1. Portraiture and the News
Snapshots with meaning

2. Fundamental features of Portraits
Expression
Subject Awareness
Light
Perspective
Angle
Mood
Depth of field

3. Expression
A woman grieving the loss of a neighbor who died suspiciously overnight.

4. Expression
A “moment” of a woman celebrating her 95th birthday.

5. Subject Awareness
Obviously this guy is far too aware of the camera, thus it wouldn’t make for a good journalistic photo.

6. Subject Awareness
She, on the other hand, is not nearly so aware, thus it makes for a more natural feature photo.

7. Light
Notice how the subject’s perspiration glistens in the sunlight, creating a good aesthetic effect.

8. Light
A photograph needn’t be exposed traditionally to have storytelling value.

9. Perspective
A photo needn’t be head-on to be interesting or effective.

10. Perspective
Another non-traditional perspective that may work given the context of your assignment.

11. Perspective
Here a silhouette speaks for the person in the hammock.

12. Angle
A traditional angle is sometimes all you need when the photo has power regardless of its arrangement, as in with a child holding an automatic rifle.

13. Angle
However, sometimes the lines or symmetry in nature can provide a reason to change your angle, such as when the photographer here tilted his horizon line.

14. Mood
Sometimes eyes alone can tell a story about the mood of a subject or event.

15. Mood
Childhood innocence summarized in one easy snapshot

16. Depth of Field: sometimes it matters