Portraiture - Definition Post

Portraiture: 

Portrait photography or portraiture is photography of a person or group of people that displays the expression, personality, and mood of the subject. Like other types of portraiture, the focus of the photograph is usually the person's face, although the entire body and the background or context may be included.
Different lighting can affect the sexuality of the image0- the darker the image, the more masculine. Whereas the lighter the image the more feminine it is considered. In addition portraits capture the emotion of the person, the photographer can have an impact on this. 

This image is by the photographer Annie Leibovitz, this image is of Meryl Streep. This image implies that due to Meryl being an actress and playing various roles/characters, she is attempting to remove the white mask (her character.) This image is empowering as it implies she places on lots of different masks when playing her characters, but no one knows the true her; therefore she's trying to remove these masks and show everyone the true her. 

This image is photographed by Thomas Ruff. His photographs can be perceived as passport images. All his images show a deadpan expression. I dislike his images as I don't perceive them as art due to you being able to obtain them anywhere (i a photograph booth.) No expression is captured in the portrait due to it being deadpan. 

I like this image photographed by Alec Soth as not only does he capture the persons emotion and face, he also includes the backdrop, and setting where the image is taken. This image has pastel-like colours and is soft on the eye. No saturation is used and it implies a calmness and coldness about this image as there are many greens and blues. In addition due to us seeing the background, the viewer can see the trees obtain no leaves, therefore we know this image is photographed around the colder seasons. Due to the man holding plans this allows us to interpret some of his hobbies/personality. 

I like this image photographed by David Sorrenti. The emotion of happiness is captured in the image, the girl is laughing, with her eyes shut, therefore she is not looking directly at the lens, or away from it. I like that the image is in black and white as it shows the different contrasts in colour (e.g. the girls jacket and hair.) 

My own definition: An image, usually of a persons face, which captures emotion.

• Equipment is used to help project light in photography, shown here in some of the following: 

Honeycomb- this is fixed to the front of a studio strobe, of an off-camera flash. The light shines through the honeycomb grid, creating a tight beam of light. 

Snoot- Is a tube light object which fits over a light, or portable flash, allowing the photographer to direct the direction of the beam of light, and its radius; they can isolate a subject also.