This portrait of comedian Conan O’Brien made an impression on me because of the striking color, emotion and humor it brings to the viewer. When looking at this image, I notice several things right off the bat: Conan’s bright blue eyes, his ridiculous demeanor and the fact that there is a toy surfer riding the giant wave of his hair. It’s fun, it’s different and it shows that Conan isn’t afraid to poke some fun at himself; something that definitely humanizes him for his audience.

This article on lightstalking.com discusses “How to capture portraits that are more than just snapshots.” One thing it mentions that I would have failed to think of is the importance of making a personal connection with your subject during a photo shoot; something that the photographer of Conan O’Brien’s portrait above would clearly had to have done – at least on a small scale – before taking that shot.

I really like this article because it touches on a lot of technical approaches you can utilize to enhance the quality of portrait shots, such as shooting in aperture priority mode instead of full manual to make things a little easier on yourself during a shoot, noting that you can always boost the ISO if necessary to avoid blur. These tips are very useful for an amateur photographer like myself, who doesn’t feel comfortable enough to quickly fumble around with the camera’s functions during a photo shoot.

They also suggest some things to make shots more creative, like using non-traditional focal lengths, slightly over-exposing an image or introducing a prop, like Conan’s photographer (or perhaps Conan himself) chose to do above. It is these little hints of creativity that can truly enhance a portrait and make it stand apart from others, but making the subject feel at ease comes first.