We are so lucky! We get to be present for the most memorable and special days in people's lives. In fact, most of the time our pictures end up being the memory people keep from the day, the image in their mind is one of the photos we made. This is true for weddings, reunions, birthday parties and even funerals. But you can do a little more for your clients and subjects. You can remind them to make pictures on the anniversary of those days, and offer to do it for them. B-days and Anniversaries Birthdays and anniversaries are the simplest to … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: Make Special Day Portraits
Portrait Tips
Portrait Tips: Fix It Now, Not In Photoshop
It's important to keep a shoot moving along, keep your subjects engaged, and keep up appearances that you know what you're doing, right? We all want to appear to be in confident control. However, it's also important to pay attention and make adjustments so that you don't waste time making pictures that are going to cost you more work to finish than they may be worth. Let me give you some examples. Lint & Pet Hair You will spend decades of your life retouching lint and hair off suits and jackets if you don't catch it before you start … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: Fix It Now, Not In Photoshop
Portrait Tips: If You Know Your Tools You Can Relax
At weddings, you shoot portraits as quickly as possible so that your couples can spend as much time with their families as possible. I was an assistant shooter at this wedding with Lisa Robinson a while ago, and she set this portrait up and shot from one angle while I shot from another. It was a pleasure to work with her and see her processes. When I shot this, I was wishing I was in her position so I could crop out the bright spot at the bottom right corner. However, I also knew my tools well enough that I was confident I could salvage this … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: If You Know Your Tools You Can Relax
Portrait Tips: You Gotta Make ‘Em Engage!
I look at a lot of portraits and I can confidently offer a general critique of 99% of them. I see work from photographers who make very good portraits with great lighting and terrific wardrobe and beautiful people, but they lack this one thing that would turn an otherwise well-made portrait into an intriguing piece of art. The problem with most portraits is that they lack engagement. What the Heck Is Engagement? By this, I mean that the subject of the photo looks a little blank. Looks like they don't care, or like they don't have any opinion … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: You Gotta Make ‘Em Engage!
Portrait Tips: Expand Your Vocabulary
When you make a picture--any kind of picture--you should think, "What word would I use to describe this picture?" From what I've seen on the interwebs, lately, the word most people seem to choose for their portraits is simply "sexy." If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then surely we should expand our vocabularies to include more words and elicit more expressions and moods. Even if sexy is the word you're going for, look it up in a thesaurus and use other words to get there. If you talk with your subject about this and discuss various words … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: Expand Your Vocabulary
Portrait Tips: Subtle Spice Not Ketchup
When people see your picture, they should say, "Wow, that's a great photograph," not, "Wow, that's a well-lit photograph." Once you start using flashes, it's like having a hammer in your hand: everything looks like a nail that needs to be lit. That's ok, and it's fun. The trap is feeling like you need to crank the flash up so that it's apparent and obvious in your photographs--and there's a place for that, and it's fun, too. But instead of using your lights to overpower the sun and the ambient light every time, try augmenting the existing light … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: Subtle Spice Not Ketchup
Portrait Tips: Finishing Great Eyes With 3 Different Apps
When the eyes are visible in a portrait, they should usually be the point of focus for the viewer--your viewer should snap right up to those eyes and linger there. Many things can distract from the eyes--hands, earrings, noserings (the worst!), necklaces, hairstyles--but you can use your photofinishing tools to mitigate the distractions and bring the attention back to the eyes. Simply providing sharpness, a little luminance, and possibly some saturation will help the eyes to remain the hero of the image. Be careful not to go overboard with the … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: Finishing Great Eyes With 3 Different Apps
Portrait Tips: How Do You Get Natural Expressions? With Props & Prompts
Having photographed thousands of people, it's true that most people have a 'camera smile', and most people desire 'natural expressions' in their pictures. Whether you're photographing children or adults or groups, there are two tools you can use to elicit natural expressions: props and prompts. How to Use Props Using the birdie over the camera is an age-old device that gets kids' attention or hitting yourself in the head with a rubber chicken. But in this case, I don't mean that the photographer should use props, I mean that the subject … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: How Do You Get Natural Expressions? With Props & Prompts
Portrait Tips: Always Do This When Photographing Kids
The Holidays are one of the best times to make pictures. (Check out Bryan's and Lauri's articles for some terrific ideas.) And it's a great time to photograph kids--if you haven't discovered it, yet, a simple truth is that the Holidays are better with kids. Here are two simple tips to help you make better pictures with kids, and you should do these everytime you make pictures with children. Get Down Your pictures will be much more engaging if you get the camera on the same level with kids, at the same height as their perspective. In fact, you … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: Always Do This When Photographing Kids
Portrait Tips: How Do I Choose White Balance For Portraits?
There are so many things to think about when making portraits that leaving your white balance set to auto is a tempting proposition. Especially when everyone raves about how good each new camera's auto white balance settings are. Don't fall into this trap, though. Auto white balance reads the colors in the scene before you take the picture and makes adjustments. But there are two things that foul it up, and there are two simple ways to ensure you get consistent color. Why Do My Pictures Look Different? The camera has white balance settings so … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: How Do I Choose White Balance For Portraits?
