Viewpoint for Portraiture

Techniques

23 October 2008 16:26

The scale and viewpoint of painted portraits are often connected because they are intended to suggest how we relate physically and psychologically to the sitter? This leads us to ask; are we looking down on the subject, straight at them or are they looking down on us? How does this positioning of the subject affect how we react to them?

Photography initially borrowed its conventions of pose, gesture and viewpoint from painting and some of these exist today, however photography has evolved its own visual language to add to this by conveying other ideas and meanings.

Viewpoint is a position affording a good view or, a point of view; an opinion. It’s this that we’re looking to take control of. So when shooting, we need to consider how we want our sitter to appear, and how we would like the viewer to relate to them.

 

Straight on
Straight on puts the sitter and viewer on equal terms. It doesn’t overemphasise any particular part of the subject or convey a strong mood or attitude. It’s great for direct eye contact, and good for photographing kids.
From slightly above
From slightly above is a pleasing angle for general portraiture because it draws attention to the eyes by making them appear larger. It can also make the subject look slightly passive or even sultry; an extreme use of this viewpoint can make the sitter appear submissive.
From slightly below
From slightly below can make subject appear confident, important or even dominant. It’s often used in lifestyle portraits and fashion photography. However, this viewpoint requires care because it is the classic horror angle. Coupled with up-lighting and extreme shadows, you could be in for a scream.
From below
From below is very much like the previous viewpoint but slightly more exaggerated. It can be used to show the dominance of the sitter, Hence its common use in fashion and fetish photography. It works particularly well with full length portraits, although care is required because the low angle coupled with wide angle lenses can create unnatural distortion.

Remember, these ideas aren’t set in stone and you can go completely against them. However, considering your approach to portraiture using viewpoint will give you more control over your portraits than you realised possible.