• Please use real names.

    Greetings to all who have registered to OPF and those guests taking a look around. Please use real names. Registrations with fictitious names will not be processed. REAL NAMES ONLY will be processed

    Firstname Lastname

    Register

    We are a courteous and supportive community. No need to hide behind an alia. If you have a genuine need for privacy/secrecy then let me know!
  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

Convention About Group Subjects Facing Camera: Why?

Mike Spinak

pro member
As I mentioned in another thread, I photographed a wedding for one of my two closest friends, last week.

When she originally asked me to photograph her wedding, I told her that I thought she should get a second photographer, also. And so, there were two of us, working complimentarily to each other.

The other photographer's emphasis was the formal, posed, group portraits. I also shot some of these in conjunction with him, behind and to the side, covering in case he made errors or missed critical spontaneous moments between poses. There was a complex dynamic going on, which I'll explain in detail and discuss in another thread. Anyway, as a result of this shooting situation, the other photographer and I later had a discussion about where people look in pictures.

The other photographer was of the opinion that everybody in these posed, group portraits should be looking straight into the camera. It had never occurred to me to have any preference for the group subjects of my wedding photos to be facing into the camera. As far as I was concerned, I wanted to capture people looking good, and looking happy, and revealing some of themselves, and being coherent with the picture... with little concern where they may be gazing.

I am aware that there is a very popular convention that people in posed, group portraits should be looking into the camera, but I don't understand why. So... Why? If, as a photographer or viewer of posed group portraits at weddings, you prefer for subjects to look straight into the camera, could you please explain your reasoning?

Thanks.

Mike

www.mikespinak.com
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Mike,

This is really a very fast reply.

Rule is formal shots in the bag then posed trick/magic shots, then hunt for the casual great shots.

Meanwhile assistant shoots everything informally.

Simply, the guests have been drinking, they are there for fun, so they have to be coralled for that pesky pictures and want to get back to socializing ASAP.

A formal set up is what everyone understands. Straight or lightly curved lines. Tallest at the back. Jackets straight, no glasses or table napkins or betting scores in their hands or pens in pockets. One can adjust for shadows but a breast squashed with a crease (by a spring in a dress) or a jacket caught (by the next person) so that a guy look like is being helped stand up after a night of drinking, is not acceptable. Most effort is in such checking for clothing, scraps of paper, anything that essentially disqualifies the pictures from the precious wedding album.

Now when this is all done, everyone knows they must smile, and that delivers a standard record of a happy wedding. That can go in an album and that is what is expected!

Now, when these formal, standard pictures are in the bag, one goes after "natural shots" that show character and the intimacy (or otherwise) of the family and guests. This is what you and all of us would prefer.

It is a real skill to overcome the people posing for the camera, so ruining natural shots or just not being bothered to cooperate.

Most of such "spontanious perfect groups" are the design of a charming professional who has perfect timing.

In lieu of such unusual skill, the standard shots satisfy everyone, in fact they'll get future work.

Asher
 

Mike Spinak

pro member
Thank you for your informative and unexpected answer.

So, would I be correct in interpreting that having everbody carefully arranged, and smiling while facing into the camera, is then simply a guaranteed baseline from which to start? There is no actual preference that everybody should look into the camera, so long as the people look good, and happy, and character revealing, and interactive with each other, and coherent with the composition?

Mike

www.mikespinak.com
 
Last edited:

Bob Cooper

New member
Mike Spinak said:
Why? If, as a photographer or viewer of posed group portraits at weddings, you prefer for subjects to look straight into the camera, could you please explain your reasoning?

Thanks.

Mike

www.mikespinak.com

Mike,

Hi. If I could offer an opinion based somewhat on doing weddings for ever six years as well as having a degree in psychology, the main reason people look at and smile at the cameras isn’t because they are trying to reveal something about their character but rather they are putting on what is called their “best face."

There is a cultural norm in our society that dictates how people will interacting and part of this cultural norm is that people tend to look into each others eyes when speaking, or in the case of having a formal photo taken, the eye of the camera. Of course they don’t want to look at a camera but rather they are looking into the eyes of the person who will be viewing the photo. And most people like photos where the eyes of the subject are looking at them.

To test this theory just take a few minutes the next time you are at the store and check out the magazine rack. I guarantee most subjects will be looking at the camera/viewer.

Bob Cooper
 

Ben Rubinstein

pro member
Again as a wedding photographer, my take on it is that the people are smiling at the person looking at the photo, they are showing their best side to someone whi is looking at them. Although a photo of the bride and groom interacting is very much capturing the moment, there is no interaction with the person viewing the photo, that person is 'watching' not interacting.

Something like that anyway. To be honest the real reason is because that is how it used to be done in the super formal photos of the first half of the last century and that is what is expected as a 'norm'. Truth be told, you have a family group of 10 people, where else are they going to look if not at the camera? What other angle shows the whole face of everyone present? Even when you tell them to look at each other it is as much posed as telling everyone to smile at the camera.

I do both with the B&G photos and those with their parents where they look at the camera and where they interact, that way there is a good mix of 'watching' and 'interacting'. When the bride is looking at a photo of herself smiling out from the photo, she is looking at herself and back, with a smile on her face at either end. When someone sees the below photo they think 'what a sweet couple' but they don't feel an attachment to them, it is like watching a beautiful movie rather than talking to someone...

173.jpg
 
Top