Candid Portraits : The Essence of Photography
- Sushant Singhal
The primary difference between paintings and photographed images is the ability of the photographic camera to capture fleeting moments as immortalised images. If life is a motion picture, still photographs are necessarily paused images picked out of it. A painter needs several hours to record a scene with great fidality and minute details. Therefore, if he ever wishes to record a particular fleeting moment or a particular expression long gone by, he would have a nearly impossible task at his hand to hold that fleeting moment in his memory long enough so that he can re-create it on his canvas. Even if this can be done, a perfect reproduction of reality is hard to get.
However, we photographers are lucky to possess an extremely light-sensitive apparatus -- the camera, which takes no time to take in the entire scene with astonishing detail and clarity. What is left then, for us is to take a decision as to which mortal reality deserves to be picked up for converting into an all-time immortal image.
Mother nature offers to us sometimes once-in-a-lifetime scenes - which our
photographic camera is perfectly capable of capturing, selection of human
beings as subject is dear to both -- painters as well as photographers.
However, candid portraiture is forte of the photographers for the reasons
narrated above. If done with perfect timing and with good photographic
sense, we may very well have in our hands great images that wouldn't stop
thrilling us.
Portraits are often classified as FORMAL V/s. INFORMAL. Another classification we often hear about is PLANNED PORTRAITS V/s. CANDID PORTRAITS. In short, candid portrait is an image where the photographer did nothing to change the mood, expression, location, costume etc., of his subject. What he did choose is PROPER ANGLE OF VIEW, the RIGHT MOMENT for firing the shutter and of course his apparatus and film etc. In candid portraiture, the locations and the expressions are genuine and not artificially created. Candid portraiture is in fact photo- journalism. The journalist does not cause an event. Instead, he reports about an event using all of his reporting skills to make it a good story. Likewise, a candid portrait photographer is a photo-journalist who instantly responds to a scene seeing the possibility of an interesting photographic image in a person's mood, location, situation and translates that mental visualisation into a photograph. In great many situations, the subject is not even aware of the fact that he is being photographed. Such stolen images are the mainstay of candid photography. However, a subject, even though aware of presence of an aiming camera, may choose to ignore it completely and continue with whatever he has been doing. A press conference is one such place where lots of candid portraits are taken by a number of photographers with full knowledge and permission of their subjects. On the other hand, in a mela, festivals, marketplace, tourist spots or fairs, we take photographs of people with or without seeking their permission. Both of these situations are examples of candid portraiture.
In early days of photography, candid portraits were difficult to do because
the photographer had to work with slow lenses, slow films alongwith the
fact that he was also required to focus and set exposure manually.
Tripod-mounted, large-format plate cameras with no mechanical shutter were
the last thing to use for this kind of quick-response photography.
Hand-held camera, large apertures, fast-shutters, fast films and good
amount of day light are the obvious pre-requisites -- all of which are
available to almost all photographers of modern times. Modern technology
has brought to us camera with auto-focus, auto-exposure and even cordless
remote control which earliest photographers could not even dream of and
'might have committed murder' to possess such state-of-the-art photographic
equipment. Still, great candid portraits are found to have been taken by
some talented photographers of earlier times. What they lacked in equipment
and technology was compensated by the great sense of timing and
anticipation.
Yes, the sense of timing and the ability to anticipate an action or an expression is the core of candid portraiture. If you do not possess these skills, train yourself to acquire these. Without these, you are unlikely to come out with great images. On the other hand, if you can anticipate the action and react with perfect timing, even an humble fixed focus box camera could earn you name, fame and prizes. If any of us wishes to concentrate on candid portraiture, he may find it useful to ponder over following points :
KEEP THE CAMERA READY FOR ACTION
This suggestion is so obvious that some may ridicule it. But, there is nothing to laugh about, for, many great photographs do not materialise simply because the camera is safely packed in its leather case and is in the suitcase while it should have been hanging from the neck. During travel, find a seat next to window, if possible. Keep the camera out of its case with lens cap removed. If it has manual shutter/aperture settings, set these to match with the present level of available light so that when the magical moment comes, you are not caught off guard and are not busy setting appropriate shutter speed and/or aperture. If it has auto-exposure setting, switch to that. If time permits, you may take additional shots to improve over the earlier ones with manual control. Auto-exposure is likely to give you atleast one correctly exposed picture in an instant.
ii) Even if you have an auto-exposure controlled camera, the lens cap or the camera case can result in a missed opportunity. Keep the lens cap in your shirt's pocket and not fitted to the lens. Screw-in lens caps are the worst enemy of a candid portrait photographer. Even before lens cap can be removed, the moment that we wanted to capture may be a thing of the past. Worrying about the safety of your equipment ? You do have a UV filter fitted on your lens. Don't you? Ships are safe when in harbours but are ships meant to be in harbours only ? If you are still worried about the camera's safety, you have probably bought a costlier camera than you can afford!
iii) Select a shutter speed in advance that is likely to capture the image without blur but take care of depth of field too. A combination of, say, 1/250 or 1/125 second shutter and f 8 or f 11 with lens focussed at its focal point ( a lens when focussed at its focal point instead of at infinity delivers maximum depth of field) is likely to cover most day-light conditions. Obviously, the exact shutter - aperture combination would vary according to amount of light available and the film speed.
