This image is from a recent shoot with Kaitee, an actress, a model and, in her spare time, half of a two-girl electropop band that plays gigs at New York clubs several nights a week. Whew!

Before you read any further, I’d like you to just spend a few minutes looking at the image. How do you respond to it? Does the picture interest you? What works and what doesn’t in this image?

A few words about portraits. If the head is centered, and everything is squared up to the camera, it’s not going to be engaging for the viewer. Even when I’m shooting corporate headshots of several people where a consistent look is required from one image to the next, I still try to get some interest from a turn in the head or having the shoulders at a slight angle.

Here are a few of the things I had in mind with Kaitee’s portrait:

1) The two-tone background. I was aiming for a look similar to window lighting. To the right, I used a big light source with two silk “scrims” to filter it, to provide very soft and flattering light. The black is just a foam-core board. I used the two separate backgrounds, one to frame her head and shoulders, the other one, her hands.

2) Hands. I often try to get a subject’s hands into a portrait. Occasionally I get a little push-back on this idea (not with Kaitee), but I find hands can be very expressive and revealing of a person’s character.

3) The turn of the head. I purposely asked Kaitee to close her shoulders and then turn her head towards the camera. One interpretation is that she was looking out the window and then she turns to face another person.

4) Color. I liked the almost graphical nature of the setup here, and the color scheme – there are really just 4 basic colors – yellow, black, white and red.

5) Lighting. I set up the shot so that the light would wrap around Kaitee’s face, from light to dark tones, to add three dimensionality.

6) Angles. The edge between the two backgrounds is perfectly vertical, but all of the other angles – her head, the line of her hand and wrist, her shoulders and arm, are all slightly off line, to provide a bit of tension and interest. 

7) Expression. I asked Kaitee to look directly into the lens and, without coaching her, waited for a somewhat enigmatic expression. If we look at a portrait and are not quite sure what the person is thinking, our imaginations can take us to a lot of places – a good thing!

8)  Simplicity. There was a fair amount of planning – and intentionality – to this photograph. But I still wanted to keep the whole composition fairly simple and straightforward. .

Now that you have read what I was trying to do with the image, what do you think? As always, your comments and questions are welcome.

Working both in the studio and on location, photographer Blake Robinson serves the Connecticut communities of Darien, New Canaan, Stamford, Norwalk, Westport and Greenwich.