 How's it how's it? Your portrait photography is lacking one crucial element which is why they often are not landing in the way that you wish that they were. It could be your lens choice, it could be the way that you're processing the image, it could be the setter or is it a very tiny, very imperceptible but extremely important element that is missing from the session. Portrait photographer Gregory Heisler recounts a story where it was him and the great Arnold Newman in a studio being photographed for an article on mentors and the photographer asked him just to stand there and was now shouting out instructions of do something because Arnold and Gregory were standing as men are want to do in a studio stock still with their arms behind their signs basically doing nothing so the photographer was barking instructions at them and eventually they sort of went I will do this or we do that and from the darkness from behind the lights there was nothing there was no reaction whatsoever eventually Gregory you know leaned past all the lights and he went that photographer is just sitting there smoking a cigarette talking on the phone wasn't involving Arnold and Gregory in the session I hope that gives you a clue as to what is probably missing from your portraits that is the idea of trust of involving the subject with the session so often you know we complain about you know this other subject wasn't didn't want to do what I wanted them to do and stuff like that and kind of miss the point that you know we are not photographing people like they are static objects like they're a bowl of fruit we are photographing human beings and we need to treat them with respect we need to treat them in a way that we are open to the anxieties they are feeling being photographed in his wonderful book 50 portraits Gregory Heisler has a introduction which I think it should be well required reading for anybody who has even a passing interest in portrait photography and in there he talks about a concept of the bubble of intimacy too close and the person who is being photographed feels full intimidated too far away and of course there is no real connection between photographer and sitter so it's your job as a portrait photographer to operate within this this bubble of intimacy where there is a connection between the people being photographed and yourself it's a very delicate space and you don't want to burst that bubble and within this book Gregory talks at length about a number of photographs and the stories behind them now what is different to a lot of photographers who talk about the stories is like when we look to Andy Gotts you know he talks about oh having chats with the people and stuff like that never really about the process the thought processes that are going on within the mind of the photographer so often you know we start off and we go oh I've got this idea we're going to do this we're going to do that and you have a very rigid idea about the the sessions going to happen and then you know like all plans they they don't really last the first engagement with the enemy and often you know you you flounder you're like what am I doing and think that there's something going wrong but photographers like Gregory Heisler will recognize when these sort of things are happening and will use it to their advantage he recounts a wonderful story about this gentleman on the cover this is wonderful awesome portrait is a guy called Louis Sarah I'm afraid I don't my pronunciation of that is is is appalling but he was the the masseuse for Muhammad Ali and they would wanted to do a you know a photo story on him and they get to his house and they want to you know to to come inside and and he's like I'm terribly sorry you know I'm I'm not feeling very well today I've got a big infection on my lip and all these sort of things and Gregory talks us through how he went through the process of arriving at this gorgeous portrait you know he said that you know first of all he was a little bit further away so it would be less dominant a lot less obvious and then you know it wasn't quite working and and then he got a bit closer and every time he spoke and when he sat down next to to Lewis and Lewis would do this with his hands and he went there's the picture there's that's how it's working so they they use that and you can see that if Gregory hadn't involved Lewis in the session in the way that he just barked out orders then there would never be that connection of you know of trust that level of trust between subject and photographer so you wouldn't have that connection I hope by now you're starting to see that it is so important that when you are in a portrait session that you have all your ducks in a row you have you know the ideas and stuff like that but you take the time to build some trust to involve the person if what you wanted to do is not what they want to do then you know let's then talk through it often you will find that different approaches work for different people and I mentioned Andy Gotts earlier and how he's his approach is to have one set style of his photographs on which then people can sort of you know act out or what have you and Gregory Heisler says you know that's not for him he doesn't want to do that he feels that as a disservice to have a uniform style that you're not connecting properly with the human being in front of you I'm going to stress that with the human being the person because that is an actual person who you're photographing and that he likes to rather have a personalized reaction to the personality and you know he talks about this wonderful image of Hugh Grant I love it I love this picture of Hugh Grant I think is beautiful and how it was a spur of the moment kind of thing well I say spur of the moment they were they had been doing some photographs for GQ out on the street and Hugh had been doing his his actory thing you know being hamming it up for the screen and riding the bicycle and being all kind of what being Hugh Grant basically and in between the setup you know the change in the lighting setups that Hugh was in this diner having a cup of coffee and he was deep in thought just thinking the sort of things and Gregory noticed this and and he very quietly without too much fuss got up moved over into one of the the bays near Hugh got his assistant to go outside with with a continuous light and you know just played it very gently through the window and waited for Hugh to give us or give him rather this this wonderful picture and he actually shot it and held on a four five but it's a measure of the photographer and you can do this once you become adept at it of recognizing a moment recognizing a delicate moment and not popping them popping that that that bubble of intimacy it may seem to begin with like how do you how do you get this but you know you you will get there it comes initially you're you're kind of worrying about lots of other things and stuff and this is why it is so important to understand the technical aspects of the of the session so you are not constantly thinking about these things in your mind that you are more readily actually thinking about the opportunities to photograph and this is why I stress so often that you know you really need to kind of understand the technical aspects but then try and put them to one side because that's when you start to really up your game as a photographer as you start making these these exceptional photographs that have connection that they have intimacy all these aspects that are so so important to making a portrait more than just a a visual representation of the person who you are photographing I don't often talk about gear and technical process on the channel because I feel it's a little bit off from from the from the real focus which is more of the why and but I feel in this case that there is one aspect that Gregory talks about quite a lot in his book that I think is extremely helpful and ties in with the idea of of why and you know is to the photograph not with strobes if you're photographing people in the studio but with continuous light if possible and the reason he does that is because you can see the changes you can see how the light is reacting straight away it frees up your mind from having to worry about f-stops and all sorts of things and taking test shots and and what have you to see what is changing so if you are going to dip your toe into the water of photographing with with artificial light then think about continuous light Gregory Heiser's portraits I simply enjoy I love looking at them because they are they're gentle and and they have a a quietness to them that I think is I was just lacking in a lot of photography today but I do find a lot of photographs that are loud and they're brash and it's a it's a pleasure to to see a photographer who you know talked about trust and intimacy is not shouting with his images I love this there is a time and a place sure for for loud images but it's also wonderful to see portraits in the in the truest sense of the word that they are portraits of somebody they are not a rendering you know that they are not just somebody we get an idea of we get a sense of these people's personality we get a sense of seeing behind the facade almost even if you're not into portrait photography and in which case well time for getting this far through the video right take a moment to enjoy them to to soak in that quiet calm beautifulness of Gregory's photography a photographer who embraced intimacy wholeheartedly within their photography is Sally Mann her photographs of her family are outstanding and exceptionally beautiful worth certainly you know 10 minutes of your time I put up a video over here go and check it out and I know you're going to love it thank you ever so much for watching and I'll see you again soon