With advancing techniques, portraits could soon be shot outside the photographer’s studio too. Subjects were generally seated, placed against a plain background, with the natural light of a window or a soft light resulting from reflection through mirrors covering the scene. Hence the lack of relaxed smiles in the earliest examples of portrait photography. Nevertheless, early photographic portraits show many affinities with the painterly aesthetics of that era, while at the same time reflecting the technical requirements of the photographic process: the substantial exposure time, for instance, – not to be compared with the instantaneous capturing abilities of today’s camera’s -, forced the sitter to stay immobile for a while, with a frozen facial expression. Photographs were far less expensive than painted portraits and required a much reduced sitting time for the subject, enticing many people to have their image shot instead of brushed. Portraiture was one of the most popular genres of photography from the very early days on.
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