Photographing Head Shots & Full Length Portraits

Video Transcript

"When you take a portrait, you can choose to focus mainly on the person's head or you can also go with a full body portrait. It really depends on what you're going for with the image. You'll see in this photograph, taken by my very first photography teacher, Gordon Langalier, I wanted to show that he was a really good photographer. So, I decided to include his camera in the image. And, if you look closely, you can see in the reflection of his glasses, the image that he was actually trying to capture on film. Now, this portrait is an example of how you can show somebody and kind of depict what type of person they are or what kinds of things they're interested in by positioning different objects around them. And again, always pay attention to what the person's eyes are doing or what's being reflected on whatever might be covering their eyes, kind of giving the viewer an idea of what they might be looking at. Now, I worked with this model and she really wanted to do some full length portraits. So I found that having her in this chair, it created a nice relaxed feel and, at the same time, it showed off her wardrobe and the length that she works with. I believe she was well over six feet tall. But this is just an example of how a full length portrait can show you a little bit more than a head shot and really bring a lot into the image. So again, when you're taking portraits, go ahead and experiment with head shots, different angles, various objects related to the head shots. But don't be afraid to try some full length portraits as well and see what you might get there."