Character Portraits
What is a Character Portrait?
My friend and fellow photographer Kira Derryberry was in town last week for a board meeting of the Florida Professional Photographer’s Association and was kind enough to do a new family portrait of my family. In addition to a traditional group portrait, I asked her to also shoot individual images of each of us. We just moved into our new home and I haven’t figured out exactly where all the wall portraits will go so I wanted to have options. For example, I’m thinking of doing a collage of canvas portraits in the entryway. Once we pick the images, I’ll post them here.
After we were done with the family, Kira asked if I would pose for a character portrait. Character portraits are the sort of portraits that you see in magazines when they profile a celebrity. Instead of a “headshot” style of portrait, the photographer tries to capture something that evokes mood or shows personality. Photographers love these sorts of portraits because they allow us to be more creative. Kira had been carrying around a specific idea and pose in her head for 2 years that she wanted to try with me. That’s how we photographers are: We walk around with a pose and a light pattern in our head and wait for the right subject.
Another reason we love character portraits is that they tend to make us look cool. :)
St. Petersburg Beach Wedding
The weather is starting to cool off a little here in beautiful Tampa, Florida… which means it’s in the mid-80’s. It also means that my weddings will start to be inside more often. The locals get married late in the year here so once November comes, I’ll be shooting in churches and event halls much more than I do in the summer.
I just wrapped up a beautiful little beach wedding with a small reception on the sand. There are only a few spots in St. Petersburg and Clearwater where you can actually have a small wedding with reception and still be on the beach the whole time. This wedding was at one of the two that I work at a lot. The wedding was setup and coordinated by Perfect Florida Beach Wedding.
Here are just a few of my favorites…
Modern Headshots in Tampa
… and here’s the more modern look:
The question that I get most often when I shoot a more modern style is, “Why did you cut off my head?”
The human eye loves boundaries. When you keep everything inside the frame in a headshot, you create a self-contained box for the viewer; a window into another place where the subject lives. When you allow the subject to break the frame (cut off the head) you bring them into your world. By removing the boundaries of the face (the top of the head) you force the viewer to look at the face, and not wander around the edges.
You see this in movies and television shows all the time. If they really want you to pay attention to the person on screen, they close in on them so that their head breaks the frame.
Look at this poster for “Castle”
It’s a self-contained story. Everything is in the frame, neat and tidy.
Now look at this one:
Much more intimate, much more approachable, much more of a sense that they share this world with you. If you were standing on the set when they took this picture, this is what your eyes would look at…. not the legs and the feet and the ceiling over their heads. In photography we have a saying, “Fill the frame.” It means to fill the frame with what you want the viewer to look at… cut away the unnecessary.
Now, look at the “old style” headshot from the beginning of this post with a new crop to “break the frame”
Now you are not distracted by the edges… he exists outside the confines of the frame. It’s such a little thing but it makes a big difference.
As a headshot photographer, I’m happy to shoot any style headshot that you want but if you leave it to me to decide, I’m going to go with the “frame breaker” every time.
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