What makes a portrait photogenic

In response to:What makes a portrait photograph photogenic?

2009-04-12T03:48:38+02:00

richard- i believe one of the key questions is your definition of " photogenic". what does "photogenic" stand for? attractive, beautiful, etc.? if so, i think you're beyond a scientific discussion
and more in philosophy, no? we should probably look into aesthetics, etc.
what do you say?
cheers, erol

In response to:What makes a portrait photograph photogenic?

2008-02-19T00:16:13+01:00

I wonder if your research will reach far beyond the portrait into such areas as how and why humans respond to others and what facial features are considering appealing, and conversely, threatening.

In response to:What makes a portrait photograph photogenic?

2007-09-30T23:07:22+02:00

My subjects will be know to each other but no so that they do not notice the changes occuring through age. A group of photography students would seem appropriate as they would have a recent visual memory of one of the group and hopefully would be proficient observers. Therefore I hope to recruit volunteers within the University of Westminster where I am researching my PhD.
Thanks for taking the time to visit and add your opinion.
Richard Davis

In response to:What makes a portrait photograph photogenic?

2007-09-29T10:51:46+02:00

I find it quite coincidental that I came across your project considering I've just finished photographing a school of 400 kids and I always try to predict whether or not a child will be photogenic. I'm getting better at predicting however I am often surprised when the attractive kids aren't photogenic and the unattractive kids are.

I have to say that I found that almost always the children with freckles photographed well. I was able to get quite sweet looking images with little effort on my part. I also found that the children who were the most unphotogenic were the ones that I couldn't get to relax and be themselves. They were the ones trying to smile and didn't know how to. If I could take the time to work on them and get them to forget about the camera I could often get an attractive smile out of them.

So it is actually my opinion that what determines how photogenic a person is is down to how comfortable they are. And I think that the comfort level comes down to the photographer. When I was about 18 I went to a professional photographer for some graduation photos and I told him that I wasn't very photogenic. He said a good photographer can make anyone photogenic.

Anyway, I do find this subject interesting and would gladly help out in anyway possible. I have always been interested in understanding what makes a person photogenic since as a professional portrait photographer it is obviously important that I can do this for each of my subjects. I will make a more conscious effort to note the differences in the people I photograph in future. On Monday I start another school of 400 and on a regular basis I hold photoshoot parties for young girls (about 8 10-12 years at a time) and I find that I good chance to compare their photogenic qualities.

I look forward to hearing more about your project and helping if I can.

Sincerely,
Christina

In response to:What makes a portrait photograph photogenic?

2007-03-19T16:09:17+01:00

Very interesting challenge you have set yourself here. What troubles me however is the one frame in 50 you get where someone who is generally unphotogenic looks absolutely stunning.

Theory suggests that we are attracted to faces that are symmetrical in appearance. I've used this theory before to try and understand the "photogenic" phenomenon by looking for angles where a person with a non symmetric face either appears more symmetrical or gives the illusion of being symmetrical.

Currently I am working on a separate project to shoot 1000 faces of Japanese people. In this project all the faces are shot front on with very similar lighting in a portable studio set up. Quite a long way to go before this project is completed but I'll try to keep you updated on any discoverys I make along the way.

Best,

Nathan Shanahan

In response to:What makes a portrait photograph photogenic?

2007-03-18T18:44:58+01:00

I think this is very interesting research you are doing.
My own feeling is that you will discover much of what a photogenic image is in terms of the difference in 3D and 2D only after you have taken these pictures of the same, and suitable, subject. Do you know who is going to be your subject yet?
JT.
Professional photographer for twenty plus years.