Why a portrait tells you more than a face
There’s a photo of me I’ve kept in my phone’s camera roll for years. I don’t look particularly good in it, but I do look honest. It was 2019, I was under pressure, and you can see it. There’s something in my eyes. Something in the way my shoulders droop.
That’s what a good portrait does. It shows what you can’t put into words.
But what turns a photo of your face into a portrait? I want to show you what I look for, why time makes such a difference and what you can do to help get a photo you recognise yourself in.
The difference between a photo and a portrait
A passport photo is a photo of your face too, but it isn’t a portrait. A portrait is about who you are when the photographer presses the shutter. Not who you want to be or how you want to come across on LinkedIn. Who you are.
That might sound a bit woolly, but it’s just photography. Light, composition, timing. For me, the difference is whether someone takes the time to get to know you before picking up their camera.
I don’t mean a photographer knows exactly who you are after one conversation. Thankfully, people aren’t that simple. A portrait shows something of you at that moment. You might be outgoing or you might be thoughtful. Both can be you. You don’t have to squeeze your whole personality into one photo.
You can see it in the hands too
Your eyes tend to go straight to the eyes in a portrait. Fair enough. But look at the rest too. How someone sits. Whether their hands are resting somewhere or gripping something. Whether their shoulders are raised. Small things that affect how you read a photo.
Sometimes something happens between poses that’s more interesting than the pose itself. Someone glances sideways, listens or laughs at something that’s just been said. A little tension leaves their face. That can give you a photo in which you suddenly recognise them.
These aren’t rules. Crossed arms don’t automatically mean someone is closed off. They might just be comfortable. And a serious expression doesn’t have to mean more than a smile. I think it’s quite a leap to read an entire personality into the position of an eyebrow.
The light and the space around you play a part too. Light can soften a face or bring out its lines. A simple background keeps your attention on the person. A workplace can tell you something about their daily life. The question is always what that helps you see of them.
What goes wrong at a typical shoot
You know how it goes. You book an appointment, drive somewhere, and someone’s waiting with a camera. You don’t know what to do with your hands, you put on a smile, and afterwards you’re sitting in your car thinking: was that it?
The problem isn’t the photographer. It’s time. Or the lack of it.
A portrait needs time. For you to relax, rather than for the technical side. The first twenty minutes in front of the camera are almost always a write-off. Everyone tenses their shoulders, pulls their stomach in and smiles a little too broadly. Something only starts to happen once the photographer stops counting and starts looking.
By a write-off, I mean the photos, not the time spent settling in. That’s part of it. You’ve walked into a place where someone is going to look closely at you. Of course you’re thinking about how you come across. You don’t need to give yourself a hard time about that as well.
Relaxing on command rarely works
“Just act natural” is a tricky instruction when you suddenly have to work out what natural actually is. Your first response to a camera is often to pose. You put on the face you think you’re supposed to have in a photo. Meanwhile, you’re busy thinking about your mouth and still have no idea where those hands should go.
A conversation gives you something else to think about. You listen, respond, pause for a moment. Your attention shifts to what you’re saying. That’s when the expression people know you for can appear.
The conversation doesn’t have to be deep. You don’t have to share anything personal to deserve a good portrait. A chat about your work can be enough to stop you thinking about the camera all the time. And sometimes settling in takes a bit longer. There needs to be room for that.
What you can do before you step in front of the camera
If you’re self-conscious about something, say so beforehand. Perhaps you feel awkward about your smile or worry you’ll freeze as soon as a camera appears. At least it’s out in the open then. Otherwise, you might spend the session checking whether the very thing you were dreading is happening.
Choose clothes you feel yourself in and can sit and move comfortably in. A jacket you keep having to straighten takes attention you’d rather give to something else. You don’t need to buy a new version of yourself for a portrait.
You can bring something that feels like you. A familiar piece of clothing, perhaps, or an object connected to your work. It doesn’t have to appear in the photo. Talk about whether it adds anything. An object can tell you something about a person, but it can also get in the way.
Try to arrive without rushing. Stepping straight out of a packed schedule and in front of a camera can leave you feeling you still need to be somewhere else. Give yourself a chance to settle in.
Say what you need the photo for and what you’re unsure about too. That gives the conversation some direction. You’ll find more practical advice in my article on how to prepare for a portrait shoot. Think of preparation as a way to save yourself some hassle. You don’t need to practise looking relaxed at home.
Where the photo will appear matters
For work or LinkedIn, you might mainly want people to recognise you clearly. A headshot, with the emphasis on your face, could suit that. Giving your face enough space helps, especially when the photo will be displayed at a small size. A busy background might not add much.
For a book, the design matters too. Will the portrait be on the cover or inside? Does there need to be room for text? Those are things to discuss beforehand. I go into this further in my article on an authentic portrait for your book cover.
If you want to show something of your daily life, your surroundings can play a part. In a portrait at work or at home, the setting tells part of the story. It’s worth thinking about how much of that place needs to be visible.
So the purpose helps guide the choice of location, framing and the space around you. The starting point is still that you should recognise yourself in the photo. Even if it’s for work.
Colour or black and white changes what you notice
Colour can add something. The colour of your clothes or the room might be part of who you are. But a brightly coloured object in the background can also draw attention away from the face.
In black and white, those differences in colour disappear. Light, lines and facial expressions can become more noticeable. That doesn’t automatically make a photo more honest or better. A forced smile is still a forced smile without colour.
I’d start with the photo itself when making that choice. What do you see, and what helps keep your attention on the person? You can read more about that decision in my article on black and white or colour in portrait photography. You can also look at my black and white portraits to see what happens when you take colour away.
Choosing a photo without only looking at your chin
When you look at photos of yourself, it’s tempting to go straight to whatever you don’t like. Your hair looks different from how you imagined it. You notice a crease, a chin, something nobody else might even be looking at. Before you know it, you’re judging individual parts and have lost sight of yourself.
Try looking at the whole photo first. Do you recognise that expression? Is that how you sit when you’re talking to someone? There’s nothing wrong with looking good in a photo, of course. But I’d put more weight on recognising yourself than on a face you can’t find fault with.
Ask someone who knows you well to look with you. They might recognise an expression you barely notice yourself. Have another look a day later. And pay attention to the photo where you feel you weren’t doing anything special. Perhaps you didn’t need to.
What authentic portrait photography looks like for me
I don’t start by taking photos. I start with coffee. And a conversation. Sometimes about your work, sometimes about what’s on your mind, sometimes about nothing much at all. You start to relax. I’m not doing anything special. You’ve simply got a bit of room to be yourself.
And then, when you forget I’m there, I pick up my camera.
The photo you get shows who you are, beyond what you look like. That sounds like a big claim, but it comes from taking enough time.
That’s what I mean by authentic portrait photography. A way of working, rather than a style or a filter.
You’ll find an overview of my work in my portraits.
➜ More about how a PAUZE portrait session works and what to expect