photography and people

EXERCISEHandsAssignment: Photograph hands inexpressive postures or engaged in in-teresting activities.

You may photograph one hand byitself, both hands of one person, or thehands of several people together. Donot include a full face with the hands,though part of a face is acceptable.

Goal: Hands have attitudes, moods,habits. Look for hands that say some-thing about a person or what that per-son is doing, thinking or feeling.

Tips: Look for people you knowwho have a particular gesture that istheir "signature." Alternatively, lookfor the various attitudes of hands(resigned, strong, casual, engaged insome task, at rest, tense) or for theirposition in relation to the body(behind the back, part way in apocket, scratching the head, holdingup the chin). Look also for howhands relate to their surroundings:hands reaching for something; in-teracting with someone else's hands;placed on somebody's shoulder;holding a baseball bat, a steeringwheel, a chess piece; opening a cardoor.

In general, unless the context is im-portant, the hands should be largewithin the frame.

Student photograph.

Student photograph by Esther Suarez.

186 The Photographic Eye

EXERCISEEldersAssignment: Do a series of portraitsof old people: grandmothers, uncles,aunts, neighbors, etc.

Goal: Notice that faces get very ex-pressive as they grow older. You canoften tell what kind of life a personhas led just by looking at his or herface. Try to capture something ofyour subject's whole life in yourphotographs.

Tips: With the elderly, it is evenmore important than usual to getclear permission. Depending on howold and how healthy your subject is,the idea of being photographed mayseem fine, strange or unpleasant.Help your subject feel comfortableabout being photographed, beforeyou take a single shot. If this doesn'tseem possible, go find another sub-ject. Don't just walk up to strangersand start photographing them. It isyour job to make the experience plea-sant and relaxing. Work at it.

Student photograph by Kimberly S. Kosiba.

Student photograph by Neill Bevill.

People 187

EXERCISE -ChildrenAssignment: Photograph childrendoing things that come naturally tothem: playing, talking, sleeping,perhaps reading or daydreaming.

Any child between infancy andabout 8 years old qualifies.

Goal: Capture particularly childlikequalities, not just a person who hap-pens to be young.

Tips: Be aware of how children res-pond to their surroundings. Wherethey are, what they're doing, whothey're with may be important . . .or may not. You decide.

You'll probably get the best resultswith children you already know, sothey can go about their businesswithout being aware of the camera.Try your younger brothers and sis-ters, cousins, family friends, neigh-bors. If none of them is available orwilling, look for children out on thestreet, at school, in parks, etc.

Never photograph children withoutgetting permission from a parent.This is especially true if you don'tknow the child, but it's a good ideaeven if you do.

The main challenge is to keep thechild interested and interesting. If thechild is playing a game, encouragehim or her to tell you about it. Tryto talk to the child while you'reshooting, even while you're behindcamera. You may want a parent oranother child to keep conversationgoing if it's hard to talk and shoot atsame time.

Student photograph by Charles Stuart Kennedy III.


Student photograph bv Chris Lombardo

People 189

Student photograph.

EXERCISESoft-LightPortraitAssignment: Do a series of head-and-shoulders photographs in whichthe light source is behind the subject.

Goal: Produce an expressive por-trait, with soft light and no shadowson the face.

Tips: In bright sunlight, have yoursubject face away from the sun. Theface will thus be in open shadow,with little variation in the lighting.Keep the background out of focus byusing a fairly large aperture. (Tryf/5.6 at 1/125 of a second as a pointof departure for this exercise.)

Be careful of "burn out": whiteareas that are so bright they lose alldetail. Though you'll probably dobest if your subject does not wearwhite, with proper exposure thisshould not be a problem.

Get in close. Frame the subjectcarefully. Stick to the head andshoulders for the most part, thoughan expressive hand is a perfectly ac-ceptable addition.

Student photograph by VinnyRodziewicz.

Student photograph.


EXERCISESide-LitPortraitAssignment: Do a series of portraitsin which the subject is strongly litfrom one side.

Goal: Side-lighting tends to bedramatic, and is often harsh, espe-cially in very "contrasty" lighting.However, it can produce a particularmood and can be subtle when eitherthe contrast or the overall light valueis low. Control the lighting and ex-posure to get the effect you want.

Tips: For best results, use earlymorning or late afternoon light. Youmay want to shoot indoors near awindow, so the light comes in a singleshaft. You can then place your sub-ject so the light strikes precisely whereyou want it to. Bracket your ex-posures to get the effect you want.

