Portrait photography or portraiture is photography of a person or group of people that displays the expression, personality, and mood of the subject. Like other types of portraiture,
the focus of the photograph is usually the person's face, although the
entire body and the background or context may be included.<wikipedia>
1. Photograph the subject in their native environment. Some people just don’t belong in a studio. They feel awkward and it shows in camera. So instead of forcing Grandpa into the Walmart Photo Studio, let him go to work in his workshop and photograph him doing what he loves. Instead of tears and tantrums when you try to dress up your child all pretty for studio punishment, let him play with the toys and snap pictures of every moment.
2. Never shoot kids or babies from your normal standing height. This is the view we always have of kids–the tops of their heads. Get down on the ground and take images from their level.
3. Consider giving the subject space to look into. Place the subject on one side of the image and have them look into space (not the camera) towards the other side of the frame.
4. Window light. Don’t have an expensive studio or
want to get more natural portraits? Normal lighting in a house or
during the heat of the day is not flattering on skin; however, once
light passes through a window, it is very soft and diffused. Consider
placing your subject next to a window so the light hits the model at an
angle (not looking straight out the window). Without much effort,
you’ve created beautiful light which studios strain to copy.
5. NEVER use the on-camera flash. On-camera flash gives a deer-in-the-headlights look to even the most beautiful subject. Because the light is perfectly in line with the lens, the light hits the subject squarely and creates a flat light that is far from flattering. If you choose to use a flash, it’s truly necessary to get an external flash that can be mounted to the side of the photographer.
6. I know you want pictures of the face, but you might also consider going smaller.
What about photographing a child’s sandy feet while he plays on the
beach or your grandmother’s hands, or your friend’s eye. Sometimes the
tiniest details speak volumes.
7. Over expose. I know I just spent two pages telling you not to do this, but over exposing (making the image too bright) is a common and beautiful technique for giving a portrait a clean and simple look.
8. Do something totally off-the-wall. Want cool pictures of your friend in her prom dress? Throw her in the pool with the prom dress on. Want cute pics of a baby? Put them in a huge basket like Anne Geddes or dress them in clothes that are 5 sizes too big.
9. Stop the waving and smiling. When shooting family pictures, nothing can ruin the moment more than saying, “Hey Dan, look at the camera!” Your picture will be destroyed. I’m not saying you have to shoot candid photography all the time, but when you are going to have the subject know you’re taking the picture, at least pose the subject properly rather than having them just stand off squarely at the camera.
10. Shoot up to give power; Shoot down to take power away. In tip #2, I mentioned that it generally isn’t good to shoot down on babies and kids. The reason is that kids are already small, so shooting down on them is so common that the photo does not look as it should. Similarly, you can make a subject seem more powerful by shooting from a lower angle up to the subject. For example, it would be ridiculous to shoot Michael Jordan from above. Since you want to make a sports star look powerful, it would make much more sense to shoot that subject from a lower angle.
11. If one person is a bit stale, two people are perfect. Whenever I’m shooting a subject that gets a bit camera-shy and won’t give me much of an expression, I always try to let the person interact with someone different. For example, trying to get kids to have fun and smile will be tough without a parent being in the studio too. This technique works the same with adults. If your subject looks a bit stale, wait until they talk with someone else to capture the best expressions.
12. Whiten teeth properly in Photoshop. For quite a
long time, I brushed exposure onto the teeth to make them look whiter.
I never got the results I wanted until another photography told me that
it was better to brush brightness onto the teeth rather than exposure.
Overnight, my digital teeth whitening improved drastically. Try it!
13. Contrast clothing and location. I recently shot engagement photos for a couple who chose to wear bright colors. The bride wore bright pink and the groom wore a light blue shirt. Those colors undoubtedly catch the viewer’s attention, so I chose to place them in front of muted backgrounds. For this shot, I chose old grey brick walls, blurred out dark backgrounds, etc. The results were perfect! You can also apply this tip when shooting a model who is wearing muted colors. In this situation, shoot the model against a brightly colored background to make the model stand out.
14. You’re missing out on half of your model. No, I don’t mean that you could be shooting twice as many people. I mean that there is a whole other side of your clients that you aren’t shooting at all. What’s that side? The back side. Shots of the subject walking away from the camera, or of the subject’s body turned away from the camera and head facing the camera can be quite compelling.
15. Think application before taking the portrait. What is your photo going to be used for? While many of our photos are just used generally for looking at, some photos would be better either vertical or horizontal if it is going to be used for a specific purpose. For example, if you’re taking a portrait for someone’s Facebook profile, you can get a much larger picture by shooting it in vertical orientation (up-and-down). If you’re shooting for a wedding announcement, it’s probably better to shoot horizontal so there is enough room for text on the side of the couple.
