The terms "full face" and "profile" can often be heard among photographers involved in portraiture. Do you know what these words mean? A detailed coverage of this issue is devoted to our article. Read, it will be interesting ...
What is full face?
Now we will give the simplest example, and immediately everything will become clear to you. Suppose you came to a photo studio in order to take a picture to get a new passport. How will they put you in prison? Absolutely even, so that your eyes are fixed directly on the lens - a strict motionless pose in which there is no place for fiction. Turning your head to the right or left even a centimeter is absolutely unacceptable.
This view is called full-face. This word comes from the French en face, which can be translated into our language as "in the face." Such portrait images are practiced not only in photography, but also in painting and drawing, but more on that later. So, we just figured out what full-face is, now let's talk about the profile.
What is a profile?
The profile is even easier. Few people will not understand what is at stake if, when photographing, he will be asked to turn in profile. You just need to stand sideways to the lens and let the photographer capture your proud look. True, usually one-time photos full-face and profile are taken when a person commits an offense. Ordinary law-abiding citizens are rarely forced to take such a picture. Unless someone himself wants to be filmed in this way, perhaps for a joke or for a prank.
However, some people have a very beautiful profile. Girls who are lucky to have the correct facial features, in this case do not miss the opportunity to demonstrate their external virtues in front of the camera. Black and white profile photo portraits look very impressive, especially when a person is shot on a dark background. Here contrast plays a role - the darkened background favorably sets off the light features of the human profile.
Picturesque portrait full face
And what about fine art? Indeed, despite the fact that modern people have the opportunity to get inexpensive and high-quality photographs of their own people, pictorial portraits are still popular. Yes, it is, but such angles as full face and profile are not in fashion today in portraiture. And among the paintings of past centuries there are not so many similar samples.
One of the most famous full-face images is the famous self-portrait of the artist Dürer, which he painted in 1500. This man did a very bold act for his time, portraying himself directly facing the viewer, because before that only faces of saints and Jesus Christ were written in this way.
There is a well-known portrait of Ernesto Che Guevara, on which the face of the hero of the revolution is turned forward. It is believed that this is also a full-face portrait, however, one can argue with this statement - after all, a slight, slightly noticeable turn of the head is still there, and the legendary Cuban is looking somewhere in the sky, which makes the image perceived as very dynamic.
The famous portrait of Simonetta Vespucci
And now we will tell you about one ancient painting by the Italian master Sandro Botticelli, which depicts an indescribably beautiful profile of a girl named Simonetta Vespucci. This is one of the most famous portraits painted in profile. The girl at the time of writing the picture was very young, but already a married lady. She was considered the first beauty of Florence. Historians believe that Giuliano Medici was passionately in love with Simonetta.
Sandro Botticelli, the Medici court painter, often painted the girl. She served as a model for such paintings as “The Birth of Venus”, “Spring”, “Madonna Magnificat”, etc. Knightly tournaments were organized in honor of the first beauty , poets dedicated poetry to her, and singers sang her unearthly, sublime beauty. Thanks to the brush of the great master of the Renaissance, we can today see the subtle angelic features of a girl who long ago left this world. By the way, Simonetta Vespucci died very early, at the age of 22, from transient consumption.
What other perspectives exist in portrait photography and painting?
Well, we talked enough about the full-angle and profile views. Now let's talk a little about other body positions in space, which are often used when creating portraits. The most favorite view of portrait painters of all time is "three quarters" - this is the lungs turning the face and body to the left or right. In order to illustrate this perspective, we decided to take the most famous portrait in the history of mankind - the unique and unfading Gioconda of the great Leonardo da Vinci.
It happens that the artist asks his model to turn around even more. This view is commonly called "two-thirds." This is something between a profile and a full face.
Finally
We hope that you have not been bored by reading this short article. However, the topic "Full Face and Profile" was fully disclosed by us, right?