There are so many dif­fer­ent pho­tog­ra­phy styles to choose from. Today, I want to specif­i­cal­ly talk about por­trait pho­tog­ra­phy. I have com­piled by best por­trait pho­tog­ra­phy ideas to help you feel com­fort­able behind the lens the next time you pick up that camera.

Portrait Photography

Before we talk about por­trait pho­tog­ra­phy ideas, let’s talk about what por­trait pho­tog­ra­phy is. Por­trait pho­tog­ra­phy is def­i­nite­ly one of the most rec­og­nized styles of pho­tog­ra­phy. The pur­pose of por­trait pho­tog­ra­phy is to use your knowl­edge as a pho­tog­ra­ph­er to cre­ate a con­nec­tion between your sub­ject and the viewer. 

Your goal as a por­trait pho­tog­ra­ph­er is to cap­ture the per­son­al­i­ty of your sub­ject in a way that res­onates with the view­er. I love achiev­ing this. There is no bet­ter feel­ing than to have your sub­ject or some­one they know say…” wow, you cap­tured their per­son­al­i­ty.” It is a very reward­ing feel­ing, and learn­ing how to do this is key to becom­ing a bet­ter por­trait pho­tog­ra­ph­er. So fol­low my por­trait pho­tog­ra­phy ideas and don’t for­get to have fun!

Portrait Photography Ideas

Get To Know Your Subject

This may be the most impor­tant por­trait pho­tog­ra­phy idea that I can give you. Before pho­tograph­ing some­one that I don’t know, the first thing I do is spend a few min­utes get­ting to know them. I talk to them, get them to relax, get to know them, and under­stand their lev­el of fear in hav­ing their pic­ture tak­en. I do this even if I pho­to­graph my kids, hus­band, or brand new client. I ask them about their expec­ta­tions from the shoot if they like get­ting their pho­tos tak­en, or sim­ply about their day. This helps your sub­ject relax, and it helps with under­stand­ing their personality.

Understand Your Camera

Under­stand­ing and con­trol­ling your cam­era is so impor­tant in pho­tog­ra­phy. Know­ing how to change your set­tings and what to change them to, lets you con­trol how much bokeh or blur you want, if you want to over or under­ex­pose your shot, and the list goes on and on. Learn­ing man­u­al mode is where you get to set your white bal­ance, con­trol where you want the focus to be, and con­trol the end prod­uct! Man­u­al mode will change your portraits…You will nev­er look back once you learn to take con­trol of your cam­era and learn man­u­al mode.

Understand The Light

Under­stand­ing light is also high up on my list of por­trait pho­tog­ra­phy ideas! My mot­to is “shoot for the light and not the loca­tion.” I say it all of the time. I tell my clients when I am pho­tograph­ing their ses­sions, and I tell my stu­dents when I am teach­ing them…I even tell my hus­band when he’s tak­ing trav­el pho­tos with his smart­phone. Learn­ing to use the light cor­rect­ly will make your por­trait pho­tog­ra­phy go from mediocre to absolute­ly amaz­ing! Be aware of what time of day you will be shoot­ing, how to angle your sub­ject to get flat­ter­ing light, cap­ture catch­lights and watch your por­traits improve.

Focus On The Eyes

William Shake­speare said it best “the eyes are the win­dow to your soul” and liked I men­tioned above…the key to por­trait pho­tog­ra­phy is cre­at­ing a con­nec­tion between the view­er and the sub­ject. Do this by cap­tur­ing their eyes and mak­ing sure they are in focus. Make sure that you use the cor­rect set­tings to get tack sharp focus.

Use Your Knowledge of Composition

Com­po­si­tion is the arrange­ment of ele­ments used in an image. Com­po­si­tion is used through­out the Art world…in paint­ings, tele­vi­sion and pho­tog­ra­phy. A well-com­posed image makes the view­er want to spend more time look­ing at the image. It doesn’t have too many ele­ments to avoid con­fus­ing the eye, and it fol­lows one or more rules of composition.

You can have a per­fect­ly exposed pho­to, but your image will always be aver­age, nev­er extra­or­di­nary if the com­po­si­tion lacks. Remem­ber to use the rule of thirds, and lead­ing lines to bring your view­er’s eye direct­ly to your sub­ject, or fill the frame with your sub­jec­t’s face. Do not take a per­fect­ly exposed por­trait, only to have it look like a snap­shot because your image lacked composition.

Give Your Subject Direction

We talked about help­ing your sub­ject relax in front of the cam­era. Part of help­ing them relax and feel con­fi­dent is going to come from you help­ing them pose. Pos­ing is as impor­tant as com­po­si­tion, and learn­ing how to pose your sub­ject takes time and practice. 

Most peo­ple are not nat­u­ral­ly com­fort­able in front of a cam­era, and your job as the pho­tog­ra­ph­er is to help them relax and pose nat­u­ral­ly. Remind them through­out the shoot to avoid slouch­ing. Help them remem­ber to angle their bod­ies at a 45-degree angle, nev­er lay their arms flat against their bod­ies-hor­ri­ble look-push their chin slight­ly for­ward, and last­ly, I remind them to move and have fun!

Shoot In Black And White

Shoot­ing in black and white removes any dis­trac­tions from your pho­to­graph. The col­or of the sub­jec­t’s shirt or back­ground does noth­ing to dis­tract your view­er from the sub­ject in a black and white por­trait. The empha­sis is com­plete­ly on the sub­ject. Black and white images are time­less and can help cre­ate a mood in your image.

Need more tips and tricks for your pho­tog­ra­phy? Head over to the Learn Pho­tog­ra­phy with Dena Face­book Group and learn even more about your pho­tos, gear, com­po­si­tion and posing!