WHICH LENS TO USE ?
Having many lenses in your camera bag is a boon or a curse - depending on
your luck. You often find that when the magic moment comes, your camera is
mounted with the wrong lens! On the contrary, if you do have a choice
among various lenses, mounting the correct one onto your camera as soon as
you smell a picture can give you tightly framed pictures with ideal angle of
coverage and magnification. If you have a camera with one lens only, look
for those situations (there are plenty, always!) wherein your lens would
give you ideal coverage and magnification. If you are getting more
coverage than what you want (i.e. your lens has wider angle than you would
prefer), don't worry. You will have an option of cropping and re-composing
your image at the time of printing.
For those who happen to have 35 mm. SLR and choice of lenses, a good zoom in the range of 80-200 with as large aperture as possible is a definite asset. Modern 75-300 ultrasonic auto-focus zoom from Canon is simply great for candid portraiture. It enables you to maintain sufficient distance from your subject even while allowing you to get sensationally close to your subject optically. If you are amongst your holidaying friends or in a busy fair/market place, you can successfully use a moderate wide angle (around 35 mm.) fixed focal-length prime lens or 28-80 zoom fitted onto your camera which would enable you to capture full figure portraits in action.
IF NEEDED, CHANGE YOUR POSITION
If something interesting seems likely to come across and you have time to change to a better location, do it as soon as possible. Changing the position may be required to get a better, closer view or better light OR both. Always remember that in candid portraiture, you adapt yourself to the situations instead of giving directions to subject of your interest.
WORK SILENTLY AND PATIENTLY
If you suddenly discover your three year old daughter playing the role of
angry mother with her Barbie doll in the same manner as her mother does to
her, do nothing to divert her attention towards yourself. Even though
dying to capture the moment in your camera, act as if you are not paying
any attention to her or are not even aware of her presence. Act as if you
are busy in your own thoughts and have failed to notice her. This would let
her accept your presence. Children are like butterflies, run after them
and you can't catch them. On the other hand, act as if you couldn't care
less and they will jump into your lap!
HAVE A THICK SKIN !
In candid portraiture, especially in case of photographing strangers, photographers feel shy of aiming the camera towards strangers. They may also be apprehensive about others' feelings or reaction. The feeling is normal but harmful to the cause of photography! If you are extremely shy of becoming the centre of attraction by aiming camera towards someone, a fixed focus, insignificant looking small and compact camera with good lens will help you overcome this feeling. Also, start by photographing small children who are wonderful subjects for candid portraiture.
In small towns, some people become suspicious as regards your intentions/purpose if they find you aiming your camera towards them. They may become immediately hostile if your subject of interest is a member of their womenfolk. Never aim your camera towards a stranger muslim woman in the market -- except when you have reasons to be sure of her - rather her escort's - approval. Otherwise you would be risking your camera and maybe your bones as well. The reaction largely depends on how old you are, how you dress and behave and what type of company you keep. If you have an air of respectability around you and you are caught aiming your camera towards someone, you may get away by switching on your most endearing smile and by wearing the most benign look on your face. If, however, someone advances towards you menacingly, be ready to run !
As a matter of rule, cameras are accepted almost at all tourist places where people are generally in holiday mood willing to photograph and be photographed. So your best bet is finding your subjects at seashores, hill stations, festivals, public functions where many people are moving around with camera.
THE HYBRID PORTRAITS
The hybrid portraits which are neither truly planned nor truly candid are done by some professionals in their studio. They set up stage, lighting, camera for the photo session but stop at that. They make their subject comfortable with the surroundings, taking their own time. They never ask their subject to pose in this or that manner or to smile or weep. They drag their subject into conversation thus making him less and less aware of the fact that he has come in the studio for being photographed. During conversation, they anticipate and wait for desirable expressions and keep firing the shutter at right moments. The location and the lighting are artificial yet the expressions are genuine. The technique is particularly useful for those who are extremely camera conscious and become stoned when asked 'Cheese'!
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