Good Portrait Photography

Flying Lady

A
Flying Lady

  • 3
  • 0
  • 30
Wren

D
Wren

  • 0
  • 0
  • 24
Not a photo

D
Not a photo

  • 1
  • 0
  • 38

Recent Classifieds

Forum statistics

Threads
199,035
Messages
2,785,049
Members
99,784
Latest member
Michael McClintock
Recent bookmarks
0

benjiboy

Subscriber
Joined
Apr 18, 2005
Messages
11,971
Location
U.K.
Format
35mm
I've been a portrait photographer for nearly sixty years and the only one of these people I have ever heard of is Steve McCurry and I would say he's a photojournalist not primarily a portrait photographer.
 

Richard Man

Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2005
Messages
1,301
Format
Multi Format
The subject of THIS post is misleading: TRAVEL portraits, i.e. otherwise could be called documentary portraits. I know 7 or so.
 

Mike Crawford

Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
614
Location
London, UK
Format
Medium Format
Blimey. Most of them look like they've been taken by the same person. Maybe they're the digital ones! And as others said, it some travel thing. Loads more famous portrait photographers out there I think.
 

adelorenzo

Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2012
Messages
1,421
Location
Whitehorse, Yukon
Format
4x5 Format
That post is just link bait, I wouldn't get too concerned about who's on the list. They just needed to fill the page with names and photos. If they are really doing their homework they probably based the list on names people search for most often.
 

Worker 11811

Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2010
Messages
1,719
Location
Pennsylvania
Format
Multi Format
If I remember correctly, McCurry's famous photo was a virtual grab shot. Wasn't it?
A great photo... Absolutely. Documentary... Yes.
A portrait? Only in the sense that it portrays the likeness of a person at a specific moment in time.
It's more of a candid, IMHO. A very, very good candid. :smile:
 

benjiboy

Subscriber
Joined
Apr 18, 2005
Messages
11,971
Location
U.K.
Format
35mm
You would really have to be a crap photographer to shoot a picture of such a beautiful young woman with such incredible eyes and it not be good.
 

Gunfleet

Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2009
Messages
93
Format
Medium Format
You've explained it to me. I went to the site and thought 'well if portrait is finding someone who looks interesting and then just pointing a camera at them in whatever light is there.'
 

MattKrull

Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2013
Messages
311
Location
Ottawa, Onta
Format
Multi Format
You would really have to be a crap photographer to shoot a picture of such a beautiful young woman with such incredible eyes and it not be good.

Congratualtions on minimizing one of the most influential photos in the past forty years.

The hard part wasn't taking the photograph, it was seeing the girl in the refuge camp in the first place, taking the moment to make the connection with her, so she showed her eyes, composing the image to remove the bustling background, and getting the light & timing perfect. Sure, it would take a crap photographer to mess up her portrait, but it took a good photographer to see her in the first place.

Steve McCurry calls himself a photojournalist, but he has done a great deal of environmental portraits in his time. Personally, I'd say those are his best photos.
http://stevemccurry.com/galleries

Going back to the original subject, I recognize the photos of one or two of the photographers. I'll agree, they all fall into what I consider travel photography, not classic portraiture, and I doubt any but Steve McCurry are truely famous. Personally, my list would have included people shooting the covers of major publications that hundreds of thousands or millions of people read, or adverts that are plastered in front of billions of eyes. Almost no non-photographers recognizes a famous photographer's name, but many will recall a few famous images they've seen. Annie Leibovitz, Martin Schoeller, Greg Heisler, Dan Winters, Joey L. I'd have loved to see a list of similar photographers shooting and being published in the east; India and China in particular, since those images will fall on a lot of eyes.

As was said, the link was pure click-bait, and so the list was really "these are my favour photographers".
 

benjiboy

Subscriber
Joined
Apr 18, 2005
Messages
11,971
Location
U.K.
Format
35mm
Congratualtions on minimizing one of the most influential photos in the past forty years.

The hard part wasn't taking the photograph, it was seeing the girl in the refuge camp in the first place, taking the moment to make the connection with her, so she showed her eyes, composing the image to remove the bustling background, and getting the light & timing perfect. Sure, it would take a crap photographer to mess up her portrait, but it took a good photographer to see her in the first place.

