{"id":70,"date":"2009-06-24T20:09:34","date_gmt":"2009-06-25T00:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paulmanoian.com\/photography\/?p=70"},"modified":"2017-01-16T10:22:36","modified_gmt":"2017-01-16T15:22:36","slug":"difference-between-snapshots-portraits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paulmanoian.com\/photography\/2009\/06\/difference-between-snapshots-portraits\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s the Difference Between Snapshots and Portraits, Anyway?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been asked “What’s the difference between a snapshot and a candid portrait?” more times than I can count recently.\u00a0 It’s a reasonable question given I’m a photographer, and a portrait photographer at that. To help blur the line further, I have a strong dislike for posed portraits and prefer a more candid, photojournalistic style.\u00a0 That likely explains why so many parents tell me I’ve captured their child’s personality.\u00a0 Perfectly!<\/p>\n

So, for me, distinguishing snapshots from portraits, even candid photojournalistic portraits, comes down to a combination of five (5) key elements.\u00a0 I plan on exploring these elements over the coming weeks, but for those of you dying to know now, they are:<\/p>\n

Light and Exposure<\/strong><\/a>– The single most important aspect of photography.\u00a0 Stated in its simplest form, photography is nothing more than capturing light.<\/p>\n

Focus and Depth of Field<\/a> <\/strong>– The best portraits rarely have an unlimited depth of field.\u00a0 Portraiture is about knowing what, and how much, to put the focus on.<\/p>\n

Texture<\/a> <\/strong>– Shapes and lighting angles are key in defining texture in a two dimensional paper plane.<\/p>\n

Composition<\/a> <\/strong>– It is imperative to consider leading lines and shapes; otherwise, you just end up with a “picture of\u00a0 a face”.\u00a0 If the viewer’s eye wanders when looking at a portrait, you’ve missed the mark.\u00a0 Negative space is just as important.<\/p>\n

Color<\/a> <\/strong>– If you’re capturing portraits for a color print … need I say more?<\/p>\n

There you have it.\u00a0 While every portrait may not have all of these elements, a professional photographer is likely thinking about each and every one of these every time the shutter closes.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned as I explore these in more detail …<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.paulmanoian.com\/photography\/index.php\/2009\/08\/difference-between-snapshots-and-portraits-composition\/<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been asked “What’s the difference between a snapshot and a candid portrait?” more times than I can count recently.\u00a0 It’s a reasonable question given I’m a photographer, and a portrait photographer at that. To help blur the line further, I have a strong dislike for posed portraits and prefer a more candid, photojournalistic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[24,13,15,1086,27,3,26],"sp_smart_badges":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-70","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-discussion","7":"tag-michigan-photographer","8":"tag-michigan-photography","9":"tag-photographer","10":"tag-photography","11":"tag-portrait","12":"tag-portraits","13":"tag-portraiture","14":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Paul Manoian","author_link":"https:\/\/www.paulmanoian.com\/photography\/author\/manoian\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paulmanoian.com\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paulmanoian.com\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paulmanoian.com\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paulmanoian.com\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paulmanoian.com\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.paulmanoian.com\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paulmanoian.com\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paulmanoian.com\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paulmanoian.com\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70"},{"taxonomy":"sp_smart_badges","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paulmanoian.com\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sp_smart_badges?post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}