Concept is Everything

Make sizzling portraits tip # 1: Concept is everything!

It’s easy to let a beautiful face distract you. It’s easy to be trigger happy, because a photo of a beautiful face is beautiful. Right?

Not always.

The impact of a portrait is independent of its content. Without certain elements, a portrait of a beautiful person may not turn out to be a beautiful portrait that creates an impact. Photos of beautiful people abound on the internet. So how do you make sure your portraits pop out of the crowd?

One of the things you can do is to concentrate on your concept. The concept behind a portrait changes its impact. Here are some sources of concepts that have worked for me and might work for you, too.

1. Create your concept from the model’s personality.

If your model is someone you know or can get to know before the photoshoot, you can build a concept around their personality. This is the most common source of a portrait concept, especially for a portrait that is made for a particular reason, such as a corporate portrait or personal commission. The goal of this kind of portrait is to find the person’s depth and express it in a medium that is two-dimensional.

2. Take your concept from the creative brief.

The concept was 'comfort.' Copyright Aloha Lavina.

Commissions have instructions from the client, usually the sense or feeling that they want from the images. This technique is a little more difficult; oftentimes, the client will tell you about abstract things such as an emotion or another concept. From this abstraction, you have to build a concrete list of things your images might contain, such as poses, specific lighting, props to use. Triggering your creativity from the brief will make sure you’re paying attention to what you need to create through an interpretation that is uniquely your own.

3. Use contrasts.

Many times, you can use contrasts in your portraits. This is a technique used by travel photographers. Old and young. Motion and stillness. Fire and ice. Modern and ancient. Smooth and textured. The list goes on. Challenging yourself to create a conceptual expression of contrasts often stretches your creativity and aids you in discovering its wellspring.

Motion and stillness. Copyright Aloha Lavina.

4. Use artistic elements.

Building concepts out of artistic elements also works. Colors, geometry, scale, balance, values of light—these are some of the sources of concepts that visual artists have used. While using one of these elements, you’d be surprised at how creative you can be in using a simple element to inspire images.

5.   Use an idea that’s already out there, and give it your own twist.

Gluttony. Copyright Aloha Lavina.

Ideas are plentiful around us, and they are the source of a lot of stories and paintings and music. Taking an ‘old’ idea and trying to re-interpret it is a technique that artists have used for as long as they’ve been making art. The challenge is to take that well-worn idea and make of it an image that’s stunning in its novelty.

Concepts are where the uniqueness of your images begins. By taking these simple sparks, you can fuel some creativity, and get started on making some portraits that sizzle!

What concepts are you shooting this week?

Up next: Make sizzling portraits by letting location inspire you, right here on Imagine That!

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