Portraits Paper a Look Into Photography

When planning a portrait session a photographer must make decisions about the whole session prior to the start of shooting. What the overall theme or purpose of the project or the message that is going to be conveyed needs to be thought out by the photographer to ensure that it’s able to be executed appropriately for the target audience. Decisions are also made about the amount of control a photographer has during the session and how much they would like to manipulate the photos. Throughout the portrait session plans can and sometimes do change. When I planned my portrait sessions the initial plan was to create a commentary on people’s roles and where they fit into their families. The family I chose specifically was my own because my place in the house has changed over the years I’ve been in college. As I was away at school my family had created a new life without me and when I had come home for different school breaks, this was very apparent. My plan for the portraits were to be as hands off as possible while taking the photos. I wanted to have the photos show the places and roles of my family members as they are, not an altered representation because there’s an awkwardness due to a camera being present. I didn’t want a relationship showing between the camera and the subject other than creating an atmosphere in the photos to be as if the viewer was in my home. Despite not placing my subjects or telling them what to do, I had to control the composition of the portraits to ensure that I didn’t change how the subjects acted. However I could not control their reactions or if they wanted to avoid me and my camera at all costs. When taking photos I quickly discovered how uncomfortable my family members became when they did notice me and it caused the whole direction of my project to shift. Noticing how uncomfortable some subjects were in front of the camera and how some didn’t seem to care, I changed my direction and theme to be a commentary on just that; how people...