Ashok Kandimalla has been in the photographic field for over three decades and has extensive experience in both film and digital photography. Being an electronics engineer by profession and a photographer, he possesses a unique and deep insight into the technical aspects of digital photography and equipment. He has published more than a 100 articles on photography and some of his writings have also been published in the well-known international magazine Popular Photography. An avid collector of photographic books and vintage cameras, Ashok has a keen interest in the history of photography and a passion for sharing his knowledge on photography through teaching and writing. He is the only Indian photographer to be featured on the Nikon Centenary website. He is presently working as a Management and Engineering consutant. He can be reached at kashokk@gmail.com.
Anyone who has wielded a camera has likely captured an image of another person. However, can we categorize all such photographs as portraits? Probably not, as many are merely snapshots. Therefore, what defines a portrait, and how does it differ from a snapshot? Let us start by looking at the definition of a portrait by referring to our trusty encyclopedia. Wikipedia defines a portrait as “A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person.” The critical words here are -“artistic representation” as these are the ones that separate a portrait from a snapshot.
If that is the definition of a portrait, how to proceed to create one photographically is the subject of this article. Since a portrait has to have artistic merit, you need to have a correct approach to create it. Plus like any photograph, it needs to have a proper composition and lighting. Let’s explore a bit more to understand what all this means
While there is no formal method of defining ‘types of portraits’ let us
