How to Pick the Perfect Photo for Your Portrait Painting/Drawing
..:: oo ::..
The most important thing for a successful outcome is choosing a good photo / photos as starting point. Here is a description of what is important to keep in mind when selecting the photo, or when taking the pictures.
Angle
– Different angles give different effects. Choose a picture where the subject reflects its natural side. A head from the front may sometimes appear flat, especially for dogs. In art-language it is called foreshortening.
Sharpness and the size of the photo
– A detailed painting is only possible to create based on a detailed photo. Do not Shrink or crop images before sending it. Send primarily sharp photos if possible! A distant subjects usually loses sharpness and detail, when zooming in.
Light and Contrast
– Avoid huge contrasts and do not use too bright or dark images!
Important!
– That which is not in the photo from the the start is difficult to recreate. Take a new picture instead of spending money on an expensive reconstruction. Examples are closed eyes on a photo where they will be open in your image, or a sad faces on someone who’ll be glad in the image.
Extras!
- One tip is to shoot outdoors when the sun is not at its strongest for good contrast.
- If more than one - make them connect physically in some way, a hand on the shoulder for example.
And then just go for a great result!
But as you can see by comparing the photo with the drawing, to get the proportions and value correct is a much much harder task than taking the photo. This was some years ago and I am still progressing my skills :) Hope you do as well!
Very nice post.
Thank you!
Hi, this is a wonderful post! I'll take note of these next time.
On another note, someone reproduced this post. With the same title. With the same pictures. Literally copy and paste.
https://steemit.com/photograhy/@sixtusinfinity/portrait-shooting-guide-how-to-pick-the-perfect-photo-for-your-portrait-painting-drawing
I thought you should know.
Thanks for the info and support!
Excellent work my friend you've captured that perfectly with so much detail. 👍
I need to work on my detail in my work it allways ends up looking sketchy no matter how long i take.
Nice work yourself. What do you mean with sketchy? What I'm trying to learn is how to make some essential parts details and the rest bit more sketchlike, to get a good balance and get better result in lesser time. :)
you just need to zoom in and work on a specific area then continue to move along the entire face working deeper. rather then jjust drawing the most general shapes and shadows. best of luck. drawing looks great btw
This is superb, you have a lot of talent. I myself don't possess the ability to draw, not for a lack of trying, but i can appreciate the skill, creativity and patience that it entails. Well done.
Thank you!
Fabulous ! learned a lot from your post ... keep sharing ...... followed you and upvoted
please follow and upvote.
Take a look at mt portrait here : https://steemit.com/art/@arkaprava/my-art-with-ball-point-pen-gandalf-lord-of-the-rings-character-one-of-my-favorite
Nice one! I follow
Congratulations @jnart! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPNice job 😀
Thank you!
Hi Jnart, thank you for the thoughtful post. This is good information for not only artists to know but people who would commission an artist to do a portrait for them. I've done many commissioned portraits over the years and I still often get poor photos sent to me as a reference. I can, at best, only create a good drawing from it, but never an outstanding one. It thrills me to get a photo that has all the positive elements you listed here. You do good work, both in art and in posts. Keep it up. Upvoted and resteemed!
Yeah that is so true. It's been really boring the (luckily) few times I've made a good picture from a poor photo and the customer have been dissatisfied, all because of the photo!! Nowadays I tell them to fix a new one, and yes, I really know that thrill! Go ahead and use this post or make your own to instruct your customers :)
great post! voted
Thank you!
Great post will definitely use this to my advantage, thanks!! :)
Thanks! Go ahead!
Wooooooowww, so attractive,
Love your work bro.
Thank you!
Upvoted
Thank you!
Good advices.
Thanks!
hi
hi!
i am upvoted and reply your post plz visit me
upvoted,reply,follow and resteem when you work in steemit thanks alot,
this is some fine advise and beautiful...keep the good posts coming...u get a vote from me
Thank you! I will :)