You may want the sidelit area tobe the highlight of otherwise bal-anced lighting, or to have thesidelighting be the only source. In ad-dition, experiment with placing thesubject so the lighted side faces thecamera, and so the shaded side does.

Be careful of losing texture in high-lighted areas. In the final print, youshould be able to see pores on thebrightest part of the face. Expose forthe highlights.

In rare cases it can be very effec-tive to have the whole face in shadow,;/the background is adequately lit sofeatures are clear.

Student photograph by Don Ho Fuller.

Student photograph by Kristen McCauley.

People 191

EXERCISEProp PortraitAssignment: Photograph peoplewith "props" tools , sports equip-ment, musical ins t ruments or anyother object with which they caninteract .

Goal: Props have two uses for thephotographer. First, they can help asubject relax. Second, they can tellthe viewer something about the sub-ject. Try to select props that areuseful in both of these ways.

Tips: People who are uncomfor-table just standing and looking at acamera, even if you get them talking,tend to relax quite a bit if you givethem something to hold or look at.Similarly, you can often produce avery revealing portrait by placingyour subject in a famil iar environ-ment: in his or her own room, withpersonal possessions around, at adesk or workplace, in the lockerroom or gym, etc.

While it is often helpful if the sub-ject can actual ly be using the prop insome way, be aware of how tha t af-fects the face. If it's obscured, youmay have to get the subject to lookup when you actually click the shut-ter. You may, of course, be able toposition the subject (or yourself) sothis isn't necessary.

Anything familiar to the subject isacceptable: a scarf, telephone, guitar,book or baseball bat. Something assimple as a chair may do the t r ick .Use your imagination, and don'tforget to ask your subject for ideas.

(Note: Try to t h i n k of morecreative props than cameras. One ortwo shots of someone holding acamera are fine, but no more.)

Simple elements, potent image - a fine example of "less is more." What doesthis photograph say to you? What is it about? (Student photograph byChristina Faiella.)

\ 92 The Photographic Eye

Student photograph by Scott Hughes.

Student photograph by Michael Cothran

People 193

EXERCISEDetail PortraitAssignment: Do a series of "por-traits" in which the subject's face isnot shown. Instead, crop in on ex-pressive details of objects that relatein some way to the subject. (Part ofthe face may be shown, but not allof it.)

Goal: As in the prop portraitassignments, you will be using objectsto help convey a person's character.The only rule is that you must not in-clude the full face.

You'll probably want to photo-graph an object the subject is eitherwearing or holding. This is not re-quired, however.

Tips: Crop in on something thattypifies the person you're photo-graphing: patches on a favorite pairof jeans, a piece of jewelry, glasses,track shoes slung over a shoulder, apurse or handbag, a baseball, a book.

Keep in mind that an empty pairof shoes, for example, or a notebookby itself, or a wallet, or a coffee mugare all perfectly acceptable. The sub-ject does not have to be in thephotograph at all.

Student photograph.


EXERCISEMood PortraitAssignment: Produce a series ofportraits that clearly express moods.

Goal: Get more than just a pictureof somebody. Capture a particularfacial expression or posture to con-vey something of what your subjectis feeling. Try to make the viewer feelthe same way.

Tips: There are a lot of moods tochoose from. Here are a few: hap-piness, sadness, curiosity, contempla-tion, boredom, excitement, friendli-ness, hostility, arrogance, delight,fear, sa t i s fac t ion, an t ic ipa t ion ,anger, pat ience, concent ra t ion ,uncertainty, frustrat ion.

Most of us have certain expressionsor gestures that are unique, some par-ticular way of saying who we are. Ifyou think of someone as being jolly,how do you express that? Whatabout solemn? Frazzled? Calm?Excited?

You might try getting several peo-ple to interact together. Or gosomeplace where they're l ikely to dothat on their own, such as a footballgame. People in groups often don'treact the same way at the same time,so you may get several moods in oneshot. Alternatively, you might cropin on one person in the group and letthe viewer imagine the rest of thescene.

Be selective. Surroundings may behelpful or distracting. Often, just asubject 's face wi l l be enough .However, part of the subject's bodymay also be expressing the mood. Ifthat helps make a better photograph,put it in. If it doesn't, leave it out.

Student photograph by John Shearer.

Student photograph.

People 195

Student photograph by Monte Paulsen.


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