Portrait– the Best Way of Treasuring Life’s Most Cherisable Moments

A portrait basically represents a painting, photograph, sculpture or any other artistic representation of a person, where the face and its expressions predominant. Through it the likeness, personality and mood of the person is expressed. The history of portrait trails behind to Egyptian culture where the portraits were made of funeral rather than kings or emperors. It flourished during the Roman culture. Later canvas of elite kings, priests, warriors and even distinguished artisans were made representing several stages of their lives. One of the most renowned paintings worldwide is of Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci and Picasso’s The Old Guitarist.

Portrait Photography

With the dawn of photography, the face of portrait has changed massively. Photography came into existence since the 19th century. And it revolutionized the oil painting phase. It became comparatively inexpensive and time saving affair. With just 30 sec. exposure time, and better quality output as compare to canvas painting, it soon became mass appeal. Trends have changed a lot since and we are into a new phase of commission portrait where recreation of the photograph into canvas is done with same perseverance of the essence of the original photo. Portrait photography has become a popular commercial industry all over the world nowadays. Many people want professional made family portraits to hang in their homes, or special photos to honor special events as weddings and graduation etc.

Techniques for Portrait Photography

•    Quality of lighting has major impact on final output of photograph with respect to quality. Good lighting leads to proper visibility of the subject. The better the visibility the clearer the photograph.

•    The subject backdrop is equally relevant in context to lighting. Contrast backdrop colour is essential for good output of the image. There are three types of lighting namely key lighting, fill lighting and hair lighting. The key light is the main light for the subject. The fill light fills in shadow appearing on the subject’s face caused by key lighting. Hair lighting illuminates the subject from above so that it visually distinguishes the subject from the backdrop.

Advantages of Photography over Painting

Portraits made in canvas are no doubt a prized collection. But they are yet not common man’s cup of tea. Canvas paintings are tough to preserve for long time. And they are very expensive with respect to money and time. In case of portrait photography, hardly thirty seconds are required to capture the precious moments. They are printed on paper so need less storage capacity. They don’t need extra precautions for their perseverance. They have longer life, cheaper and better with respect to output. And the best thing about it is that even an amateur can handle it, yielding comparatively good result.