How to make good photos for painting portrait? Reflexions on how to turn your photo into a painting. (part 1)

From photo to painting. That is the question. (Reflexions about to turn your photo into a painting.)

Starting this post I had several questions in my mind; How to paint a portrait form a photo? All the pictures work for painting a portrait? Or a better one to start from the beginning… How to choose the right picture for a painting portrait?  This is the tricky question!

I have recently started a new portrait. It is not an easy one and this is due to a very simple reason. The pictures of the model that I have received are not professional (not at all) and sometimes this fact can easily transform what should be a grateful task into a nightmare. This is why I am starting this post.

Sometimes I receive old pictures from people that would love a “portrait of my mother”, or a “portrait of my grandfather”, or even a vintage picture from some antique old family album. Those relatives from the last century.

Maybe the quality of the picture is not good enough for painting a portrait. But since very old pictures where made with a complete different technology and were something precious, scarce and therefore special, most of them have a kind of soul. The paper, the tones, the materials used by then; The fact that they had to concentrate on the camera (Most of those pictures have a strong regard!)…All of this makes them special photos. Inspiring for a Painter.

How many times we have seen those old sepia photos and have imagined who that man or that woman was, where she lived or how he or she felt while posing for this unique photo in front of a professional and his old Wood camera. Those pictures are (most of them) special, and almost always have something to say to us. As a person or as an artist.

I personally love to paint those photos! Even if they lack of details, definition, color, etc. They have atmosphere and a history to tell and this is where you can grab your intuition or your imagination and add something from your own. Even if a portrait is always an interpretation, be sure to mark to the client that your painted portrait will be your interpretation of the picture. Your interpretation rather than a copy of the photo.

Painting portraits from old pictures has his own magic. No concrete lines, soft and diffused images that gives us freedom and space for our own interpretation. You can try to recreate the color (something that I do not usually do) from Sepia or monochrome pictures or you can always work with a limited color palette creating your own version of the picture based on what you see on the picture… More or less the same happens with old (not so Antique) black and White pictures from the 40´s or 50´s. Or from some of the color pictures from the 60´s and 70´s. Even most of them lack in detail, they usually have their own power and they have a lot to offer for a painting if they are not too contrasted or burned.

The most common used lens in those time was the 50mm (which would be consider as a human eye point of view) and the majority of the pictures where taken by professionals by then. But a change was approaching and the photography started to become more popular and his access cheaper thanks to Kodak and his “Kodak Instamatic camera”, 1963. By 80s everybody could make pictures and process films and after that, the digital revolution was about to start and change completely the market.

And the cameras! Actually everybody has a camera on his phone and this has become a great deal for the users, has multiplied the production but has also decreased the quality… Production increase versus quality. Anyone can take a picture but unfortunately the phones don´t give us the best photos. We still need to learn how to take good pictures. Specially good portraits. And this is where I need another post to answer the following question; How to make good pictures for Painting portrait?