Portrait Tips

More portrait tips today!

If you have been reading this blog any length of time, you have heard me speak about the 3 building blocks that make a great photo.

1) Lighting

2) Composition

3) Moments

Without those components your photos are just not going to be that memorable to your viewers.

Here’s a few more examples from my daughter’s photo shoot that we did recently. We spent a total of about 15 minutes at each site, so we really didn’t spend that much time but, were able to capture some very nice portraits. Let me talk you through my thought process.

1. I was driving somewhere recently and came across a small portion of train track that was asphalted over on the street, but ran beside a warehouse near our home. Perfect for a quick location. One of my daughter’s favorite past time’s is to pick dandelion’s and blow the seeds away! Bummer for my lawn, but good for photos on location.

So, let’s reverse engineer this photo to see what makes it memorable. Lighting? Backlighting but nice even illumination from the camera. I just overexposed to make sure that the subject wasn’t turned into a silhouette. Composition? Her eyes are placed near the upper right area of convergence(the intersection of the upper horizontal third and the right vertical third). Moment? The look in her eye shows her personality which makes for a great and memorable image.

2. Our next image really showcases our subject’s personality. Moment? Totally at ease in front of the camera. For some subjects this takes forever. Most can be put at ease after just a few minutes of talking from the photographer. Ask about anything. The goal is to get your subject thinking about anything but having their picture taken. It really works.

Composition? There is something called an S curve that our subject has contorted her body into. It isn’t fake or posed looking. It places her face in the upper right area of convergence and takes the viewer’s eye from the top right to the lower left! Easy!

Light? Same backlight situation as the first. Which gives our photo beautiful light that highlights our subject’s hair and shows off the train rails.

3. I was able to put a special technique on this image, but the building blocks are still the same. A side-view put a rim light on our entire subject and her head is in the upper left area of convergence.

4. Finally, we have a change of venue and outfit. The lighting is ambient, non-direct that allows for a very soft light washing over our subject. The composition places the subject’s eyes in the left upper area of convergence. It takes the viewer’s eyes into the image and the placement of the subject’s arm takes the viewer’s eyes back into our subject’s face and vice versa.

Talk to your subjects to relax them.

Utilize composition to lead your viewer’s eyes to keep them invested in your image.

Look for lighting that will be complimentary to your subjects.