Portrait Assignment

A portrait goes beyond the mug shot and expands on more than just the "who" of an image. A portrait should give us an idea of some of the other "W's" that journalism presents. Portraits give us an idea of what a person does or represents. It should give us some insight into why they do what they do. If you're working on an environmental portrait, it should definitely give us some clue to where they are.

Get some insight into their career, hobby, or whatever attracted you to them for the portrait. The more information you can get, the easier it is to build a portrait and write your captions. Hopefully you do this before the shoot.

Captions should include the five W's in the first sentence. The second sentence should offer some insight into why we should be interested in this person. If you're feeling bold, go for a quote from the person in the third sentence about why they do what they do or some anecdote that gives the viewer some additional insight.

Make sure before you decide on who you would like to feature in a portrait, you're thinking of those adjectives and adverbs and building communication points from them. You want to have those come across in the image. Remember, if you're thinking of how you can shoot nouns and verbs, you're images are going to be boring and will look more like a snapshot than a well thought out journalistic image.

Don't forget to be a little creative to make it graphically appealing and look at the scene from 10 different perspectives if you're visually stuck.

And lastly, make sure your portrait subject is able to give you enough time to give you. Ten minutes won't be enough. For most of you, it will take you ten minutes just to calm your nerves and get your camera settings where they need to be. Show up early, scout out the location, check the light, double-check your equipment and then talk to your subject. Calm them down and calm yourself.

The baseline requirements for this assignment are the usual: properly composed, a good exposure, sharp focus, correct color balance. The rest of your grade depends on the items we talked about in class and earlier in this post:  communication points, accurate representation, well thought out idea or concept, creativity and those adjectives and adverbs that come across in the image.

Shoot with a purpose, always be editing and work that viewfinder from the outside in.

If you have any questions or need some guidance, feel free to contact me via email or cell. We'll be going over more information on portraits in class on Feb. 2.

The due date for this assignment is Feb. 9.

Below are examples of the three types of portraits:

Straightforward

The straightforward portrait focuses on facial features, tools or equipment that represents the persons trade or personality, and gives some insight to character or demeanor.

Environmental

The environmental portrait should enlighten the viewer by provided some information about the area or workplace the photo subject works or live in. 

Conceptual

The conceptual portrait is your opportunity to do something a little crazy, while still maintaining an accurate representation of the photo subject. Try some cool lighting ideas, work in their personalities even more if they are over the top.