16. When shooting in poor mid-day lighting, have the subject face away from the sun.
I see this done wrong more often than not. Most of the time,
photographers have the subject face the sun so their face doesn’t look
dim and shadowy in mid-day lighting. This is unfortunate, because the
hard light will create unflattering shadows on the face. The best way
to shoot mid-day portraits is to have the subject face away from the sun
so their face is in the shade, and then have the photographer
over-expose the picture so the face looks properly exposed.
17. Spot metering is your friend. If you don’t feel comfortable setting the exposure manually to do the technique taught in tip #16, then learn to use spot metering. With spot metering, you can simply have the camera meter on the subject’s face to expose it properly, and then let the background be slightly overexposed. For some people, spot metering may be a better option than manually setting the exposure for the face.
18. Whip out the CTO. When shooting in lower light (or if you have a really powerful strobe), you can put an orange gel on your flash so that the light that hits the subject is, well… orange. Then, you adjust your white balance (I always just do it later in Lightroom) so the subject looks neutral, which makes the background turn blue. Here is a great collection of examples of using this color shifting technique. (Side note: I couldn’t remember the term color shifting this morning, and several helpful readers reminded me on the ImprovePhotography Facebook fan page). If you’ve never heard of gelling a flash, you will be surprised to know that a gel is not “jelly-like” in consistency. It’s just a plastic colored transparency. You can buy a set of gels for around $10 on Amazon that fit most flashes.
here is the other tips
19. Compose and then focus rather than focusing and re-composing. Could I have made this tip any more confusing? Probably not. What I mean is that it is generally preferable to compose the shot and then move your focus point on to the eye of the subject rather than focusing on the eye and then recomposing. For more on this, check out this previous post on focus.
20. Models relax immediately when a prop is introduced. Being a model is scary stuff. It’s just you vs. the guy with the giant lens. When I see a subject feeling uncomfortable, I immediately search for a prop. Pick a flower and give it to the bride to play with, give the couple bubblegum and take a photo of them blowing bubbles together, give a kid a toy, etc. You don’t necessarily have to include the prop in the frame (although it usually looks cool), but it is a guaranteed way to get the subject to relax a bit.
21. Book a “real” photo shoot. Contrary to popular belief, models are a dime a dozen no matter where you live. Head on over to ModelMayhem.com and find a local model. Many of them will not even charge you if you give them copies of the pictures you take. It’s called TFP–time for prints. Oh, a warning on ModelMayhem… 90% of the models think their best pictures are when they are “disrobed.” I always have my wife go on the site and choose a model for me so I don’t have to see the nastiness. Not cool.
22. Buy a few scarves. My wife, Emily, made me include this tip for the ladies. She said it’s a great tip for dressing women for a portrait photography shoot, but I think it’s because she has an obsession with Confessions of a Shopaholic (the girl the green scarf). Anyway, it has worked wonders for me in the past. For $15 you can buy probably 10 scarves at any many stores. Then, you can have your female subjects wear plain colors (such as a white T-shirt and jeans) and then wear different colors of scarves. I found that this works GREAT for senior portraits, because teenage girls like “accessorizing” and changing clothes every five minutes. Big time saver and you’ll get many more looks out of one subject.
1. Photograph the subject in their native environment. Some people just don’t belong in a studio. They feel awkward and it shows in camera. So instead of forcing Grandpa into the Walmart Photo Studio, let him go to work in his workshop and photograph him doing what he loves. Instead of tears and tantrums when you try to dress up your child all pretty for studio punishment, let him play with the toys and snap pictures of every moment.
2. Never shoot kids or babies from your normal standing height. This is the view we always have of kids–the tops of their heads. Get down on the ground and take images from their level.
3. Consider giving the subject space to look into. Place the subject on one side of the image and have them look into space (not the camera) towards the other side of the frame.
Window light
5. NEVER use the on-camera flash. On-camera flash gives a deer-in-the-headlights look to even the most beautiful subject. Because the light is perfectly in line with the lens, the light hits the subject squarely and creates a flat light that is far from flattering. If you choose to use a flash, it’s truly necessary to get an external flash that can be mounted to the side of the photographer.
7. Over expose. I know I just spent two pages telling you not to do this, but over exposing (making the image too bright) is a common and beautiful technique for giving a portrait a clean and simple look.
8. Do something totally off-the-wall. Want cool pictures of your friend in her prom dress? Throw her in the pool with the prom dress on. Want cute pics of a baby? Put them in a huge basket like Anne Geddes or dress them in clothes that are 5 sizes too big.
9. Stop the waving and smiling. When shooting family pictures, nothing can ruin the moment more than saying, “Hey Dan, look at the camera!” Your picture will be destroyed. I’m not saying you have to shoot candid photography all the time, but when you are going to have the subject know you’re taking the picture, at least pose the subject properly rather than having them just stand off squarely at the camera.
