Portrait Session Photography Tips

Here are a few tips to keep in mind next time you have a portrait session:

Blur the background

When you shoot a portrait you can make the photograph more focused by using a high aperture (small f-stop) like 2.0, 2.5, or 2.8. This will cause the focus to be on the person and in turn blur out the background. This makes the viewer focus on the person and effectively removes clutter from the photo.

Photo by Szeredy Photography (Click to See More From Szeredy Photography)

Also, as a bonus, this will help you shoot in lower light and thus getting sharper images. However, be aware that apertures of 1.2 – 1.8 might give you problems placing the focus correctly since it’s so narrow. So if you shoot a portrait and the focus ends up on their nose instead of their eyes (which is where you want to place the focus) it will be extremely distracting.

Remove clutter

Always strive to remove clutter from a portrait. The environment can surely be visible and in focus if you want it to but remove cluttered backgrounds that doesn’t contribute to the photo or takes away focus from the person. Make sure the background is what it’s supposed to be—a background.

Be aware of your lighting

I prefer to be flexible than having perfect lighting as I’ve mentioned time after time again on this site. Reason being that I don’t want to miss that perfect moment. But this doesn’t mean that I always go flexible on the lights. Sometimes I do use studio lights or just create my own little studio. Either way, when it comes to lighting a subject, soft lighting tend to be more flattering and hard light tends to bring out flaws because of its harsh shadows that makes wrinkles and such pop. On that note – never, ever, photograph with a flash on top of your camera straight ahead without a second light source. Pop-up flashes are horrible and you will always benefit more from using natural light, reposition your subject, use a more light sensitive lens or just raise the ISO. Knowing light is a massive knowledge, but studying it will pay off since it’s the building block of the photograph.

Prepare

Take down notes, plan the shoot, and prepare equipment before you meet with the model. If you start messing around with these things during the shoot the model will lose energy and it will look unprofessional. So figure out your theme, poses, location, equipment, and such beforehand. I personally prefer to have the shoot planned out, but more in rough drafts than in detail, so I leave some room for creativity. But I also have a backup plan in case something falls apart.

Photo captured by Hugh O’Malley (Click Image to See More From Hugh O’Malley)

Get to know them

If they are a music artist, listen to their music and lyrics. An “ordinary” person? Call them up and chat. Get to know them. What makes them passionate? What makes them comfortable? What gives them joy? A portrait isn’t about showing a face, it’s about portraying a personality.

Natural expression

Most people are uncomfortable in front of a camera and to help them keep their mind off of it, I suggest that you engage them in something. Gather them around a pillar, between two walls, pose on a chair, chop wood, play some guitar, or why not ask them to sing to you? Just make sure it’s something that fits the person you’re shooting and that makes them feel passionate and comfortable.

Corny yourself up

If you are comfortable being a bit corny and energetic on the set the model will feel comfortable, too. So if you want them to scream out hard, then you better be prepared to do it yourself first.

Touch them, don’t grope them

It actually makes a model comfortable if you touch them, but only if you know how to do it. If it gets even the slightest bit intrusive s/he will be uncomfortable, and that’s just not good. Things you can do are to walk up to them, remove a hair from their face, adjust a collar—something small, and it doesn’t even have to be real. What you do is show that you want them to look good, and touching another person, when done right, creates a very strong connection and a sense of trust. I cannot go into the details of how to touch here, but a post about this might show up in the future.

Photo by Tracy DePaola (Click Image to See More From Tracy DePaola)

It’s in the people skills

And finally the most powerful tip to shooting awesome portraits: it’s in your people skills. There is one single thing that every great portrait photographer knows how to do and that is to make the subject relax and feel comfortable. What your subject feels will shine through. I cannot emphasize that enough. So if the model is feeling uncomfortable it WILL be visible in the final picture. Work on your people skills and your portraits will come out better no matter what technology you use.
About the Author:
This article was written by Mikael Cedergren, fine art photographer.

For Further Training on Portrait Sessions:

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How to Take Great Photos at a Car Show (Video Tutorial)

Posted: 29 Aug 2014 04:53 PM PDT

In this video Chelsea and Tony Northrup head out to the Ocean Beach Car Show. While enjoying an afternoon out, taking pictures of stunning automobiles, they share some interesting insights on how to take eye-catching photos of classic cars:
(for those of you reading this by email, the video tutorial can be seen here)
If you are an automobile freak it is easy to lose focus in the midst such beauties. This is where you need to pull yourself together and pay attention. For those who are newbies or basically trying their hand at photographing such events for the first time, here are some invaluable pointers:

Focus on the details

Details

Many times when photographing cars, you try to get the whole car in the frame. That’s not always necessary. Simply focus on the smaller details instead to eliminate distractions and highlight the cars’ craftmanship.

Wear darker clothes

Cars are reflective and that means you have a great chance of photobombing your own compositions! The solution is to wear darker clothes.

Use reflections to your advantage

Use reflections to your advantage.

Reflections are not always undesirable. With a little bit of planning and creativity, you can make reflections your point of focus.

Do a bit of Photoshopping

This original image (left) taken by Chelsea Northrup was edited to remove distractions in the background.

Car shows are often crowded and in less-than-scenic locales. Sometimes makes your images a bit too cluttered. You can’t possible ask everyone to leave so that you can avoid distracting backgrounds and or people walking in to the frame, but what you can do is put your photo editing skills to work when you get home.

Choose the right lens

Car photography does not require special lenses. You can shoot with your standard kit lens, really. That said, other lenses allow you to capture different perspectives. For example, a fish-eye lens can convert straight lines into curved ones. If you do use a fish-eye lens, you’ll need to get as close as possible to your subjects or else they tend to look as if they are very far away.

Pay attention to lighting

Car shows are great opportunities for using HDR.

Some photographers prefer softer lighting, going with their need to avoid glares and reflections. Tony, on the other hand, prefers hard lighting, with the sun is out and beaming straight down. Interestingly, he does not use the one tool you would expect him to—the polarizing filter. Such bright conditions are also perfect for bracketing your shots for HDR.

Compose carefully

At a car show, you will have very limited opportunities to photograph a single car in its entirety, because of the obvious distractions. Instead, think of specific aspects of the cars that you like and take pictures of those. Tony also suggests using the Dutch Tilt technique to give a little bit of a sense of motion to your images.

Capture symmetry

Automobiles are powerful tools in their own right, but, when you can capture symmetry in them you make them appear more powerful. One way to capture symmetry is by stooping low and capturing a low angle keeping the car dead in the center of the frame.
Are you a car show enthusiast? Share your tips for photographing cars in the comments below!

Interesting Photo of the Day: Kouangxi Waterfall

Posted: 29 Aug 2014 03:10 PM PDT

The Kuang Si waterfalls, located in Laos, are a photographer’s dream come true. Against the tree filled backdrop, the multi-tiered pools of glassy, turquoise water flowing over into one another are the kind of photo ops most of us can only dream of stumbling across. The photo below, taken by a Thai photographer, Banky Yknab, is the perfect example:

Kouangxi Water Fall (Via 500px. Click to see full size.)

To get this wide angle, the photographer used a focal length of 20mm using his Canon 60D. A one second shutter speed was all he needed to get the subtle milky water effect using an aperture of f/32 and an ISO 100.

photography tutorials

Sunday, 31 August 2014