50 inspiring examples of emotional portrait photography
Although photographic lighting and the way we capture the image with a camera may have changed over the years; all great portraits, whether they are taken on film or digitally, depend on the photographer’s ability to use light and pose his or her subject. Surprisingly, there seems to be something of an enigmatic aura that surrounds portrait photography; even some professional photographers admit that they won’t fully understand about photographic lightning.
However once you do, a few very general principles such as -how light can be used to make your subject look more dimensional, you will find that even very dramatic looking lightning patterns are otfer nothing more than variations on a basic theme. Similarly, very slight adjustments in the pose -a tilt of the head, or turning the body away from or towards the light, can make a subtle but vital difference.
Portrait photography is the capture by means of photography of the likeness of a person, in which the face and expression is predominant. The objective is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the subject. Like other types of portraiture, the focus of the photograph is the person’s face, although the entire body and the background may be included. A portrait is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. [src : wikipedia]
Unlike many other photography styles, the subjects of portrait photography are often non-professional models. A large amount of patience and understanding the photographer’s mind is needed by the subject to portray the perfect emotion which the situation demands.
In this showcase, I have selected some of the most stunning photographs of human portraits which portray a strong sense of emotion, personality, and life.
1) close by robert maschke
2) Goran Jovic by Vedran Vidak
3) ~~ W ~~ Thomas Ljungberg
4) Tatsua suzuki
5) tegas by junaidi sudirman
6) Arash Karimi
7) S by Magda Berny
8) Lina by Beppe Ranieri
9) Shadow Of Her Smile by gunnisal
10) Afghan girl (50 years later) by Lev Tsimring
11) One old man by simona7569
12) K by rust
13) Grandma by Ervan Nanggalo
14) LikArt
15) Keeping an eye on matters by bolandrotor
16) old balinese smoker by nickodarwis
17) Zoltan Huszti
18) Raphael Guarino
19) Old POPEYE The Sailor Man by Ario Wibisono
20) Csehák Szabolcs
21) Desert by Csaba Zoller
22) AMAZING ANGELby Linda Palm van Meel
23) Celebrities street .. by Edmondo
24) Brothers by deskounlmtd
25) Ice… by Ilya Rashap
26) SMOKING KILL by olteanu calin
27) Tatsuo Suzuki
28) flower by Daniel Otten
29) Modern gladiator by Jeroen Oosterhof
30) Black Beauty by Roberto Sias
31) Naga Baba by martin prihoda
32) Suran 
33) Cabaret by Stéphanie Toselli
34) coal miner’s holiday by curiozzo
35) Lonely by Andre Arment
36) Little Wonders by Sylvie Bendel
37 Devotion by Joey
38) frozen by DNA
39) Learn To Fly by Jennifer
40) Every picture tells a story by Sandy Powers
42) Seyba.by CARLOS DUARTE
43) A Strange New World by Chris
44) life cycles (tired, part two) by Robert
45) Tina by Vedran Vidak
46) Bat Mask by Jennifer
47) LikArt
48) Breakdown by Jeroen Oosterhof
49) Tribal Initiation by toothpilot
50) Carbunari by marius grozea
51) Please!!!!! by Robert
52) Silenced by lovethelight
53) Va, vis et deviens by aleci
Well, I believe the photos certainly inspired you. There is so much emotion in the photos that I can’t stop but wonder how much information a photo can share (looking beyond the ’1000 words’ idiom). There is absolutely no denying that portrait photography is the most difficult form of photography and the photos simply justifies that fact.
Here are a few resources which I found were pretty useful. If you are an aspiring photographer, you might want to go through these links.
1) How to take portraits
This article by DPS, has 19 of the most popular portrait photography articles found in the archives of DPS from over 600 articles.
2) How to take excellent portrait photos
In this article, WDD gives you simple techniques to help you take portraits and also self portraits, to make the very best of your photos. At the end of the article, you’ll find a showcase of great portraits and self portraits that you can use for inspiration.
