What is really required to be a good portrait photographer?
Photographing people is a mix of technical understanding, physics, problem-solving, creativity, huge attention to detail, psychology, life experience, photographic experience and… dad jokes. The results need to look effortless, and it largely comes down to my capacity to relate to and disarm the person I’m photographing.
From a purely technical standpoint, I’m trying to produce the finest representation of tonality, the least noise (artefacts in the file), the best balance of lighting, often in a mixed lighting setting, the type of light modifiers I’ll use and light placement. Making sure that the shutter speed is fast enough to freeze any potential movement in the subject, as well as making choices about depth of field, lens choice and tripod height. Then there are choices around the background and how that affects the storytelling, and not least the placement of the subject and the composition.
The variables are huge, and all contribute to the look of the photograph, and this is all independent of how good the subject's performance is. Understanding the contribution that each of these variables makes to a photograph, and how to combine them for effect, is part of the journey to producing consistently strong work.
A largely unspoken contribution to taking open-looking portraits of people is the photographer's capacity to develop immediate rapport with strangers. I am genuinely interested in people, and I love meeting new people. Through my work, I have done a huge amount of travel and had vast exposure to everything from farming, education, manufacturing, retail, mining, the arts, food, and people from all walks of life. I have become an expert in conversation. Asking people interesting questions that aren’t too intrusive and developing a conversation.
Photographing people requires me to share a lot of my energy. If I stand behind the camera, dull and demanding, I am guaranteed to leave with poor performances. There is a delicate balance when I’m with people over the course of a day. I don’t want them to be exhausted by my presence. But when I need to get a sparky performance, it’s on!
If I’m smiling at you, you will almost certainly be smiling back at me; it’s how we are wired. I need to be a jovial maître d’ of the shoot. Attentive, easy to get along with, and with everything well in hand. Ultimately, I make everything easy. Nothing is too hard, nobody is excluded from having input, and I make certain that we get the job done.
In the 30 years I have been a photographer, I have photographed such a huge cross-section of society. I present a real version of myself, but I’m only sharing the appropriate aspects of my personality to suit who is in front of me. I want to put people at ease. I am interested in people's stories, and not all of the people I photograph have happy ones. I am finding the smoothest way to connect, whilst being attentive to each person's situation and their reaction to the process. Part of the job has been to be an ear for people. I am also keen to share praise when I see people putting in a huge effort in their chosen path.
School wasn’t easy for me; I wanted to understand the workings of things rather than just the result. I enjoyed being the centre of attention, and I was looking for the funny side in everything I observed. I was creative in my thinking and could hold the attention of groups of people. I feel sorry for my teachers. I don’t think anyone saw these as a transferable skill set. It turns out that it was a perfect combination of attributes for photographing groups of people. I have photographed big groups of people, and managed to have every one of them looking at me and smiling in unison. It helps that I have honed the craft of managing an audience as a performing musician, my other great passion.
Being photographed can be a bit tough, and sometimes people have real trouble loosening up enough for me to see who they are. I am not above rolling out some appalling dad jokes or silly noises to break the energy. People realise whatever they are doing isn’t going to be as embarrassing as what I’m doing.
I have a deep love of portraiture, and to have been able to photograph so many people across Australia and New Zealand has been a gift. I am proud to say that with only a couple of exceptions in a thirty-year career, people always comment that they enjoyed getting their photo taken.