When you take a really good portrait, it is all about the subject; your goal should always be to let them be 120% themselves. They shouldn’t have to perform for you, seduce you, or do anything for you at all except be willing to strip down the artifice they wear for the world and show you their soul (not an easy ask.) It is very similar to writing a great profile of someone - you might nod, you might ask questions, but what you really need to focus on is listening. As a photographer, you also nod and ask questions while you and your camera listen and wait for the true person to emerge. You have to allow a lot of time for that - it takes a lot of trust for people to let down their guard and really let you see them.
This week I am going to focus on children, and what it means to let them be 120 percent themselves. For some children, especially very young children, this means a lot of waiting. I never schedule less than 2 hours for a session for a child - you basically just need to wait them out. For little ones, I will basically bore them into authenticity. I will have them sit or lay down in front of a backdrop, and tell them (and by that, I usually mean tell the parents) that I need to adjust my lights. I will play with my lights until the subject practically forgets that I am there. Sometimes I will give them a prop/toy to play with while I “adjust my lights” and this often yields great pictures. For more outgoing kids, I will ask them all kinds of questions – not typical questions that adults ask kids, but genuinely open-ended “could go anywhere” questions… questions to which I don’t have an answer or any expectation that I know how they will answer. The goal is to get them thinking and get them to explain something of interest to them to me - the more animated and involved they get, the better the pictures.
When adults try to project their desires onto the shoot, it is an exercise in frustration. We have all seen miserable-looking little boys dressed like Daddy Mini-Me’s with pained “free me please!” smiles, or little girls with their hair pulled back so tight that no matter how perfect they might be dressed, all the viewer can think is “Ouch!” We should all refuse to take these kinds of shots - no one will look at them later with any kind of fondness or happy memories.
Free the little ones, and you will have pictures and memories worthy of archival paper and pretty frames.
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