I recently wrote a post on getting closer when taking portraits. Then I asked my students to get close enough to touch their subjects when photographing them.

This creates a better intimacy with your subject, since the majority of beginning photographers stand way too far from their subjects.

Making a great portrait is about creating a bond or connection between the photographer and the subject.

To see into their soul.

There’s nothing worse than the fake smile or worse, that awkward look that lives in most photos on Facebook. The awkward look that most people resort to when they don’t know what to do when someone yells, “Cheese.”

I challenged my students to get closer and create a connection with their subjects.

What’s the best way to create that connection?

There’s a couple of tried and true ways to start a connection.

The first is to start talking, start a conversation with your subject. Get them to open up about anything to take their minds off of the camera that is looking at them unblinkingly.

Talk about the weather, what they like to eat or where they live. Usually that’s enough to start them being distracted enough to think. Then you can start really photographing them. You can see it in their eyes. A real look, a genuine look that starts to reveal what’s inside.

The second way that I’ve used is to sometimes just wait.

That’s right, just a bit of patience.

See, most people can’t handle a vacuum and silence is one thing that a lot of folks cannot stand.

I’ve used this technique to create some great images.

This works best when you have a subject that keeps talking. I usually just stop talking and start looking through my viewfinder and just wait.

The silence helps to reveal a window into some subject’s souls.

As a photographer, your job is to make the best image possible, sometimes by technique and even sometimes by trickery.

The famous portrait photographer, Karsh, supposedly has an assignment to photograph Winston Churchill. The prime minister was in no mood to be photographed and that’s when genius struck. The young photographer snatched the ever-present cigar from the mouth of the larger than life subject and captured the now famous scowl.

An incredible portrait!

Next time you need to capture an intimate and revealing portrait, talk, wait or even snatch a cigar!

Be inspired!

Here’s a portrait photography tip, get closer!

Getting closer is something that most photographers can do to better their images. Usually, most photographers want to include all of their subject in the frame.

Unfortunately, this keeps us from getting close-up and personal. It’s okay to crop off the top of your subject’s head. We all know it is there, so all lot of the time we don’t need to show it!

One more of our portrait photography tips, shoot your subject through something for visual complexity. It makes your photos a lot more interesting and it gives the viewer something to look at.

In the photo above, there were some beautiful wysteria plants that were blooming and I wanted to somehow include them in the frame. I asked my subject to stand behind them and voila, an interesting portrait is born.

Here’s the photographic composition thinking as I made the pic.

I placed her eyes near the top right area of convergence so the eyes of the viewer would be drawn to them and the blooms of the flowers are in different areas of focus to create visual complexity. Enjoy!