On character-led portraiture

On Character-Led Portraiture

I sat with a friend recently and we chatted of working on a portrait together. I explained it would take half an hour, no styling, no plan beyond a chat. The premise was to be based on my character-led style. He agreed.

I hung an old army surplus mess tent as a backdrop. I like what olive drab does once it’s translated into my black and white process. I won’t walk through the exact setup, some things I’d rather people experienced than copied. 

The aperture is important though. I shoot at f/32, deep focus, no flattery, and at that aperture there’s very little that isn’t going to be recorded. To expose for that, you need a lot of light and you need it to be precise. So the strobe goes to full tilt, and a large silver-lined beauty dish does the work of holding the contrast and complimenting the light without losing the detail that I am after.

I want to see the face properly.

I shoot portraits of people this way so they can see themselves the way I see them.

My processing and edits are minimal. People are always surprised by how little I’ve touched. No smoothing, no softening, no taking things away. The lines stay. The grey hair stays. I want the face as it is.

There’s a moment that happens almost every time. Someone looks at the portrait, and for a few seconds nothing shows on their face at all. They’re taking it in. Then something changes, a small smile grows from the edges, an involuntary wow, the look of someone seeing themselves properly, from another’s perspective, the way the world sees them.

I knew what I wanted before I set up the camera, backdrop and lights. I could already see the picture. The light, the expression, the pose. The rest was getting everything to fall into place.

That’s how I shoot.

My job is to show you who you are.