Principles of Portraits

There are certain preconceptions people have when somebody says 'Portrait' many people think of highly make upped photographs of women as in our society the 'Selfie' has become a large part of the daily photography we are exposed too. People think of the scaling the phone automatically does and how the quality looks.

Typical art portraits have been done in portrait orientation as this how the person would be stood and be seen naturally, usually there is little in the background of a staged portrait as most are done in studio's or with a shallow DoF, straight portraits such as those in Street Photography can be both close up or environmental shots which show the background as well as that is part of the narrative within the photograph.

Many photographers compose their images to follow the Rule of Thirds; the invisible lines our eyes create through the photograph, and then their main focus of the photograph is on composed over where these lines would be. This 'rule' is a useful tool as it does lead the viewers eye around the image and can help with starting out photographers as it is a standard that people can understand and expect to be followed. However it does not always have to be in place as not all photographs follow the this rule as not all can, it depends on the subject.


When photographing people it is much easier to have a mid DoF as this means the background will still be out of focus and it allows the model some movement room as people can not freeze and stay exactly still in the same position for the length of time it takes to focus and take the shot. DoF is a useful way of making sure that the model is the main focus of the photograph as the background can not be made out as it would appear blurry.

Printing layouts are unlimited, but the most common way it is done is one photograph per paper with a white border around the photograph, many people have different views on the size that the border should be, personally I think that images should have a small border as this means the viewer is drawn into the image and can clearly see the edges of the photograph and the framing you as the photographer chose, plus it also helps when handling prints as any marks made will be over the border and not the photograph and it will not be as noticed.