Quick Portrait

Have you ever been to a function/party and someone says, “Take our picture,” or you just want to make a quick portrait of some friends?
You want to make them look nice and make a good portrait.
The pressure is on.
Usually where you are standing isn’t good light and the background usually is busy.
Here’s a couple of standard tips that I try to remember and it usually helps me to make a good image in the midst of less then stellar situations.
1. Shoot from a bit lower than eye level.
Not too low or you end up looking up their noses and just about no one looks great from this angle. Just a bit lower to clean up the background and make them look important.
You know.
The hero pose.
You don’t know what the hero pose is?
The photographer shoots from a lower level and it makes the subject look more everything, important, wise, powerful.
Like Superman!
2. If the light is bad, backlight them!
Back lighitng a subject can be a dangerous game.
It ends up with silhouettes and faces that no one can recognize.
But, done right, and you have beautiful even lighting on your subjects and cool overexposed backgrounds that clean up busyness that might be lurking back there.
In this image I even made sure to include a lens flare to spice up the portrait even more!

The result is a quick portrait that makes everyone, including the photographer, happy!
Next party you attend with your camera, try these simple tips and you’ll end up with some nice portraits for your friends.
Be inspired!

Michael Kitada is the author of i365project.com. He worked as a staff photographer for the Orange County Register in southern California for almost 20 years and has served as an adjunct professor at UCLA teaching photojournalism and currently teaches photography at Cal Baptist University in Riverside. He also is the author of the photography CD, “Take Better Photos Now! ” which serves as a “must have” guide for all serious photographers. Click this link for more information http://takebetterphotosnow.com/