Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/02/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I do formal portraiture. I used to work for a good portrait studio (in the 1960s) and at my father's funeral in May 2001 I paid a local studio in Maine to produce portraits of my family since we were all together. I would not choose a portrait photographer whose portfolio shots looked like these. However, I know a lot of people who think that this is what good portraits are supposed to look like, and somebody has to produce the pictures that those people want. The person who taught me portrait photography hammered away on me for ages, saying "The best portrait is the one that the client likes the best. Your opinion doesn't matter." People who are a generation older than me (there is a diminishing number of such people) like best the portraits like the one in the web site we are discussing here. If you believe that formal poses are what you want, and if you are not Bachrach or Karsh, then you should at least learn how to pose the people to get the effect you want. You should also know something about lighting, but that's a little harder to teach. - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html