11. NAILING FOCUS
IN PHOTOGRAPHY, THE viewer’s eye naturally goes to the focus point in an image. For making portraits, this is a very important concept to bear in mind. Missing your focus may mean the viewer’s eye is distracted by a busy background, or that some unintentional visual element is gnawing at the viewer’s field of vision.
Typically, it is best to focus on your portrait subject’s eyes (Figure 11.1). Although there may be stylistic, creative, or narrative reasons to do otherwise, focusing on the eyes allows your viewer to immediately connect with your portrait subject. There is something special about eyes—something sentient and telling. ...
Get The Enthusiast's Guide to Portraiture now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
