10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits

Photography Tips

How do you take Portraits that have the ‘Wow’ factor?

Today I want to talk about taking Portraits that are a little out of the box. You see it’s all very well and good to have a portrait that follows all the rules - but it hit me as I was surfing on Flickr today that often the most striking portraits are those that break all the rules.

I want to look at some ways to break out of the mold and take striking portraits by breaking (or at least bending) the rules and adding a little randomness into your portrait photography.

1. Alter Your Perspective

Most portraits are taken with the camera at (or around) the eye level of the subject. While this is good common sense - completely changing the angle that you shoot from can give your portrait a real WOW factor.

Photo by striatic

Get up high and shoot down on your subject or get as close to the ground as you can and shoot up. Either way you’ll be seeing your subject from an angle that is bound to create interest.

Photo by TeeRish

2. Play with Eye Contact

It is amazing how much the direction of your subject’s eyes can impact an image. Most portraits have the subject looking down the lens - something that can create a real sense of connection between a subject and those viewing the image. But there are a couple of other things to try:

A. Looking off camera - have your subject focus their attention on something unseen and outside the field of view of your camera. This can create a feeling of candidness and also create a little intrigue and interest as the viewer of the shot wonders what they are looking at. This intrigue is particularly drawn about when the subject is showing some kind of emotion (ie ‘what’s making them laugh?’ or ‘what is making them look surprised?’). Just be aware that when you have a subject looking out of frame that you can also draw the eye of the viewer of the shot to the edge of the image also - taking them away from the point of interest in your shot - the subject.

Photo by monicutza80

B. Looking within the frame - alternatively you could have your subject looking at something (or someone) within the frame. A child looking at a ball, a woman looking at her new baby, a man looking hungrily at a big plate of pasta…. When you give your subject something to look at that is inside the frame you create a second point of interest and a relationship between it and your primary subject. It also helps create ’story’ within the image.

Photo by paulbence

3. Break the Rules of Composition

There are a lot of ‘rules’ out there when it comes to composition and I’ve always had a love hate relationship with them. My theory is that while they are useful to know and employ that they are also useful to know so you can purposely break them - as this can lead to eye catching results.

The Rule of Thirds is one that can be effective to break - placing your subject either dead centre can sometimes create a powerful image - or even creative placement with your subject right on the edge of a shot can sometimes create interesting images.

Photo by reportergimmi™

Another ‘rule’ that we often talk about in portrait photography is to give your subject room to look into. This can work really well - but again, sometimes rules are made to be broken.

Photo by Bukutgirl

4. Experiment with Lighting

Another element of randomness that you can introduce to your portraits is the way that you light them. There are almost unlimited possibilities when it comes to using light in portraits.

Side-lighting can create mood, backlighting and silhouetting your subject to hide their features can be powerful

Photo by Bukutgirl

Using techniques like slow synch flash can create an impressive wow factor.

Photo by diskomethod

5. Move Your Subject Out of their Comfort Zone

I was chatting with a photographer recently who told me about a corporate portrait shoot that he had done with a business man at his home. They’d taken a lot of head and shoulder shots, shots at his desk, shots in front of framed degrees and other ‘corporate’ type images. They had all turned out fairly standard - but there was nothing that really stood out from the crowd.

The photographer and the subject agreed that there were plenty of useable shots but they wanted to create something ’special’ and out of the box. The photographer suggested they try some ‘jumping’ shots. The subject was a little hesitant at first but stepped out into the uncomfortable zone and dressed in his suit and tie started jumping!

The shots were amazing, surprising and quite funny. The shoot culminated with the subject jumping in his pool for one last image!

While this might all sound a little ’silly’ the shots ended up being featured in a magazine spread about the subject. It was the series of out of the box images that convinced the magazine he was someone that they’d want to feature.

Image by TeeRish

6. Shoot Candidly

Sometimes posed shots can look somewhat…. posed. Some people don’t look good in a posed environment and so switching to a candid type approach can work.

Photograph your subject at work, with family or doing something that they love. This will put them more at ease and you can end up getting some special shots with them reacting naturally to the situation that they are in. You might even want to grab a longer zoom lens to take you out of their immediate zone and get really paparazzi with them.

I find that this can particularly work when photographing children.

Photo by phitar

7. Introduce a Prop

Add a prop of some kind into your shots and you create another point of interest that can enhance your shot.

Yes you might run the risk of taking too much focus away from your main subject but you could also really add a sense of story and place to the image that takes it in a new direction and gives the person you’re photographing an extra layer of depth that they wouldn’t have had without the prop.

Photo by Mrs. Maze

8. Focus Upon One Body Part - Get Close Up

Get a lens with a long focal length attached to your camera - or get right in close so that you can just photograph a part of your subject. Photographing a person’s hands, eyes, mouth or even just their lower body… can leave a lot to the imagination of the viewer of an image.

Sometimes it’s what is left out of an image that says more than what is included.

