I expect there are some very experienced portrait photographers who can take one look at a face and know the best angle to use (and best lighting).
For the rest of us, it is very worthwhile to ask your subject to turn away from and toward the camera, and try a variety of angles. Many people have a very different look on the left or right side of the face.
Clearly, you can't try every possible combination of poses, expressions, and lightings for every portrait you take. But it is really worthwhile experimenting with each of these variables in practice sessions.
Bottom Line: The angle of the subject's face toward the camera is a major factor in shaping a portrait.
105mm, f16, studio flash
Left
Right
This lighting setup has the stronger (but soft) light coming from the left, so it works well for Nicole's profile, with nice definition of her features. Compare to the last photo, where she is turning to the darker side, so the most interesting part of her face is in shadow and her ear gets the good light.
She has nice enough ears, but most of us are just not that into ears.
Turning towards us from the profile we see just part of her other eye. The light is still very good across her face, but it seems like we are just not showing enough of the other side of her face here: it's stingy.
Now we see more of the full face, but with this lighting her nose blends into her cheek, which bugs me, and I might or might not have noticed this looking through the camera.
Now she has turned enough so her nose is well defined again. I like this angle a lot.
As she turns further, we see more of her face, but the side we see more of is now in less pleasing light, so I like this angle less.
But as she turns towards us, the side of her face that is darker has also gotten smaller, so this seems better than the one to the left.
Finally she turns directly towards the camera. We gain a huge amount of strength from the eye contact, but the lighting is not great now — the right side of her face is somewhat muddy. If a straight-on shot was the goal, I would rework the lighting.
When she turns past the center, we have the most interesting part of her face in the least interesting light. You could make good use of this in a movie — have her turn this way to make her seem muddled. But most still photos are singles (unlike those presented in this website).
This lighting setup has the stronger (but soft) light coming from the left, so it works well for Nicole's profile, with nice definition of her features. Compare to the last photo, where she is turning to the darker side, so the most interesting part of her face is in shadow and her ear gets the good light.
She has nice enough ears, but most of us are just not that into ears.
Turning towards us from the profile we see just part of her other eye. The light is still very good across her face, but it seems like we are just not showing enough of the other side of her face here: it's stingy.
Now we see more of the full face, but with this lighting her nose blends into her cheek, which bugs me, and I might or might not have noticed this looking through the camera.
Now she has turned enough so her nose is well defined again. I like this angle a lot.
As she turns further, we see more of her face, but the side we see more of is now in less pleasing light, so I like this angle less.
But as she turns towards us, the side of her face that is darker has also gotten smaller, so this seems better than the one to the left.
Finally she turns directly towards the camera. We gain a huge amount of strength from the eye contact, but the lighting is not great now — the right side of her face is somewhat muddy. If a straight-on shot was the goal, I would rework the lighting.
When she turns past the center, we have the most interesting part of her face in the least interesting light. You could make good use of this in a movie — have her turn this way to make her seem muddled. But most still photos are singles (unlike those presented in this website).
