I am currently judging a contest, and one of the categories is portraits. I am amazed (and not in a good way) how bad some of these images are. When I think about a portrait, I want to get a sense of the person I’m looking at. Who are they? Do they have a sense of humor? What makes them smile? Are they playful or serious? Instead, what I am seeing is people posing in such a way that they look uncomfortable, so it makes me uncomfortable to even look at the image. Another issue is there is so much stuff in the images I can’t even find the subject. Over-designed, over-lit, over the top. Yes, lighting is important and composition is critical, but the most important aspect of portrait photography is the subject. Who are they? Show me who they are.