Photo by Bukutgirl

9. Obscure Part of your Subject

A variation on the idea of zooming in on one part of the body is to obscure parts of your portrait subject’s face or body. You can do this with clothing, objects, their hands or just by framing part of them out of the image.

Doing this means that you leave a little to the imagination of the image’s viewer but also focus their attention on parts of your subject that you want them to be focused upon.

Photo by BigBlonde

10. Take a Series of Shots

Switch your camera into ‘burst’ or ‘continuous shooting’ mode and fire off more than one shot at a time.

In doing this you create a series of images that could be presented together instead of just one static image.

This technique can work very well when you’re photographing children - or really any active subject that is changing their position or pose in quick succession.

Image by diyosa

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An Introduction to Tripods

Photography Tips

Do you have a tripod? Do you use it?

I suspect that many digital photographers could improve the results that they get out of their cameras simply by attaching it to a tripod.

Ok now, we’ll take a look at the humble tripod and will cover why they’re useful (read on in this post for more on that), how to shop for a tripod, the case for monopods and alternatives when you need a tripod but don’t have one handy. I hope you enjoy this series.

A ‘Rule’ for Hand Held Shooting

I’m not a big fan of rules when it comes to photography (I’m a much more intuitive guy) but sometimes it’s good to have them in the back of your mind as you shoot.

The ‘rule’ for whether it’s ok to hand hold a camera when shooting has to do with two main factors, the shutter speed you’re shooting at and the focal length of the lens you’re using. Here it is:

Choose a shutter speed with a denominator that is larger than the focal length of the lens.
So:

• if you have a lens that is 50mm in length don’t shoot any slower than 1/60th of a second
• if you have a lens with a 100mm focal length shoot at 1/125th of a second or faster
• if you are shooting with a lens of 200mm shoot at 1/250th of a second or faster

Shooting at these speeds means that the effect of camera shake that you have while taking the shot should be minimized in image you end up with.

Keep in mind that this is just a guide - a starting point if you will - to keep in mind as you shoot. It’s a rule that was devised back in the days of film and these days most of us shoot with digital cameras that often have image stabilization which means you can use slower shutter speeds and that (unless you have a DSLR) don’t have focal lengths measured in mm’s which makes using it difficult. So take it with a grain of salt if you like.

A Case for Tripods

Having explained this ‘rule’ to a number of new photographers I’ve been then asked on numerous occasions why anyone would need to use a tripod or monopod if they keep the rule in mind and always shoot at speeds faster than the rule requires.

The answer is that in many cases the rule will effectively eliminate noticeable camera shake - however on closer inspection of the images you end up with, especially when you enlarge your shots, you might still find evidence of camera shake despite a nice fast shutter speed.

While they can be a pain to carry around with you tripods are an essential tool to have if you want to take your photography to the next level. They help eliminate camera shake, enable you to use slower shutters speeds which in turn means you have the ability to choose a wider range of aperture - which opens up all kinds of interesting and creative possibilities.

In fact I’m surprised that more people don’t use them - I’m not sure whether it’s embarrassment (at hauling gear around), laziness (being put off by the thought of having to carry something else) or forgetfulness (leaving it at home) that causes it but many photographers don’t use tripods - to the detriment of many of the images that they take.

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Introduction to Aperture in Digital Photography

Photography Tips


Before I start with the explanations let me say this. If you can master aperture you put into your grasp real creative control over your camera. In my opinion - aperture is where a lot of the magic happens in photography and as we’ll see below, changes in it can mean the difference between one dimensional and multidimensional shots.

What is Aperture?

Put most simply - Aperture is ‘the size of the opening in the lens when a picture is taken.’

When you hit the shutter release button of your camera a hole opens up that allows your cameras image sensor to catch a glimpse of the scene you’re wanting to capture. The aperture that you set impacts the size of that hole. The larger the hole the more light that gets in - the smaller the hole the less light.

Aperture is measured in ‘f-stops’. You’ll often see them referred to here at Digital Photography School as f/number - for example f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6,f/8,f/22 etc. Moving from one f-stop to the next doubles or halves the size of the amount of opening in your lens (and the amount of light getting through). Keep in mind that a change in shutter speed from one stop to the next doubles or halves the amount of light that gets in also - this means if you increase one and decrease the other you let the same amount of light in - very handy to keep in mind).

One thing that causes a lot of new photographers confusion is that large apertures (where lots of light gets through) are given f/stop smaller numbers and smaller apertures (where less light gets through) have larger f-stop numbers. So f/2.8 is in fact a much larger aperture than f/22. It seems the wrong way around when you first hear it but you’ll get the hang of it.

Depth of Field and Aperture

There are a number of results of changing the aperture of your shots that you’ll want to keep in mind as you consider your setting but the most noticeable one will be the depth of field that your shot will have.

Depth of Field (DOF) is that amount of your shot that will be in focus. Large depth of field means that most of your image will be in focus whether it’s close to your camera or far away (like the picture to the left where both the foreground and background are largely in focus - taken with an aperture of f/22).

