Dancing through the fields with your brother. Whether it is jumping puddles with Daddy. Yet, even without being able to see the subjects eyes, without being able to see their facial expression, or their smile, or their tears, so much emotion, so much of their story, can be told in a faceless portrait. Not only does it have the huge benefit of not having to achieve the perfect smile, it doesn’t matter who is looking at the camera, who is picking their nose, even who is crying or sucking their dummy. This is one of my favourite favourite types of portraits. More than anything, I want you to have fun being creative and experimenting as you explore this fun way of seeing your subjects in a new way.The faceless portrait. Of course, this is only the beginning of the ways that you can begin to explore faceless portraiture. This is where you get to be the artist and guide your audience through your imagery in an intentional way. Do you want to create a sense of uncertainty? Perhaps you should consider a closer crop or a perfectly clean scene where the audience cannot answer the questions of where and why. Do you want to include context? Then maybe a wide angle lens would be a good choice to include as much of the surroundings as possible. It is here where you can make some creative choices to guide your viewer to more mystery or to answers. More than they would in a traditional portrait, they might question what has the subject’s attention and explore that more within the frame. The might further consider where the subject is and where she is going. They might see the subject as heading somewhere or looking forward to something. Is she sad? Is she angry? Explore that in your photography!Ĭonsider how the subject’s averted gaze might affect the viewers of your photograph. Without features to piece together an expression, we are left to wonder what she is feeling. Consider if your subject bends her head down with hair covering her face. Having someone’s hair cover his or her face can lend a sense of mystery. The sun is shining, and my subject is happy and spinning with her hair flying out all around her.īy contrast, hair covering the face creates a sense of drama and guardedness. In the photo above I used it in more of a happy way. When creating your own anonymous portraits, consider how hair can be used to convey different emotions.

My daughter’s hair is long and blonde and she is proud of it! Observing her flip it around all the time reveals her girly, playful side and I am always seeking to capture that.

The way it flows lends a sense of magic to my imagery the way fields of wheat angled by the wind or waves in an ocean lend magic to a landscape.Įven more, I have experienced firsthand how hair can be a significant part of a personality. I am enamored with its ability to show movement in a still photograph. I love to use hair when possible (and my daughter has alot of it!). Hair can imply emotion through its ability to change styles, follow the physical lead of its owner, and hide or reveal the face of a subject. Movement can be depicted through strands of hair blowing in the breeze or flying out from behind a subject in motion. It can at times give us clues as to gender, age, style, and personality. Hair is a highly effective tool in revealing details about a subject without including his/her face.

These are my favorite ways to capture anonymous images that connect with my audience. But shooting a successful faceless image takes some planning and intention. I enjoy the challenge of giving my viewer as much information as possible without facial features present in the frame. It can force us to focus on details that we might otherwise miss. It can allow the viewer to place him/herself in the scene. The anonymity of a faceless image can invoke new emotions. However, there are times when excluding a face can tell us more about a person or a scene than including it. A face is our introduction to a person and so it makes sense that a portrait would be a photographer’s first choice in introducing her subject in an image. Every combination of features is unique and provides a wealth of information to those observing it. It is our first means of identifying each other. The human face is one of the most photographed subjects in the history of the craft.

Faceless family portraits