3) 100 outstanding photoshop actions to enhance your photography
Have you ever seen photos in magazines or on the web and wondered how they achieved that look. TPA has collected over 100 Photoshop actions that will help you achieve some of these looks and save you a ton of time in the process. Happy post processing!
Further Resources for Inspiration:
1) 1x.com Portrait photography pool
2) Flickr Portrait Photography Pool
3) Wikipedia Page on Portrait Photography
4) Portrait photography tips from Photo.net
5) Portrait Photography : Secrets of posing and lightning by Mark Cleghorn
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Great Job Richie! Each one tells it’s own story. Lots of smokers in the roundup :)
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Excellent photos.
You can include this photo too, I find it too emotional :)
http://1x.com/photo/12016/
Very inspiring. I love the black and white gritty look.
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Great collection! each and every portrait has its own unique emotion.
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Amazing Pics… 43rd is the best one… :) Really a strange new world for the kid… ha ha :D
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Wow.. really beautiful collection..
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awesom emotions in these all photographs.
Awesome! Thanks a lot for sharing..
I always like to read you nice blog post..
Very impressing and inspiring collection!
Wow I love this collection!
Thank you so much! :D
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Each and every one tells a thousand words,
great collection.
Thanks.
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WOW From Spain
and cracky?
http://www.crackyhouse.com/slashr/kareha/src/1276703453795.jpg
Stunning images – I’d love to share this on my blog :-)
Amazing :)
The expression is very great..
I like this COOLection :)
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Awesome Richie..! Very nice collection, Really loved the post..!
These photos have their own message to convey. When printed on stickers, these pictures look make a good collection. Get them printed at http://www.psprint.com/stickers-labels and get great designs
This post is amazing. I just blogged about it in my blog, I hope you don’t mind. I linked your blog too, here’s the page: http://funfgemuse.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/emotional-portraits/
good selection!
I’m glad to see that:)
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inspiration that is very impressive
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This is an excellent collection…Loved the spurts of emotions on the faces.
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The lighting and expression definitely make most of these pictures great. The other thing I noticed is that quite a few of these images have unexpected elements that also catch your attention pretty quickly.
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That was a beautiful insight into the world of portrait photography.. :) Hats off to all the lens-men.
Linked along is a blog of mine mainly portraying subjects in India, its wildlife, the people, landscape, culture and many other interesting photos of Incredible India.
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Absolutely stunning portraits.
My favourites are #8, #24 and #35.
They truly are inspirational images.
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These are absolutely wondrous. great round up thanks
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Bit of a tonal mapping overload there for my liking but some good examples. I love number 29 shows some real personality.
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There is something really delightful about the light in most of these images. So many of us are drawn to documenting this perfection in our skin–but as a flower who has been exposed to a lot of sun the interest is magnified at full bloom. The stories are told in the reflections on their eyes and the folds in their skin. Lovely.
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superb!!!
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WHAT AN AWESOME COLLECTION, . lOVE OLD WOMAN SMOKING AND BROTHERS
nice and highly creative photos…enjoy…
Striking and beautiful.
These are some truly amazing pictures. I don’t know much about photography. But, I think both the subject of the pictures and they way they were taken makes them a really interesting group of pictures. We live in an amazing world with an amazing array of people cultures and characters. This series of pictures seems to cover a wide variety of them. Very nice and interesting.
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beautiful,lovely and a
great collection…..
The only issue with all these photos is that none of these is spontaneously captured. All have been posed for. That, I believe, takes away the real motive of freezing a moment in its originality.
Also, rarely does any one of the above reflect a true binding emotion. The reflect thoughtfulness, maybe grief, subtlety; but definitely not emotion. For example, what emotion is being highlighted in the fourth image?
Unbelievably nice pictures. Liked #40 the most. Thanks for sharing.
I just love these images. Black and white still rules.. Hats Off to you all. great work
Damn good pics. thankyou for sharing :)
These are some great examples of portraits with emotions in them. I absolutely love it when it is possible to see which emotion the model chooses to show. Especially when its an old person in the photograph.
Amazing portrait photos. :)
is very very nice!
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Wow from the Netherlands