhotoScape X and Luminar as well as various newsletters that come to my inbox multiple times per week.
I hope that those wanting to learn Classical Portraiture will view anything available by Joe Zeltsman. As I recall in '76 he had been in the PPA Loan Collection for 17 straight years. How many in total I don't know. His week long course changed my wedding work completely. Different style then compared to now which likely is just an expansion of the techniques of Denis Reggie.
At 5:28 into this video, that is a photo of Jack Nicklaus. Not Arnold Palmer.
Funny isn't it - I say the right thing, then think I said the wrong thing, check to see if I did actually say the right thing and end up writing the wrong thing.
Must be a Friday :D
If you fancy a little laugh, pop on the auto subtitles and wait a little bit then.... "Robert maple syrup" comes along, brilliant!
.....and then Paddy Smith..... * guffaws *
From now on he will Mr Maple Syrup!