Lesson #8 People - Personality

People are by far, the most often photographed subject in the world. However, the overwhelming majority of people pictures are of a single type: A shot of someone standing in front of some landmark. This is especially true with travel imagery, as if the picture is taken to simply proove that the person was actually there in front of the Eiffel tower or the Grand canyon. These photos are usually uninteresting, because neither the subject nor the background are accentuated in any way. In the next two lessons, we'll explore how to create more interesting shots of people and learn how to think about composing shots that have more interest than this type of simple vacation picture.

There are essentially two kinds of people in the world, people who you know and people you don't. The methods for creating a good people photo is the same for both categories, though, and one method is to try and catpure your subject's personaltiy. But what exactly is personality?

On dictionary definition is "the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual's distinctive character." These characteristics and qualities come in many forms: physical appearance, expressions, moods, movement, personal dedication to certain activities, etc... One way of capturing personality is to focus on one particular characteristic and then try to create a photograph that successfully illustrates that characteristic. This can be done either through concentrated study and interaction with the person, or through a spontaneous interaction, which requires quick thinking, observation and a fast shutter finger. Either method can result in successful and powerful people photos that translate this personality to viewers who may not have ever met the person.

When shooting people, remember to use the same creativity and compositional methods ideas that you would use for any other subjects.