Jeff Smith's Guide to Head and Shoulders Portrait Photography

M

ost photographers have gotten to a point where they coordinate the
basic color of a client’s clothing to that of the background, set, or out-
door scene. Darker tones of clothing are paired with darker backgrounds.
Lighter tones of clothing are paired with lighter backgrounds. This makes the
viewer’s eye focus on the person and not what the person is wearing. It also
gives you the ability to hide body size, because you don’t create an exact out-
line of the client’s body as you would with a white dress on a black background.
This is important even in many head and shoulders images, since the arms,
shoulders, and chest may be visible in the portrait.
To create a portrait that has a sense of style, you not only need to coordinate
thecolorof the clothing to the scene, you must also coordinate thestyleof the
clothing, which should present a similar feeling to that reflected in the scene.
Although correcting flaws is important to the client, the portrait must also vi-
sually “make sense.” This can only happen when each aspect of the portrait
complements the other.

Clothing Guidelines.

Probably the best advice I can give you in regard to your clients’ clothing is to
have them bring in everything for you to look at. I am not kidding. We tell our
seniors to bring in everything, and they do. The average girl brings in ten to
twenty-five outfits; the average guy brings five to ten. By doing this, you always
have other choices when a favorite outfit is a bad choice for a particular subject.
Long Sleeves.We stress the importance of bringing in the proper styles of
clothing. We suggest long sleeves for all portraits that are to be taken from the
waist up.
Black and White Clothing.We also suggest that anyone who worries about
weight should bring in a variety of darker colors of clothing and several choices
that are black. Black clothing is amazing. It will take ten to thirty pounds off of

24 JEFF SMITH’S GUIDE TO HEAD AND SHOULDERS PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY

3. Clothing Selection..

FACING PAGE—Long sleeves are a flattering

choice for any portrait that will be taken

from the waist up.

We stress the

importance of bringing

in the proper styles

of clothing.