Female Portraiture

The art of portraiture is arguably one of the oldest art forms. From ancient paintings of dignitaries to today's ever-popular senior photo faze, preserving the memory of our loved ones at certain stages in their life seems to remain a timeless fascination. Because of this the senior portrait business has boomed, allowing portrait companies to skyrocket their prices for their products. Additionally, inside the senior portrait business a key target consumer group is ever-growing. This consumer group is that of teenage girls (as opposed to young men) who look forward to the opportunity to be "all dolled up" for their senior photos. In fact, if you choose to view the galleries of the majority of senior portrait companies you will find that the majority of the clients are female. For anyone who is seeking to shoot female portraiture (either senior photos, a model's portfolio, or simply to preserve a precious stage of life), here are some important rules to remember.

Realize that you will most likely end up air brushing your client's photos. Females in today's society are used to seeing airbrushed versions of beauty; from magazine covers to their own friend's senior portraits from other studios, almost all printed work of a female's face has been edited in some way or another. In order to minimize the touch up work that you will end up doing later, encourage your client to wear a little bit of makeup to cover up minor "blemishes." You may also want to encourage her in wearing a small bit of eyeliner or mascara and lipstick; many female portraits focus on highlighting women's mouths or eyes and drawing them out with makeup will reduce the amount of post-processing work that you will have to do after the photo shoot.

Another important aspect to female portraiture is that of angles. Be careful to choose angles that will accurately represent your client. Generally, photographs shot from above a female look far more flattering that those from beneath her. Women's "wanted" curves will show adequately from above, while shooting from beneath her may draw out some out of her "unwanted" curves (such as rolls beneath the chin). However, if you are shooting "power" shots of your client, shooting from beneath her (beneath her means holding your camera under her eye level) may be the more desirable approach. Photographs taken from beneath a subject cause them to appear more powerful and strong; photographs taken from above will cast a gentler appearance upon your subject. Choose your angle to accurately represent your client and to bring out the best of her features.

Finally, realize that you can never under emphasize the effect that lighting can have on female portraiture. Too many shadows may cause a great distraction in your photograph, but they may be wanted if you're trying to give your client a more "mysterious" appearance. Likewise, bright lighting will always produce very clean photographs (a classic looking shot is can be created with just a bleached white sheet and bright lighting as a background), but bright lighting is not wanted for any softer looking photograph. A good balance can be found when using warmer lighting (or a flash) to cast natural looking shadows on your subjects face.