Need help with a photography assignment

[retronesphoto]

I am taking a photography class at my college and the topic for this week for shooting is "powerful portrait"... Honestly, I can't really get any ideas of how to convey power or show that. What our professor doesn't want is just some picture that's just pretty or cute or beautiful or whatever, it must show that it is a powerful portait.

I know it's my own interpretation, but if anyone has any ideas and would like to contribute to help me out with this assignment, that would be wonderful!

[Elmo]

Environmental Portrait. -> A portrait depicting the subject and his/her environment. .

[BigFuzzy]

does powerful have to equal "power" or can it also be read as "striking" or "powerfully emotive" or something like that or are you limited to somehow showing power.

One way to make someone look looming and powerful is both through posing and angle. If you shoot from a lower angle, the subject may seem to loom over you and certain poses imply power.

Also, not sure how good you are at lighting, but lighting can play a very big role in showing power.

Here are some examples I found using flickr that may help. Use flickr for inspiration, flickr is your friend!! All the below took 2 min.
on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Confidence on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

A guy with whom you should not mess on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Macho on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[LeeR]

Few, if any, people have matched Josuf Karsh when it came to making powerful portraits. Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway and Sophia Loren all wanted him to take their picture for that very reason. If you look at his stuff for a while I am sure you'll get inspired and find some things you might do to add power to your portraits.

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by LeeR

Few, if any, people have matched Josuf Karsh when it came to making powerful portraits. Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway and Sophia Loren all wanted him to take their picture for that very reason. If you look at his stuff for a while I am sure you'll get inspired and find some things you might do to add power to your portraits.

I was thinking exactly this.

"powerful" usually comes from the model and they way they're interacting with the camera. You'll want a fairly strong expression and stance. Not comically strong, just something more than your every day photo.

[Birdland]

Try to talk to them about a subject that brings out a strong emotion in them whether it is serious, sad, or happy. Also lighting is an important factor in this. If you have trouble with lighting, The Strobist might be able to help you, Strobist .
Good luck on your assignment!

[Eastree]

Last night on ABC's "What Would You Do," in the segment about how people react to collapsing people, there was a homeless woman. In some of the shots of her I couldn't help but wish her character could be strikingly preserved in a portrait. The first word that came to mind was "powerful."
I may be alone in this opinion, but before she did more than stand by and ask people for help, I was inspired.
She can be seen from 4:30 in this video:
YouTube - Linda Hamilton - What would you do?

And I know this is played to death, but here's also a video of simple headshots by Clay Enos. He shows how he goes for a powerful portrait, and defines it fairly well.
YouTube - Street Portrait Photo How To

I'm neither suggesting setting up a white sheet in a street, nor asking a random person with character for a portrait. It may be your route, but I'm just trying to get some gears turning.

[retronesphoto]

Thanks everyone for the contributions. I will study everyone's comments and try my best to get a better idea of how to create a powerful portrait.

[BEGM83]

First id go look up the word powerful in a thesaurus and find some synonyms to help me with the interpretation.

Then i would use these definitions to go a bit off base with it.

Powerful Synonyms, Powerful Antonyms | Thesaurus.com

able, all-powerful, almighty, authoritarian, authoritative, capable, cogent, commanding, compelling, competent, controlling, convincing, dominant, dynamic, effectual, efficacious, energetic, forceful, forcible, impressive, in control, in the saddle, influential, mighty, omnipotent, overruling, paramount, persuasive, potent, preeminent, prevailing, puissant, robust, ruling, sovereign, stalwart, strapping, strengthy, sturdy, supreme, telling, upper hand, vigorous, weighty, wicked*, wieldy

With the antonyms: impotent, incapable, ineffective, unable, weak

So id work with one or two of those words and see what i could come up with.

[ukreal1]

For me, it's capturing the essence of someones life in their eyes, wherever it be joy, happiness, strength, power, love, sadness, etc