Quick Tip: Simple Portrait Photography Tricks
Portrait photography is one of the most interesting types of photography. What makes it even more rewarding is the fact that you are making someone else beautiful through your camera. Interestingly, there are several things that one should keep in mind in order to get that “Wow” effect in the final portraits. Let’s take a look at a few Quick Tips!
Choose the Right Subject
Your subject is the heart and soul of a portrait composition – the right face will determine the success of your shoot. That’s why you should spend much of your time and effort finding the most suitable subject for your assignment.
Define a Character
Choosing a subject alone is not enough. In portrait photography, every subject has their own individual character. A female portrait with gentle and soft skin defines a character which is very different from a wrinkled, older gentleman. Both are great subjects for portrait photography, but you have to select the best according to the composition you are have in mind.
Try Different Angles and Poses
To add flavour, spice and freshness to your portrait photography, never fear to experiment with position. After you have finalized the model, experiment with different poses, angles and postures of the face and body. This will ensure that you not only end up with great portrait shots, but also very interesting ones. A natural pose is great, but you can also have fun directing unusual an unusual pose or stance.
Lights are Everything
The fate of your final photograph is largely determined by the lighting conditions. For example, if you have a very bright background, it may overpower your subject and result in a completely washed out photograph.
When you set up your portrait shoot, remember the following key points:
- Don’t use direct flash as it may ruin the photograph and leave you with an overexposed subject
- Use your photographic sense to make the best use of shadows
Having an Appropriate Background
Background can be sometimes as important as the subject itself. You could go for a beautiful bokeh blur effect, or a very high/low key approach with a black or white background. Either way, be sure to consider background in your mental checklist before pressing the shutter.
A great tip is to open your Aperture as wide as possible, to create a shallow depth of field and make your subject “pop” out of the background.
Looking for more information? Check out our article on 9 Tips for a Perfect Portrait Background.
Natural vs. Artificial Expression
There has always been a debate about natural and artificial expressions of the subject. The most difficult task for a photographer is to make a portrait shot as natural as possible.
To attain this, make sure your subject is comfortable and ready for the shoot. Don’t jump into shooting right away. Spend some time chatting and getting to know one another!
Share Your Tips
Do you have any more suggestions and tips for portrait photography? We’d love to hear them – feel free to share in the comments!
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By Rishabh Agarwal
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Nice little tips article, thanks!
I think it’s all about natural expressions.
Honestly i don’t like artifical expressions, specially looking at the camera.
For the background issue, I use a 35m. lens at f/1.4 to get it blurry.
Best regards.
Henry,
35mm f/1.4 a great lens to experiment with. Do share some of the pic you shot
I would think that using a 35mm wide would have a bloating effect on the subjects face. I was taught to start at 50mm.
Telephoto lenses are also great for portraits. I typically use a 70-200mm f/2.8. Not THE fastest, but with a tri-pod it works great.
Nice tips..Thanks for sharing it..
I also find that having the right glass/lens is important. A dedicated portrait lens (in my case: Canon EF 85mm 1:1.8) helps most of the issues. If not available, a 60mm macro or 50mm fixed lens can produce great results. I agree, lighting is everything. With natural lighting, almost any outdoor setting is easily perfected with either direct or reflected light. Great article, succinct to the point.
I’m glad you liked it
“Don’t use direct flash as it may ruin the photograph and leave you with an overexposed subject”
Probably best not to generalize……
http://neilvn.com/tangents/2010/02/23/simple-on-location-lighting/
Couple tips I have: get closer. Usually starting photographers will get uncomfortable when zoomed in at some point. Keep in mind that while the subjects face may fill your entire viewfinder and it looks like your only inches from them in reality (depending on the lens) you’re several feet away. Still throws me off. Probably once you get zoomed in close enough that you feel uncomfortable, that will probably make a good portrait. Some photographers don’t experience this and are perfectly fine at getting up close.
As for “getting your subject ready to shoot” a simple way to do this is to take a LOT of pictures, not even necessarily of the person. Like if you are walking to a certain location just take pictures of the scenery. What that does is get the subject used to the clicking noises of dSLR’s. If they’re only familiar with near-silent point and shoots (aside from a “click” sound coming from a speaker) it may throw them off to suddenly keep hearing it. Obviously if your subject is a model that does this a lot then they will be used to it.
One last tip, take a lot of pictures. Put your shutter drive to continuous shooting so when you hold down the shutter release it keeps taking pictures. Take at least 3 at a time. So many times I’ve forgotten to do this and have to toss out a good composition because I caught the subject in mid-blink so they look half asleep.
A quick example: http://photos.vrillusions.com/events/anime-punch-2010/photo-shoot-2-sakura/IMG_4195.JPG.php When framing it I noticed the car parked in the street so I made sure I had the aperture wide open so it would throw it into the blue and white blob you see. Also I didn’t follow my own rule of getting close where it may look better (of course I can just do a tighter crop if I wanted). Another thing not mentioned here is the subject looks towards the center of the frame. If the subject is facing the edges then it creates a more “hostile” mood. (forget the term that’s usually used) And not looking directly at the lens but off camera adds a sense of intrigue “What is she looking at?” where if she was looking at the camera it would have a more direct connection with the viewer.
This tips are sooooo common sense.
Short Summary:
Get a nice head. Position it in some interesting way. Dont flash the head frontal. Use a small aperture (what every portrait mode does). Make your head look natural.
I was hoping to find something more useful here. I.e. what about elaborating on the right choice of lenses for portrait photography?
Great photography tips.Thanks for posting it.
Photography is part of my lifestyle.I love your tips and through this I may improve my skills.Thanks for sharing!