Doing a good portrait takes a bit of time. You want your subject to be relaxed, you want to get to the time when you capture the essence of the person you are working with. The session should be light with a range of emotions that will give you a nice selection to present to your client. If all goes well the last part of the session will have the image you are looking for. Sometimes it is the last image. Sometimes the importance of the subject and their limited time allow only a few moments and very few frames to choose from. This is where skill, preparedness and luck come in handy.
Sometimes you have a difficult subject and not much of anything you do will change the who you are working with. Patient, perseverance and finding a subject they like to talk about are the winners.
Then there is working with a photographer. There is nothing to prepare for when trying to do a portrait of a photographer. They have been there, done that and you are at their mercy. Plan to shoot as quickly as possible and be prepared for most everything. The fav thing to do is a slight rocking motion to make focus impossible.
Then again, the first and last image could be great and well, everything in between is priceless. Call MasterCard.
I’m working on a video project interview photojournalist around the US regarding the changing landscape of photojournalism. Did a recent interview with Randy Dieter and Michael Keating in Covington, KY. Interviews with them were great and the portraits, well you be the judge… ;-]
Thanks guys, it was a great day…
Ed Zirkle 