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Making a portrait on a bench
Explore comfortable portrait variations with the model, using the shape and setting of a bench.
Urban Bench Scene · Photograph: Yenra
Captured: 2016:05:28 14:50:14
A bench offers a familiar place to pause, talk and explore a portrait together. Its length, back and surrounding space give you several simple choices for arranging a frame.
These three photographs show a short sequence with two models on the same bench. We can compare their visible differences and use them to suggest new experiments. Begin with what feels comfortable to the people you are photographing; one model and a familiar seat can be enough.
Include the seat and its setting
The wide frame includes the woven bench, both models, the sidewalk and a tree at the right edge. The bench connects the figures across the photograph, while the surrounding people and buildings keep the location visible.
Look at the space around the feet and beside the seat. Those areas help describe how the models sit within the wider place. The repeated squares in the bench add another pattern behind the clothing and hands.
For a first frame, ask the model or models how they would like to sit. Leave room to adjust comfortably. You can explore the seat’s position in the photograph by changing your own framing as well as by inviting a change in posture.
Review that first photograph together. Notice what each person enjoys about it, then choose one small variation. A change in gaze, a hand resting differently or a slightly wider frame can give you something useful to compare.
Try one comfortable variation
Women Posing on Bench · Photograph: Yenra
Captured: 2016:05:28 14:50:20
In the second photograph, a boot extends toward the right side of the frame. That longer line changes the outline across the bench, while much of the setting and the other model’s arrangement remain familiar.
Compare the space around that boot with the first photograph. Then look at the hands and faces. Following one change at a time can make a short sequence easier to learn from.
The example can prompt many kinds of variation. Your model may prefer to keep both feet down and change a hand or gaze, or to remain still while you try another framing. Choose an idea together that feels comfortable.
Make a second photograph and compare it with the first. You are gathering possibilities, so both versions can be useful. A small difference is enough to reveal something about the shape of the portrait.
Explore a closer shared gesture
Women posing on a bench in an outdoor setting · Photograph: Yenra
Captured: 2016:05:28 14:50:44
The vertical frame brings the two models closer in the picture. An arm reaches across, hands meet, and the bench becomes a surrounding pattern behind their faces and clothing.
This is another visible arrangement to study. It brings shared gesture forward, while the wider photographs give more room to the whole seat and the sidewalk. Each view invites attention to a different part of the portrait.
If you are photographing people together, invite them to choose how they want to relate within the frame. Physical contact is optional and should be agreed together. Separate comfortable positions can make an equally worthwhile portrait.
Finish by looking at the variations with the model or models. Which framing and gesture would you each like to keep? Save a brief note about the choice, or compare a few existing seated portraits when planning another session.
Look back with curiosity.
- How does the seat connect the people and the setting?
- Which change makes the clearest difference?
- What feels comfortable and expressive to the model?
Keep exploring
Exploring seated portraits · Photographing people together · Planning a portrait together
Browse the complete Animazement 2016 gallery.