How To Photograph A Chinese Beauty
Exploration of Chinese beauty in a portrait of a pretty Chinese woman.
Here’s how I photographed this lovely Chinese beauty in the grounds of the Forbidden City in Beijing, China.
I made two images: this one and a slightly more distant photo which shows the generous dimensions of her bag and more of here boots.
While those elements seemed important in telling the original story, that of a relatively affluent local Chinese tourist, the closer view allowed me to concentrate more on the face of this Chinese beauty.
Why I Photographed This Pretty Chinese Woman
What Faces Are You Attracted You?
Actually this pretty Chinese woman and I had just passed each other and I felt a sudden need to make her photo.
She has a lovely face and it’s fair to say that I’m attracted to folks with round faces, high cheek bones and upward turned mouths.
What’s more I really dug her comfortable fashion sense. Just look at those muted colors and all that delicious texture.
Yummy!
Seriously, she’s made for the camera. And, possibly because I dig gals who wear hats, this particular Chinese beauty seemed just right for me and my camera.
Backgrounds Add To The Story You Tell
And then there’s that crazy background, full of color and texture. I remember thinking at the time that it must be a bit like Elvis’s bathroom.
But too much information, scattered around the frame, can be overly challenging for the viewer.
Usually a professional portrait is made with the background thrown out of focus through the use of critical focusing (e.g., on the eye closest to the camera) and a shallow depth of field.
Some might say that the more out of focus the background, the more professional the result.
This image was made at a relatively modest aperture of f/6.3, which I deemed sufficient to produce an image with sufficiently large depth of field to keep the entire image sharp, from foreground to background.
But look carefully and it’s pretty obvious that the distance from foreground to background is not great.
It’s true that, by opening the Canon 24-105mm f/4 zoom lens I was using to its maximum (physical) aperture of f/4, I would have produced a slightly shallower depth of field.
However, such a relatively modest change in aperture wouldn’t have made all that much difference to the overall look of our image of a Chinese beauty.
To significantly blur the background you need to ensure that the distance between the camera and background is significantly greater than between the camera and the subject.
A Professional Out Of Focus Background
To enable our Chinese beauty to further stand out from the background I would simply ask her to move forward, one or two steps, to create a greater physical separation between her and the background.
Now the difference in distance between the camera’s sensor and the subject verses that of the camera’s sensor and the background would be far greater than what you see in the above photo.
After refocusing on the subject (e.g., the eye closest to the camera) and selecting a wider aperture (e.g., f/4 or wider) the background would be thrown significantly out of focus.
Want to abstract that background by throwing it even more out of focus? Simply move the subject even further away from the wall and refocus once again.
If that’s not possible you’ll achieve a similar result by moving the camera closer to the subject and then re-focusing on the eye closet to the camera.
Of course every time you move yourself or your subject, in relation to the background, the composition will change. Do bear that in mind.
Should Backgrounds be Blurred Or Sharp?
I love portraits with significantly out of focus backgrounds. However, in this case, I wanted to encourage you to explore as much detail in the image as possible.
That's why I made the image with everything nice and sharp. It may not look as professional as other portraits. However, even if it looks like a snapshot, it's a very well made snapshot.
Many years ago, in a galaxy far, far away I was a traditional wedding/portrait photographer. I photographed around 250 weddings and over 100 family portraits.
As my studio was in a small country town I needed to do a range of work to keep the cash flow healthy. That involved school and kindergarten photography, debutant balls and even a funeral.
Almost without exception photos of individuals or couples were made with the background thrown very much out-of-focus, particularly when made in the studio.
But it’s been a long time since I was a traditional wedding/portrait photographer. I’m no longer constrained by the look or current fashion trend associated with that kind of photography.
I’m still all about making beautiful, life-affirming images. However, if I see someone in the gutter I’m more likely to pick them up, rather than photograph them in that state.
And when I do photograph poor and disadvantaged folk, I always do so in a way that explores notions of beauty, empathy and hope.
I’m motivated to explore the possibilities life offers us, not by the state we currently find ourselves in.
Likewise I’m much more interested in what people have, rather than what they don’t.
Know Yourself And Your Audience
It’s important to understand that, as far as this picture of a Chinese beauty in the grounds of the Forbidden City in Beijing is concerned, I wasn’t making a traditional portrait for the subject or their mother.
What I wanted to create was an image more closely aligned to the documentary and photojournalism traditions and the potentially wider audiences associated with those genres.
Because of it’s descriptive qualities the background against which I photographed my subject was almost as important as the pretty Chinese woman the photo is based around.
Frankly it seemed that the best way to explore the relationship between subject and background was to render the scene with lots of detail.
That’s why sharpness, from foreground to background, was required.
After being granted permission for the photo the young lady began to put that colorfully covered guide into her bag.
But I liked the way the colors, on the front cover of the guide, connected and contrasted with the colors in the background.
As a traditional portrait photographer I would have seen that guide as being a distraction, but in the documentary and photojournalistic tradition including the guide can work on two levels.
The guide helps tell the story of a local tourist visiting an iconic cultural site. And that’s probably how a commercially orientated photojournalist or editor might read it.
But an artist, like myself, working within the documentary tradition is more interested in the relationships (often visual) explored and the connections between similarities and differences in such an image.
Parting Is Both Bitter And Sweet
Almost immediately after making the photo this pretty Chinese woman was called away and disappeared from my life.
But our relationship, brief as it was, lives on here through the photo and the story which describes how it was made.
Yellow in Chinese culture signifies happiness. I remember thinking, after paying so much attention to this yellow brick background, that around the corner a yellow brick road might await me.
That attitude was all I needed to continue on in search of that metaphorical path and the wonderful photo opportunities it might provide me.
And after many years that promise, beyond each hilltop and around each corner, continues to push me onwards and onto the next adventure.
Have you ever heard how people can be referred to as either a glass half empty or half full?
To me it's just a glass. Sometimes it contains water, on other days beer.
Frankly, I'm much more interested in what's in the glass than in any notions of scarcity, whether perceived or actual.
In that regard I hold onto the memories of so many interesting folk, like this Chinese beauty, that I’ve had the pleasure to photograph over the years.
And those memories only fire my imagination for the meetings, adventures and photo opportunities that are to come.
