portraits

A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant.
A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the painter or photographer, in order to most successfully engage the subject with the viewer.

Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002)

Yousuf Karsh is considered one of the most famous portrait photographers of all time. The Canadian photographer of Armenian descent is best known for his portrait work of dignitaries, politicians and celebrities. Some of his most famous subjects include:

• Muhammad Ali
• Humphrey Bogart
• Fidel Castro
• Albert Einstein
• Dwight Eisenhower
• Robert Frost
• Clark Gable
• Ernest Hemingway
• Audrey Hepburn
• Pope John Paul II
• Helen Keller
• Grace Kelly
• Jacqueline Kennedy
• John F. Kennedy
• Laurence Olivier

Diane Arbus (1923-1971)

Documenting society's rejects was a passion of American photographer Diane Arbus. She is best known for her portraits of individuals, who lived on the fringes of society, including dwarfs, giants, prostitutes and transvestites. Arbus also won accolades for capturing ordinary people in extraordinary poses and settings. To this day, historians credit Arbus for pushing the boundaries of "tasteful" portrait photography.

Elsa Dorfman

American portrait photographer Elsa Dorfman possesses a skill invaluable to her profession-she can connect with a subject in record time. Dorfman stands out in the world of portrait photography because she uses a 20 by 24-inch Polaroid camera, rather than a sophisticated digital device. Film costs about $50 per exposure, so she limits herself to two exposures per subject. This means that Dorfman must work twice as hard to capture the essence of a subject's expression. Dorfman's artistic success as a portrait photographer has been displayed in major museums around the world.

Portrait Lighting for photography

The three pictures above and beside this, illustrate a couple of interesting details…  First, take a look and see how the length of the nose shadow is shortened as the light source seems to wrap around the subject as it gets closer.  Yes, I had to adjust the light intensity for this illustration, because as the light got closer, it also became brighter.
Second…  Notice how the background appears to be darker as the light got to be closer.  The reason for this all explained in the “Inverse Square Law”.  As the light got closer it became proportionately farther away from the background.