10. Shoot up to give power; Shoot down to take power away. In tip #2, I mentioned that it generally isn’t good to shoot down on babies and kids. The reason is that kids are already small, so shooting down on them is so common that the photo does not look as it should. Similarly, you can make a subject seem more powerful by shooting from a lower angle up to the subject. For example, it would be ridiculous to shoot Michael Jordan from above. Since you want to make a sports star look powerful, it would make much more sense to shoot that subject from a lower angle.
11. If one person is a bit stale, two people are perfect. Whenever I’m shooting a subject that gets a bit camera-shy and won’t give me much of an expression, I always try to let the person interact with someone different. For example, trying to get kids to have fun and smile will be tough without a parent being in the studio too. This technique works the same with adults. If your subject looks a bit stale, wait until they talk with someone else to capture the best expressions.
Especially where brides are wearing white dresses, the bride’s teeth need to be perfect.
13. Contrast clothing and location. I recently shot engagement photos for a couple who chose to wear bright colors. The bride wore bright pink and the groom wore a light blue shirt. Those colors undoubtedly catch the viewer’s attention, so I chose to place them in front of muted backgrounds. For this shot, I chose old grey brick walls, blurred out dark backgrounds, etc. The results were perfect! You can also apply this tip when shooting a model who is wearing muted colors. In this situation, shoot the model against a brightly colored background to make the model stand out.
14. You’re missing out on half of your model. No, I don’t mean that you could be shooting twice as many people. I mean that there is a whole other side of your clients that you aren’t shooting at all. What’s that side? The back side. Shots of the subject walking away from the camera, or of the subject’s body turned away from the camera and head facing the camera can be quite compelling.
15. Think application before taking the portrait. What is your photo going to be used for? While many of our photos are just used generally for looking at, some photos would be better either vertical or horizontal if it is going to be used for a specific purpose. For example, if you’re taking a portrait for someone’s Facebook profile, you can get a much larger picture by shooting it in vertical orientation (up-and-down). If you’re shooting for a wedding announcement, it’s probably better to shoot horizontal so there is enough room for text on the side of the couple.
Backlighting is great for hard mid-day light.
17. Spot metering is your friend. If you don’t feel comfortable setting the exposure manually to do the technique taught in tip #16, then learn to use spot metering. With spot metering, you can simply have the camera meter on the subject’s face to expose it properly, and then let the background be slightly overexposed. For some people, spot metering may be a better option than manually setting the exposure for the face.
18. Whip out the CTO. When shooting in lower light (or if you have a really powerful strobe), you can put an orange gel on your flash so that the light that hits the subject is, well… orange. Then, you adjust your white balance (I always just do it later in Lightroom) so the subject looks neutral, which makes the background turn blue. Here is a great collection of examples of using this color shifting technique. (Side note: I couldn’t remember the term color shifting this morning, and several helpful readers reminded me on the ImprovePhotography Facebook fan page). If you’ve never heard of gelling a flash, you will be surprised to know that a gel is not “jelly-like” in consistency. It’s just a plastic colored transparency. You can buy a set of gels for around $10 on Amazon that fit most flashes.
here is the other tips
19. Compose and then focus rather than focusing and re-composing. Could I have made this tip any more confusing? Probably not. What I mean is that it is generally preferable to compose the shot and then move your focus point on to the eye of the subject rather than focusing on the eye and then recomposing. For more on this, check out this previous post on focus.
20. Models relax immediately when a prop is introduced. Being a model is scary stuff. It’s just you vs. the guy with the giant lens. When I see a subject feeling uncomfortable, I immediately search for a prop. Pick a flower and give it to the bride to play with, give the couple bubblegum and take a photo of them blowing bubbles together, give a kid a toy, etc. You don’t necessarily have to include the prop in the frame (although it usually looks cool), but it is a guaranteed way to get the subject to relax a bit.
21. Book a “real” photo shoot. Contrary to popular belief, models are a dime a dozen no matter where you live. Head on over to ModelMayhem.com and find a local model. Many of them will not even charge you if you give them copies of the pictures you take. It’s called TFP–time for prints. Oh, a warning on ModelMayhem… 90% of the models think their best pictures are when they are “disrobed.” I always have my wife go on the site and choose a model for me so I don’t have to see the nastiness. Not cool.
22. Buy a few scarves. My wife, Emily, made me include this tip for the ladies. She said it’s a great tip for dressing women for a portrait photography shoot, but I think it’s because she has an obsession with Confessions of a Shopaholic (the girl the green scarf). Anyway, it has worked wonders for me in the past. For $15 you can buy probably 10 scarves at any many stores. Then, you can have your female subjects wear plain colors (such as a white T-shirt and jeans) and then wear different colors of scarves. I found that this works GREAT for senior portraits, because teenage girls like “accessorizing” and changing clothes every five minutes. Big time saver and you’ll get many more looks out of one subject.
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