Portraits that feel false
Chendering Fisheries Garden, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia (_DSC1485), originally uploaded by hackspot.
Taken with a Nikon D50 and AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6G lens
Certainly, there are many portraits that feel false, for various reasons. Those reasons can range from too much gauze effect to make a woman's skin supposedly look better to a snapshot-like smile on the subject that makes the emotion feel barren.
I like the more straightforward portraits (I tend to work in black and white) but ones that seem to capture a particular moment or gesture, one that feels vital. Yet some very "staged" portraits feel genuine as well, in the right hands. You seem to use both "honesty" and "reach me emotionally" as criteria. I think the former is more problematic than the latter. For me, emotion from a portrait is crucial. But I'm never sure what "honesty" means with respect to photography.
I think there are great portraits that reach people emotionally, are extremely expressive, and seem quite genuine but are not necessarily what a lot of people would consider "honest." In other words, one may catch a crabby older woman in a gesture or look of sweetness. That still may be a very much "real" look of that woman but not a represenatitive one. So is that honest? If most people who don't know the subject come away assuming that the portrait has captured the woman's "essence" (which I don't believe a portrait does do or should do - I tend to see portraits as capturing essential moments), is there a lack of honesty?
And, sometimes a portrait is able to capture a universal emotion, gesture, or moment that is more a statement of the photographer than it is a representation of anything about the subject. Depending on the situation, that can be a very valid and honest portrait as well. Dramatic lighting may change someone's appearance a lot yet may capture something very poingnant that the photographer is feeling at the moment.
Subjects are "used" all the time in photography just as Hitchcock, for instance, "used" his actors. That could be, but would not by me, considered dishonest. As far as cloning out blemishes, etc., I think that will also depend on the type of portrait, whether or not someone is paying for it, and what the goal and vision of the photographer is.
Sometimes blemishes add to personality, crows feet add great character and lines to faces, bags under eyes can be very telling. But if one has been hired to do a portrait that will hang on the subject's wall, it seems perfectly legitimate to do a little flattering in the post processing. That flattering, however, is where most people get carried away, making their portraits look like plastic and losing any sense of skin texture or life. A refined and gentle hand in the post process would be my preference.
Labels: AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6G, Chendering Fisheries Complex, Nikon D50, People, Philosophy of Photography, Photography
