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I've noticed from looking at the Photo critique section that there are some simple people photography tips (that's photography tips that are simple - not you guys, or the people you are photographing .... mind you .... 
) that some of you interested in social photography may find useful.
Firstly, think about telling a story - stories are seldom told by getting up close and personal. If you are going for a tight crop, go all the way, take a risk and really crop in tight. Otherwise, step back and include more of the subject. Think in terms of these options:
- beauty shot (head and shoulders)
- headshot (from halfway across the bust, the shoulders and head)
- half body (er, half of the body! cut across around waist level)
- full body (oh, now come on, you know what that is, surely?)
- context and place (put the subject into a context and show them in relation to the context and place)
Also, for telling a story, think about things to include in the image - in art, artists would often put things into the image to tell the story of the sitter (eg, a woman holding a book with no text on the page would suggest that the sitter was empty headed .... no, seriously, that is what the artist would do
)
Secondly, the eyes - the eyes are the window to the soul, so this is your focus point (always the eye nearest to the lens). But they are also what tells the story - ask your sitter to think of things that relate to the emotion you are wanting them to display - so instead of asking someone to smile, ask them to think of the person they love, or remember the first time their child smiled at them, said mama/dada, etc. By asking them to remember situations they create the emotion for themselves - even with little ones it works. Today I was photographing a 5 year old and I asked her to think of a friend that makes her laugh - she had the most beautiful smile on her face, totally natural, as a result!
Also with eyes, make sure that they look natural - this means you don't want white under the pupil, and you want to avoid the pupil and the iris being cut across by the nose.
Thirdly, and this will do for now - my fingers are getting sore from typing
- alien body parts and awkwardness. Alien body parts are things like hands that appear out of nowhere, they are not attached to any other body part in the way our body naturally fits together - so for example, a hand appearing from the bottom edge of the image - the question can be asked 'whose hand is it anyway?'
And awkwardness - the best way of getting over awkwardness is to people watch - notice how people stand naturally, observe people interacting with each other - notice how guys stand when they are in a pub waiting for a pint to arrive, watch couples in love leaning in over a coffee table in Starbucks (other coffee shops are available), and see the way teenagers lean and loaf against walls, backs of benches and so on. Keep your eyes on the world around you and you'll collect a wealth of poses.
In the meantime, buy fashion mags and collect tear sheets. Sure, there are the high fashion 'broken doll' awkward poses, but most people will never be a high fashion model, you're more likely to photograph friends, relatives and, for some, clients. These are not going to suit the 'broken doll' poses, so keep tear sheets of the more commercial poses, and use these as a reference book. I have loads of A4 folders with the plastic sheets inside them from WH Smiths (yeah, yeah, there's others of those kinda places too!) and they're filled with tear sheets for me to use as inspiration.
Hope that helps for those of you photographing people.
Z
) that some of you interested in social photography may find useful.Firstly, think about telling a story - stories are seldom told by getting up close and personal. If you are going for a tight crop, go all the way, take a risk and really crop in tight. Otherwise, step back and include more of the subject. Think in terms of these options:
- beauty shot (head and shoulders)
- headshot (from halfway across the bust, the shoulders and head)
- half body (er, half of the body! cut across around waist level)
- full body (oh, now come on, you know what that is, surely?)
- context and place (put the subject into a context and show them in relation to the context and place)
Also, for telling a story, think about things to include in the image - in art, artists would often put things into the image to tell the story of the sitter (eg, a woman holding a book with no text on the page would suggest that the sitter was empty headed .... no, seriously, that is what the artist would do
)Secondly, the eyes - the eyes are the window to the soul, so this is your focus point (always the eye nearest to the lens). But they are also what tells the story - ask your sitter to think of things that relate to the emotion you are wanting them to display - so instead of asking someone to smile, ask them to think of the person they love, or remember the first time their child smiled at them, said mama/dada, etc. By asking them to remember situations they create the emotion for themselves - even with little ones it works. Today I was photographing a 5 year old and I asked her to think of a friend that makes her laugh - she had the most beautiful smile on her face, totally natural, as a result!
Also with eyes, make sure that they look natural - this means you don't want white under the pupil, and you want to avoid the pupil and the iris being cut across by the nose.
Thirdly, and this will do for now - my fingers are getting sore from typing
- alien body parts and awkwardness. Alien body parts are things like hands that appear out of nowhere, they are not attached to any other body part in the way our body naturally fits together - so for example, a hand appearing from the bottom edge of the image - the question can be asked 'whose hand is it anyway?'And awkwardness - the best way of getting over awkwardness is to people watch - notice how people stand naturally, observe people interacting with each other - notice how guys stand when they are in a pub waiting for a pint to arrive, watch couples in love leaning in over a coffee table in Starbucks (other coffee shops are available), and see the way teenagers lean and loaf against walls, backs of benches and so on. Keep your eyes on the world around you and you'll collect a wealth of poses.
In the meantime, buy fashion mags and collect tear sheets. Sure, there are the high fashion 'broken doll' awkward poses, but most people will never be a high fashion model, you're more likely to photograph friends, relatives and, for some, clients. These are not going to suit the 'broken doll' poses, so keep tear sheets of the more commercial poses, and use these as a reference book. I have loads of A4 folders with the plastic sheets inside them from WH Smiths (yeah, yeah, there's others of those kinda places too!) and they're filled with tear sheets for me to use as inspiration.
Hope that helps for those of you photographing people.
Z