Portrait Tips: Pyramid Posing For Groups
Group pictures can be intimidating. All the skills you've mastered to make a person look great in a picture now have to be applied to a bunch of folks all at once, and that's not easy. Let me share a simple idea about posing groups that will help you arrange your subjects in a pleasing composition. This is a principle that you can apply to any size group. Go for Pyramids When you group people together, try to group them so that three faces make a triangle, and you can use the same face in multiple triangles. So you'll have little groups … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: Pyramid Posing For Groups
Portrait Tips: Vitreous Eyes (Even With Hats)
Vitreous is a great word. It’s used to describe something that looks glassy or shiny. It comes from the Latin word that means glass. I think one of the most important things you can do in your portraits is to make sure that your subjects’ eyes look alive, glassy…vitreous. The best way to get vitreous eyes is to make sure there’s a catchlight in them. A catchlight is simply the reflection of the light in the eyes. It’s easy to do this with a flash because you just position the light so it shines in the eyes. But sometimes it’s harder to get a … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: Vitreous Eyes (Even With Hats)
Portrait Tips: Include Details
I’ve said many times that the background in a picture is just a backdrop that’s its job is to not ruin the portrait. Well, this time I’m backpedaling a little. The right background or environment or details for your picture can really help explain about a person and give them context and a bit of a story in a single image. This sort of environmental portraiture is my favorite kind of work. Descriptive Details If you can include details that are descriptive without being distracting then it can be worth including them in your picture. But … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: Include Details
Portrait Tips: Beware Of Parks
If you're like me, you get calls all the time to make portraits at your client's favorite park. The trouble is that your client doesn't think about the park as a place for pictures, they just think about them as a fun place with pretty things. Rose gardens are also highly requested spots. Let's look at the problems with parks and rose gardens and how to get around it. It's Just a Backdrop When it comes down to it, any location for portraiture is just a backdrop for your subject and its job is to be simple and not detract from the subject, … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: Beware Of Parks
Portrait Tips: Make Clean Profiles
A classic pose you can use to add variety to every shoot is a profile. This is done with the person's face looking 90 degrees to the side of the camera so that you see only the outline of the face. It's a striking picture, and you'll see that some of the best are of people who feel less confident about their nose size--big noses make beautiful profiles and you can help people feel good about it by practicing this kind of photograph. Really Practice It I wouldn't be surprised if the first time you make a profile picture you don't like the way … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: Make Clean Profiles
Portrait Tips: Soft Light vs Hard Light
I'm always talking about soft light and how great it looks for portraits. But what does it mean? If there's soft light, is there hard light? Let me show you what it means and you'll see that yes, there is hard light, and soft light is waaaaay better. Soft/Hard = Big/Small Hard light comes from small lights, and soft light comes from big lights. The important thing to remember is that the softness depends on the size of the light in relation to your subject. So even if your light is the size of a bus, unless your subject is close to it can … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: Soft Light vs Hard Light
Portrait Tips: Pose The Nose To Contain The Lobe
Anytime you turn your subject's face away from the camera, you run the risk of emphasizing the size of her nose, and in all the pictures I've ever made, no one has ever said, "I wish you'd made my nose look bigger." The most important thing in a portrait is usually the eyes but placing your camera in the wrong position will make the nose distract from the eyes. Beware the Nose Lobe The trouble is that a person's nose may stick out past the profile of the cheek. When it does, it sticks out a little bit, kind of like the way the lobe of the ear … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: Pose The Nose To Contain The Lobe
Portrait Tips: Dramatic Light Made Simple
A simple and impactful way to make a portrait is to position your subject next to a window and in front of a dark background. With the proper exposure, your subject's face will stand out starkly against the dark background with dramatic light coming in from the side. This is probably my favorite kind of portrait. But there's one key that will either make the portrait striking or bland. The Shady Nose The thing that makes the picture look dramatic is the play of shadows and highlights across the face. See the highlight on the edge of the … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: Dramatic Light Made Simple
Portrait Tips: Everybody LEAN
I've written before that everyone who gets in front of my camera will end up looking at my toes and that this is going to help me capture great looking eyes. Well here's another tip that is sure to help everyone look better in photographs. You should practice it yourself while brushing your teeth each day so you can clearly see the effect it has on the impact of your portraits. Lean Toward the Camera This is so simple but so vital--in fact, when I'm using someone else's phone to make a portrait of them (like at a landmark), I always ask them … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: Everybody LEAN
Portrait Tips: Consider the Background
I'm a big believer that the most important thing in the picture should be the people. Many clients want to know where we'll shoot, where is a great background. I'm usually not looking for great backgrounds--I'm usually looking for backgrounds that don't ruin the picture! There are some great backgrounds, but for the most part, as long as it's not so distracting that attention is drawn away from my subject, the background is not a big consideration for most of my work. Of course, there are exceptions, and when there are these tips will help … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: Consider the Background
Portrait Tips: Done Is Better Than Good
