Tips for Improving Your Portrait Photography

Natural Light Portrait

This week’s portrait photography workshop was fantastic.  Light was beautifully filtered with a few direct sunny spells.  Our outdoor locations were perfect.   We had a lot of fun posing in front of fences, walls, sitting on steps and finding neat urban locations to create interesting urban portraits.  Our small group were eager to learn how to improve their portrait photography.  In the photo above, Lindsey leaned in against a wooden fence and looked directly into the lens of the photographer.  One of the other course attendees held the reflector which created gentle illumination on Lindsey’s face.  This was great as it stopped the portrait from being too flat and the reflector also minimised shadows on the face and under the chin.  The reflector was also excellent at placing a couple of light glints in Lindsey’s eyes.

Top 10 Portrait Tips

• shoot on a day when light is filtered as this will eliminate harsh shadows.
• use a reflector to control and direct light on to the subject
• experiment with different angles of view
• use a shallow aperture to create beautiful bokeh
• use a prime lens for tack sharp portraits
• make the eyes the point of focus
• talk to the model to build a rapport and help him or her relax in front of the lens
• direct the model’s eyes so that they know which way to look, either directly into the lens or out of the frame
• try varying apertures to find the aperture value which gives the look you want in your portrait photography
• on sunny days use fill in flash to reduce shadows

Capturing the perfect portrait is a lot of fun as you can try different ways to do this.  If you want to improve your Portrait Photography fast then join our next small group portrait photography course.  Group size is limited to 6 places.

About Lou Smith

Lou Smith

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Lou Smith is a Fine Art Photographer who has a passion for sharing her photography skills. With over 25 years teaching experience Lou delivers photography courses in London with expert and experienced tuition. Lou is well prepared to help you improve your photography and take photographs you love.