If a portrait doesn’t evoke any thought or feeling, keep trying. The moment when the photos start speaking back at you will come. Know your light, set, and settings, understand composition styles but most importantly, know your subject, or have a desire to learn who they are.
There are a few ways you can find out more about the people you’re photographing. Talking to them is an obvious approach, but it’s not the only one. Observation can often replace conversation, especially when you are shooting an event. Person’s mannerisms, subtle facial cues, expressions, their manner of speech, laugh are your clues to their personality and the way you may want to portray them.
In other instances, it is enough to ask the questions Who is this Person? And instead of answering it for your viewer, suspend the answer with your photograph thus allowing the observer to interpret it for themselves. The image you are reading about right now does precisely that. By concentrating on the question, instead of the answer, the photographer provokes your curiosity around his subject.
Winner of a Silver Award from worlds largest portrait photography competition, the WPPI (Wedding Portrait Photography International), this photo of a young lady belongs to Michael who shot it in Ukraine at one of his workshops.
Location: Kyiv, Ukraine.
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