Photographing large groups of people is the most challenging assignment you'll get as a portrait photographer. Each person expects you to make them look great in the final portrait, but there's always at least one person with a half blink or a nose tickle and there's definitely one person who is just looking off into space while everyone else has a winning smile. Sigh. The easiest thing way to manage this is to make many pictures and then combine them together into one with everyone's face look great. It's simple to use Luminar to make this … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: How to combine photos for the best expressions using layers in Luminar
reunion
Portrait Tips: Family reunion posing time-lapse
Photographing large family groups is intimidating. There are so many people that you have to help look good and if you look at the big picture it can be overwhelming. This is a picture I made at my family reunion the other day. Every time I do this it makes me sweat, and it's tempting to simply have everyone line up and turn toward the center like a high school band picture. But, there's one thing you can do to make it simple to photograph an extended family. Chop it up Instead of thinking of this task of photographing one huge family, … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: Family reunion posing time-lapse
Portrait Tips: Watching and practice are key for kids
Do you ever feel like Nemo's dad, Marlin, from Finding Nemo? He meets a new group of fish and they say, "Hey, you're a clownfish: Say something funny!" Once people find out you're a photographer, the pressure is on to be able to make a great photo on the spot under any conditions and one of the hardest of those circumstances can be photographing children. But I've found one key that helps me photograph kids, and that's practicing being observant. Readiness from watching Now, don't go get your binoculars and hang out at the park, 'cause that's … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: Watching and practice are key for kids
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
