People pay a lot for portrait photography. Surprisingly, personal portrait sessions are as in demand as wedding and events photography. People want family portraits, photos of their babies, maternity shoots, and other portraits that would capture their status in life at a given time.
There are many reasons why it’s good to hire a professional photographer to do your portraits. Ideally, they have good equipment, know how to get your best angle, and post-editing your photos if necessary.
But while all of those are true, hiring photographers cost a lot. Understandably, self-portraits are more difficult to orchestrate. But if it’s another person, you can do the shoot yourself with a few basic guidelines.
You don’t need expensive equipment as long as you know how to use the camera you have. While a point and shoot can do this job, having a camera where you could control the shutter speed, and the aperture would be best. Photography is drawing with light, so you want to control the amount of light that goes into your photos. Other than that, here are what you need to pay attention to.
The lighting
As much as possible, don’t use flash. Light will bounce back, so whatever shiny on the subject’s face will be amplified. If the individual is wearing braces, for example, it would become prominent. There are eyeglass lenses that wouldn’t reflect light so much, but there would still be some obscuring of the eyes from the flash. The oil on the face will also become more defined and might even look excessive.
Notice, too, that photographs are not exact replications of how you see things or persons in reality. The colours may not be the same because of the quality of light available during a shoot. The light could be harsh or soft, highlight or downplay lines and creases on a face. Professional studios have different lighting equipment to have the correct amount of light they need in a photo. If you don’t have such gears available to you, try to use natural light instead of using the lights inside your home.
The angle
Unless the portrait is for your passport, license, or other kinds of identification purposes, you should mind the angle at which your camera faces the subject. The tilt of the head, the direction it’s facing, and your distance could affect the overall appearance of your subject.
It’s not always that the subject’s appearance looking dead straight at you is the most flattering. Sometimes you need to show the profile more to accentuate the curve of the chin, the bridge of the nose. In whatever case, you would want to portray a more elongated neck so that the person doesn’t look stubby.
The eyes
The challenge of taking portrait shots is the ability to capture expression. Unlike a video where a person could express what they have in mind through motion or even words, portraits only capture a single second of a moment. Again, you are not taking photos for identification documents. The photo needs to convey the humanity of your subject, and this is by conveying expression.
In a still shot, the eyes are the best medium to tell a story. The portrait could give a good narrative with just the strong emotions that could be discerned in a person’s eyes. Aside from using artificial enhancers like makeup, maximise your lighting to draw attention to the eyes. Make sure it’s not obscured by shadows or by accessories.
Beware of the background
Portrait shots are meant to focus on the person being photographed. If you’re trying to show a scene, then you’re not doing portrait photography. So make sure the person doesn’t blend into the background. It’s easy to do so when you could control your environment. Most studios have plain backdrops, selecting the colour the only concern.
However, portrait shots are not confined to indoor setups. With an outdoor shoot, however, you have to be more careful. Unless you could control the area that appears inside the frame, you have to be careful that there are no activities in the background that could be prominent enough to be noticeable in the photo.
Not only will learning portrait photography save you money, but it will also be fun. You can experiment with different ways on how you can best present a person. It’s challenging, especially if you’re a beginner in photography, but it’s rewarding in the long run. You will get to see the person in different lights, so to speak.