Portrait photos have been an integral part of photography. No matter how many varieties of photos are shot everyday, portrait photos always stand to create an impact!
If you don’t know what portrait photography is, here’s a definition in my own words:
In short, portrait photography helps bring out the emotions and other facial plus bodily features.
As a consequence, unlike the scenery and landscape photos where you need not wait for the “perfect” moment to do the click, with portrait photography, you have to wait for the perfect moment to bring out that feature you intend to bring out.
In this post I will discuss some of the crucial tips to help you shoot great portrait photos!
Get creative to get excellent portrait photography shots
Remember, I already told you this in the beginning. A little bit of creativity can take you to greater heights with portrait photography. Especially, for the shots that focus either the face of the subject or the upper part of the body, you need to infuse a little bit of creativity.
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You can easily take a shot by making the subject to look into the camera straight. That will make a simple and elegant portrait photo. But chances are also that the photo might be little bit boring unless you have a special purpose for the subject to look into the camera.
You can try different kinds of facial projection and angle. Here are some tips –
1. You can make the subject to look upwards – this will fit for various kinds of facial expressions like joy, exclamation, anxiety and much more.
2. You can use one or more props and make the subject look at them.
3. You can create unusual, funny and charming situations depending upon your theme.
The more creative you get the greater will be your portrait photograph.
Lighting
Lighting is not at all a complicated thing with portrait photography. All you need to do is to take care to avoid the rough and abrupt occurrence of shadows on the face of the subject.
You don’t need much of fancy lights for portrait photography – in fact you shouldn’t be using too much lighting since you will simply create unwanted glare.
Just make sure you have uniform front lighting and a mild or dull background lighting. Keep in mind that your background light is to just help you to separate your subject from the background – so keep is as mild as possible.
You also don’t need to focus on the background; so a minimal lighting in the background will do.
On the front, don’t make your light too shiny and bright as you will make the model or your friend a bit uncomfortable and hence posing with an easy face could be a problem.
Portrait Photography: Other little tips
It is always good to take a few trial shots prior to taking the actual shot. This helps with any kind of photography, but helps a lot with portrait photography.
Using a tripod is highly recommended since portrait photography usually involves a medium distance or a close up shot and shaky hands could ruin the shot easily.
A camera that has a lens with longer focal length will help creating a stunning portrait photo.
A relatively faster shutter speed will also make your portrait photo great!
That’s all folks – there you have it. Handy tips to take great portrait photos. Hope you can excel in portrait photography with these tips!