Steve McCurry calls himself a photojournalist, but he has done a great deal of environmental portraits in his time. Personally, I'd say those are his best photos.
http://stevemccurry.com/galleries

Going back to the original subject, I recognize the photos of one or two of the photographers. I'll agree, they all fall into what I consider travel photography, not classic portraiture, and I doubt any but Steve McCurry are truely famous. Personally, my list would have included people shooting the covers of major publications that hundreds of thousands or millions of people read, or adverts that are plastered in front of billions of eyes. Almost no non-photographers recognizes a famous photographer's name, but many will recall a few famous images they've seen. Annie Leibovitz, Martin Schoeller, Greg Heisler, Dan Winters, Joey L. I'd have loved to see a list of similar photographers shooting and being published in the east; India and China in particular, since those images will fall on a lot of eyes.

As was said, the link was pure click-bait, and so the list was really "these are my favour photographers".

It is a beautiful iconic picture, but what you describe as the method that McCurry used is only the way any half competent shooter who wasn't a happy snapper would approach the subject, and the difficulty of the photographer in obtaining an image has little bearing on the actual picture when viewed by the public who can only judge what's in front of them.
How many members of this forum could have taken this shot given the same circumstances ? quite a few I bet.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Colonel Blimp

Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2012
Messages
54
Location
London, UK
Format
35mm
It is a beautiful iconic picture, but what you describe as the method that McCurry used is only the way any half competent shooter who wasn't a happy snapper would approach the subject, and the difficulty of the photographer in obtaining an image has little bearing on the actual picture when viewed by the public who can only judge what's in front of them.
How many members of this forum could have taken this shot given the same circumstances ? quite a few I bet.
Come on...
 
OP
OP
cliveh

cliveh

Subscriber
Joined
Oct 9, 2010
Messages
7,543
Format
35mm RF
How many members of this forum could have taken this shot given the same circumstances ? quite a few I bet.

But the fact is they didn't and he did. It is far easier to criticise than create.
 

benjiboy

Subscriber
Joined
Apr 18, 2005
Messages
11,971
Location
U.K.
Format
35mm
But the fact is they didn't and he did. It is far easier to criticise than create.
I'm not criticising McCurry Clive, all I'm saying is it would have to be a really crap photographer to take a bad picture of a girl with such incredible eyes.
 

analoguey

Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2013
Messages
1,103
Location
Bangalore, I
Format
Multi Format
<Rant>
Dont like them and don't like the trend of posting such images over and over from travelling to any destination.

These photos remind me of what I read in the NG portrait book.
Roughly paraphrased quote:
What resulted was that National Geographic photographers went to exotic, unexplored lands and brought back photos of the people from there.

Almost everyone seems to be a poor person photographed, and shoving wide-angle/tele In-Your-Face and taking a photo seems to be the in-thing.
Why does a portrait have to be only the face or face+shoulders?
Caricature is better.

</Rant>

+1 to what Mike C & Adolorenzo said!
 

Ko.Fe.

Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2014
Messages
3,209
Location
MiltON.ONtario
Format
Digital
Cheesy, overprocessed pictures of third world faces, full blown at entire frame. Not interested, sorry. Been here, seen what...

Good Portrait Photography is with Yousuf Karsh as very well staged with perfect light images and with Jane Bown's quick, but perfect style.
Those at the link aren't even close.
 

benjiboy

Subscriber
Joined
Apr 18, 2005
Messages
11,971
Location
U.K.
Format
35mm
Portraits aren't just about showing someone's exterior face that they shown to the World, but more about trying to reveal their soul .
 

baachitraka

Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2011
Messages
3,559
Location
Bremen, Germany.
Format
Multi Format
Wow!!!

Jane Bown's camera: OM-1 + 85mm f/2.0 what a great combo.
 

benjiboy

Subscriber
Joined
Apr 18, 2005
Messages
11,971
Location
U.K.
Format
35mm
If that's true, I would say almost all portraiture probably fails.
Most of them do fail Michael, but it should be what a good portraitist should be trying to achieve.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Photrio.com contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.
To read our full affiliate disclosure statement please click Here.

PHOTRIO PARTNERS EQUALLY FUNDING OUR COMMUNITY:



Ilford ADOX Freestyle Photographic Stearman Press Weldon Color Lab Blue Moon Camera & Machine
Top Bottom