Reflecting on my recent portrait shoot

For my studies, I had to shoot a portrait (character or beauty), and I had a great session with a friend and colleague of mine this Sunday. It sparked a lot in my head again, and I just want to put it all in writing and do some reflection.

The line between beauty and character portrait for me is very fine, especially for female portraits - obviously, most women would prefer to look as perfect as possible (or at least I haven’t yet met the one who doesn’t care), so there will be wardrobe, makeup and retouch involved. And over all of this, it turns out to be real hard to depict a character, to find that something that will be the essence of this person, even if you know them. Probably even harder if you don’t!

Another struggle - the idea behind the shoot. Yes, we had a board in Pinterest with ideas and inspiration, but for me it is apparently very hard to pick a point to start, and follow the chosen track after that. I am an explorer, I prefer to have a vague idea and then play with it, adjusting, evolving, transforming, and then picking something that worked. It’s not what was expected of me for the assignment - I should have planned the final shot in advance and just executed it. I tried, I’ve even drafted the idea and lighting setup, but what we got at the end was completely different. Am I okay with that? Not sure, I need to think.

Coming back to my wildflowers project, I am constantly thinking on the background that I need an idea, something specific, some series, or subject, some project within a project to execute, not just going out, taking random flower photos and then posting what worked… but as I stated above, it seems like it’s not how I work - a contradiction I need to think about.