Small (or shallow) depth of field means that only part of the image will be in focus and the rest will be fuzzy (like in the flower at the top of this post (click to enlarge). You’ll see in it that the tip of the yellow

stems are in focus but even though they are only 1cm or so behind them that the petals are out of focus. This is a very shallow depth of field and was taken with an aperture of f/4.5).

Aperture has a big impact upon depth of field. Large aperture (remember it’s a smaller number) will decrease depth of field while small aperture (larger numbers) will give you larger depth of field.

It can be a little confusing at first but the way I remember it is that small numbers mean small DOF and large numbers mean large DOF.

Let me illustrate this with two pictures I took earlier this week in my garden of two flowers.

The first picture below (click them to enlarge) on the left was taken with an aperture of f/22 and the second one was taken with an aperture of f/2.8. The difference is quite obvious. The f/22 picture has both the flower and the bud in focus and you’re able to make out the shape of the fence and leaves in the background.

The f/2.8 shot (2nd one) has the left flower in focus (or parts of it) but the depth of field is very shallow and the background is thrown out of focus and the bud to the right of the flower is also less in focus due to it being slightly further away from the camera when the shot was taken.

The best way to get your head around aperture is to get your camera out and do someexperimenting. Go outside and find a spot where you’ve got items close to you as well as far away and take a series of shots with different aperture settings from the smallest setting to the largest. You’ll quickly see the impact that it can have and the usefulness of being able to control aperture.

Some styles of photography require large depths of field (and small Apertures)

For example in most landscape photography you’ll see small aperture settings (large numbers) selected by photographers. This ensures that from the foreground to the horizon is relatively in focus.

On the other hand in portrait photography it can be very handy to have your subject perfectly in focus but to have a nice blurry background in order to ensure that your subject is the main focal point and that other elements in the shot are not distracting. In this case you’d choose a large aperture (small number) to ensure a shallow depth of field.

Macro photographers tend to be big users of large apertures to ensure that the element of their subject that they are focusing in on totally captures the attention of the viewer of their images while the rest of the image is completely thrown out of focus.

I hope that you found this introduction to Aperture in Digital Photography helpful.

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Tips Tricks for Photography Beginners - Better Composition

Photography Tips. In this article we will briefly touch on a few areas that will help you take better photographs concentrating on the composition or your photographs - from a beginners viewpoint. I am assuming that you have basic knowledge of your camera at this point which is vital to your photography skills.


1. Keep It Simple

Simplify your photo as much as possible, remove unwanted elements and be aware of the background. A photo with too much going on wont grab the viewers attention and keep it. If the eye wanders around the picture trying to look at all the elements that are there, it will loose its effectiveness. Make sure your subject is the most prominate feature of the photo and the background is not distracting.


2. Get in close

One of the most important lessons I ever had was to get in close to the subject. My mentor kept saying closer, closer, closer. I thought he had lost his mind. In fact he was dead on and I think that was the most valuable lesson I learned. 'Fill the frame' with you subject. (Note:Try not to cut of the edges of the subject unless of course you are focusing on a specific area of your subject.) Filling the frame helps to make the subject of your photo unmistakable and also helps to remove those unwanted distractions from the background.


3. Composition

One of the most valuable things you need to learn to help take your photos to the next level is how to compose you photos. The most talked about 'rule' is the Rule of Thirds. This is much more simple than you would really think.




A. Rule Of Thirds

Imagine your frame with imaginary lines forming a tic-tac-toe board, Dividing it into 1/3 sections from top to bottom and also from left to right. This rule is helpful when composing shots with horizontal and vertical lines. Landscapes are the perfect example for this rule. Placing your horizon along one of the horizontal lines will make your photo have more impact. If you want the sky to be more prominent place the horizon on the bottom 1/3 if you want the sky to be less prominant place the horizon on the upper 1/3. Getting the idea?


B. Golden Section

Applying the Rule of Thirds to your frame, find all of the intersections of your tic-tac-toe board. Those 4 spots are your 'sweet spots' so to speak. When the center focal point of your subject is placed on or near one of these spots your photo will seem to have more impact and be more appealing. Using these 4 areas will keep you in the rule of thirds as well.


C. Framing Your Shot

A neat way to add depth and impact to your shot is to frame it with something in the photo. Using a tree branch to one side of your photo, or taking a photo threw an archway leaveing the archway as the frame.. Take a shot threw a window frame using the window as a frame. This takes practice but the results are well worth the effort.


D. Leading Lines

Threw the use of leading lines, you can bring the viewer into your photograph. Strong lines, like roads and foot paths can draw a veiwer in as well as other items, like a row of trees, flowers, buildings etc. Placing these kind of items along the rule of thirds or on a diagonal are great places to start while experimenting with leading lines.


E. Diagonal and Triangular Lines

This is one of my favorite types of compositions. Placeing the items of intrest using the golden mean, and leading lines to form a diagonal across the frame will give a photo great impact. This works well with most items.


Now that I have went over the most common 'rules' of photography, I am going to say RULES ARE MADE TO BE BROKEN! Experimentation can lead to many a wonderful photograph!

by katatdhd

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