Show me your very, very best portraits!

[camz]

If I may ask a question. What do each of you consider to be a portrait? Obviously there are different opinions here. Just curious as I myself have been all over the place with this.

I don't see it in the the traditional sense. As long as it shows expression or some type of emotion, regardless of orientation, I put put it under portraiture.

 

[Dominantly]

Here are two I am fairly fond of as I am attached to the subjects

 

[javier]

If I may ask a question. What do each of you consider to be a portrait? Obviously there are different opinions here. Just curious as I myself have been all over the place with this.

Well, if I have to define what I technically consider a portrait; it's a capture of a person in which their face is the primary focus and does not compete with any other elements of the photograph. The fist thing you should be drawn to is the face, with subtle composition techniques that may not stand out, but make it all tie together (like shoulder angles, chin angle/direction, eye direction, etc).

Very good and I agree with you.

 

[Moe]

Do self-portraits count?

Wouldn't necessarily qualify as a "very, very" best, but it's the latest.

This was taken in my shower. I used a DIY beauty dish high above camera pointing down at me. There was also a bare flash pointing at the shower wall to blow it white. Granted, it's not white now as a result of my color toning. My shower's not that big so I had to use a little tool from Zack Arias:

zarias.com :: The blog of editorial photographer Zack Arias » White Seamless Tutorial :: Part 4 :: Simple Changes In Post Production.

 

[kundalini]

Carnies - Environmental Portraits

 

[gsgary]

Sister in law, natural light, main light coming from a large conservatory and hair light coming from kitchen window, 5D and 24-70F2.8L

 

[Speckles]

Oh my!

Your baby is darling! Your wife, I'm assuming a lot here, is very pretty, too!

 

[manaheim]

Orb, love that first one.

Bitter, I've always been jealous of the civil war re-enactment shots you got. Very nice.

 

[mishele]

 

[Speckles]

Not sure about BEST, but these are some of my favs of my trio.

 

[javier]

coolness by Street Vision L.A., on Flickr

 

[DeadEye]

Perhaps not the Very Best but a personal favorite! This portrait is awesome viewed in 11x17 print with linen texture. So much emotion

 

[kundalini]

Two of my favorites from early on with OCF.

​

 

[javier]

From yesterdays walk

 

[tirediron]