AYR

Here we are again. This time we’ll talk about protratit and “shooting people”. Well it may sounds not so good but that’s english.
Travelling, staying with friends and family or just among people you can like the idea to take a photo of them.
I can point my camera, push to get the ok focus and shoot. Easy right?
It sounds so.
As about everything there’s not only one side of the story.

There are many ways to shoot people. The most common one is to have the main subject in the centre of my frame, space on the right, left and… above the head.
Just perfect for a passport.

.. we can go further.

To make what we like (face, eyes, body, etc.) stand out in a photo we don’t necessary need to show exactly everything of the subject. We are not selling an item so that we need to show more details than we can.

As i said, to go further we can try to walk our second step (the first one is to have at least a person in the lens-view) and that is to try to crop the image even if losing some parts of the subject that will not be shown.

If you are shooting an headshot go closer with your framing cropping the upper part of the head/hair. That doesn’t take away anything from the image (unless you are at an hair style contest) but instead it puts a deeper attention on the eyelook and face lines.
You can see it in every media showing images of people. Movies, fashion campaign and editorials, professional portraits and so on.

Try to take the same shot including the whole head and then a second one trying some crops like i said. You can even try it working with photoshop or another program that lets you crop your shots.

You’ll see the difference. Cropping heads IS NOT A MISTAKE. It is a PLUS.
If somebody will tell you that you have done an error with your crops, absolutely don’t feel like you have really done it.

When you crop you can do it in headshots but also in any other way. Just try to find your taste best result.

Another way to help you compose your people-photo is to try to shake the balance of the image.
Here again… subject in the centre. To start.
Let’s try to move our subject a little more on the left or right, and then totally on the left or right. Sometimes this can help to make the photo stronger.

Both rules are not something mechanical. You have to try. Maybe not with all subjects and situation they can be good. But remember to try.

© Copyright all photos by the author

LIVIO MOIANA
Professional Photographer