There's a saying, "Anything worth doing is worth doing right." While it's usually true that if you're going to take the time to do something, you should do your best at it. However, I've also learned that getting something done is often better than doing it well. "Done is better than good" applies to portraiture in an important way. Done Is Better Than Good Whether you're photographing a wedding or family portraits or your own family reunion, there are certain pictures you simply must make but they are not necessarily going to be art. … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: Done Is Better Than Good
Portrait Tips: Remember the White Balance, Forget the Histogram
A popular way to make portraits is to place the sun behind your subjects (often done in a field of tall grass at sunset). It's a pet peeve of mine, however, that these pictures are often the wrong color. White Balance for the Faces Your camera's white balance control helps you make portraits with great color by correcting for the color of light illuminating your subject's face. The common problem with backlit portraits is that the photographers thinks to himself, "My subjects are standing in sunlight, so I'll use the Daylight white balance," … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: Remember the White Balance, Forget the Histogram
Portrait Tips: Practice, Realize, Change
Last week, I wrote about practicing portraiture and gave several ideas for ways and places to practice. This week, I had the chance to practice photographing a lot of people in a short time, and I jumped at it. I was at Out of Chicago Conference and made pictures with 54 people in less than an hour and a half. Doing this reminded me of something very important. Practice, Realize, Change At OOC I made more portraits for the Steve Jobs portrait Project. The last time I made portraits in this style, I was trying to explain to someone how to hold … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: Practice, Realize, Change
Portrait Tips: Muscle Memory
When you're making pictures with people, you need to have practiced your camera well enough that you can change the ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed (or Exposure Compensation) without taking your eye from the viewfinder. Muscle Memory Go ahead and practice right now. You should be 'dry firing' your camera daily. Take it with you to work and when you take a lunch break, put it to your eye and practice changing all the settings. You need to program your muscles to know exactly where all the settings are the same way you can find your way from … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: Muscle Memory
Portrait Tips: The Secret To Making Better Portraits
This shouldn't be a secret. There's only one way to make better portraits, and it's simply a procedure. Let me give it to you, and I'll give you some examples I've used to get it done, and an important warning. The Secret to Making Better Portraits... ...is making more portraits. That's really it. Most photographers just aren't shooting enough to become good at what they do. Let's say for instance that you're doing portraits in the evenings after work and you shoot one or two sessions a week--whether for fun or pay, that's quite a lot of … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: The Secret To Making Better Portraits
Portrait Tips: How To Remember Names
You've probably heard it said that everyone's favorite sound is their own name. Folks just like to hear their own name, and using people's names is a powerful way to connect for portraits. I shot a wedding the other day with about 30 people attending, and when I made a portrait of the whole group, I called on each person individually to get them into the right position. Not only is this more effective than saying, "You in the red tie, move over," but it's also a bit entertaining and distracts the others from being miserable while I'm getting … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: How To Remember Names
Portrait Tips: Stop Shooting & Edit Backwards
If you've lost your keys and then you find them, do you continue looking for them, or do you stop searching and go about your day? When you've found what you're looking for, don't you stop searching? Of course you don't keep looking because that would be foolish and a waste of time. Just One More And yet, I know you do it when you make portraits. Most of us do. We get a great shot in a good pose with fine light, and then we make the same picture again, and probably again. The result is a whole lot of pictures that are practically the … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: Stop Shooting & Edit Backwards
Portrait Tips: You Should Be Photographing Models
Much of the photography you see daily, from internet ads to magazines, includes a model. A model is simply a person who is in a picture for a purpose. Maybe the purpose is to sell something, maybe it's to practice being a model, maybe it's to practice making pictures. Whatever the reason for the picture, I have some tips about working with models. This is stuff from my own experience, growing from a hobbyist to a full-time contract photographer. You Should Photograph Models First of all, you should be photographing models. You need to … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: You Should Be Photographing Models
Portrait Tip: Wanna Photograph Kids?
I attended a wedding the other day, and it was beautiful. The weather was great, the decorations were incredible, and it seemed like the whole town turned out in great spirits. With so many happy people around, it was easy to make candid portraits and see a lot of fun emotions. You should absolutely make candid pictures in public places. But when you want to photograph kids, it's a good idea to ask permission first--especially if you're a man. Don't Be Creepy It just makes parents more comfortable if you ask permission before making a … [Read more...] about Portrait Tip: Wanna Photograph Kids?
Portrait Tips: The Best Light For Portraits
Here's a classic geeky photography thing to say: "The only thing that alters how hard or soft the light is on your subject is the size of the light in relation to your subject." Said more simply, Big Light = Soft Light Small Light = Hard Light Let's consider the sun. It's huge, right? So it should be a soft light. But, even though it's 865,000 miles wide, you can completely cover it with your thumb held out at arm's length. So, in relation to us on Earth, it's very small, and that means it's a hard light. Hard or Soft? It's all in the … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: The Best Light For Portraits
