Portrait photography can be both rewarding and challenging for beginners starting out with their cameras. While capturing a subject’s personality and essence may seem like a difficult task, with the right guidance and practice, anyone can create stunning portraits. In this article, KEH will share some tips and tricks for beginners to help improve on their portrait photography skills. Whether you’re aiming to capture professional headshots, family portraits, or candid moments, these tips will help you produce beautiful and memorable portraits.
Portrait photography is the practice of capturing the essence of a subject (or subjects) within a photograph using lighting, posing, and composition. Though it sounds simple, shooting professional portraits takes practice and patience to capture images that are beautiful and tell a unique story about your subject and their personality.
Though it can be a great business endeavor, this type of photography takes a particular set of skills. Successful photographers understand the balance of knowing how to take a good portrait and being able to make your subject feel seen, heard, and accurately portrayed. In this article, we’ll go over some of the common types and share expert tips for everyone from beginners to professional photographers.
Common types include:
Now for the top tips for making sure you capture the perfect portrait.
The first step is essential: choose the right gear for you. There are so many choices for cameras and lenses for beginners that it can seem impossible to narrow down your options. Here are a few suggestions for choosing the best portrait camera and lens.
For portrait photography, there is no “wrong” camera type, so it’s important to choose the one that works best for you. You have plenty of options for mirrorless and DSLR bodies that would make great portrait cameras. Here are some additional considerations when choosing:
Your second piece of equipment should be a high-quality portrait lens. A good lens is key to sharp and detailed portrait photos. Your main decision will be whether to choose a prime or a zoom lens. Prime lenses have a fixed focal length while zoom lenses have variable focal lengths.
Many photographers will shoot with a prime lens over a zoom lens because of the wider aperture capabilities that make prime lenses great for low light situations and for creating a blurred background (shallow depth of field). On the other hand, if you will be shooting other types of photography, a zoom lens offers more versatility.
Next, you need to determine the focal length you want. When selecting a portrait lens, it helps to consider how much room you have to shoot and how tightly framed you want the shot to be; this allows you to pick the most flattering focal length. Facial features are less exaggerated the further away your camera is from your subject. It might not seem like a person’s nose, eyes, and ears sit at different distances from your lens but they do and these small differences in distance result in size differences when flattened onto a 2D image. These relative size differences can be noticeable. For a more flattering portrait than a selfie try to stay at least 4 or 5 feet away from your subject when space permits.
There are plenty of options when it comes to lens focal lengths, but some of the best for portraits are: 135mm, 100mm, and 85mm for classical portraiture. For environmental portraiture try a 35mm, or 50mm. If you use an APS-C sensor size camera then look for approximately 1.5 times these focal lengths to get an equivalent, and if you’re a Micro Four Thirds system user look for 2x these recommendations for an equivalent.
If you asked a group of photographers which lens would be their go-to, you’d likely receive different answers across the board, but something between 85mm and 35mm is safe for a great starter lens and provides versatility for different shooting conditions, especially if you want to try other forms of photography as well.
Other equipment you may consider purchasing would be indoor studio lights and backdrops and a tripod for increased stability and control when shooting.
Finding the best location or backdrop for a portrait session involves a number of factors including whether to shoot inside or outdoors, lighting and weather, the overall mood or aesthetic you’re aiming for, and any distracting elements you may find in a public place.
If you’re shooting in a studio for traditional portraits, choose a neutral backdrop. When shooting in a public place, aim to find a backdrop that isn’t overly cluttered or distracting.
For outdoor portraits, try to scout a location prior so you know what to expect. If you can’t visit an outdoor location before, use a tool like Google Earth Pro to help you visualize what a spot will look like at an exact time of day. And always be sure to run the location by your client before the photoshoot!
The word photography literally translates to “drawing or painting with light” and mastering the use of light is key to understanding how to take a good portrait. Tips for controlling lighting situations include:
Another notable aspect of this type of photography is choosing the best settings both to complement your location and capture the essence of your subject in a pleasing way.
Consider the following:
One component that is often overlooked is the ability to adequately pose and direct your subject. Most of your subjects aren’t professional models, so being able to pose them in a way that feels natural and comfortable to them is important. Additionally, be sure to:
Composition plays a big role in how your photos will look and feel. While it can be great to experiment with different types of composition, you can look to a few “rules” to help guide your photography techniques.
One important principle is the rule of thirds, which directs photographers to divide their shot into thirds (horizontally and vertically) to position your subject in a manner that creates depth and balance to your image. Once you’ve positioned your subject, move around and experiment with different angles for different shots.
Pay attention to where your subject’s eyes are and work to focus on them whenever possible. Eyes will naturally draw the viewer into a photograph, so shoot at eye level and direct your subject to give direct eye contact. When shooting with shallow depth of field, if one of your subject’s eyes is closer to the camera, you generally want to focus on that eye; many mirrorless cameras try to do this automatically but it’s good to know how to do it manually as well.
Once your photos are backed up and culled, it’s time to edit! Most photographers will use editing software like Lightroom or Photoshop to enhance colors, adjust exposure and contrast, bring up shadows, remove distractions, or crop an image.
Editing should enhance the overall beauty of the image, not change the look completely! It’s especially important not to overdo the editing for this type of photography.
Patience is an integral part of the process. Rather than rushing through a session clicking your shutter 1,000 times without any thought, slow down and consider composition, background, movement, posing, etc. to capture images with more feeling.
Be patient with your subject and always make room for fun! Remember that your clients will always appreciate quality over quantity, so put careful consideration into every shot you take.
And don’t forget to take every opportunity you can to practice and hone your skills. Ask family and friends if you can take their photos, practice with pets, or try a self portrait.
Consider adding props to your sessions to add personality and uniqueness to the images. Some easy props to keep on hand are hats, blankets, or a picnic basket. Those who specialize in Senior or Graduation photos may suggest the subject bring a prop that’s important to them like a basketball, ballet shoes, a favorite book, etc. It’s important to choose items that add to the aesthetic of the photo rather than detract from the subject.
Networking and connecting with other photographers you admire is another great way to gain inspiration and ideas for your own photography. Consider joining local groups or online forums to learn from others and hone your skills and techniques.
Check out free educational content or tutorials online to help you get to know your gear, understand the basics, improve posing guidance, and gather tips and tricks from experts in the field.
One important factor of portrait photography that sets it apart from other forms of photography like wildlife, landscape, real estate, etc. is the fact that you will be photographing a unique person. Tips for getting to know your subject prior to their shoot include:
As mentioned above, experimenting with different lens focal lengths will help you understand how to create new compositions with focal lengths. To capture more of the natural landscape or scene, consider using a wide-angle lens like a 16mm, 24mm, or 35mm. For a more compressed look, consider a lens with a longer focal length like a 50mm, 85mm, and 135 mm. We’ll dive a bit deeper into some common portrait focal lengths and their pros and cons:
Another helpful tip is to try before you buy! You can rent both camera bodies and lenses from different online or local retailers and experiment with different focal lengths before you purchase. And consider buying used gear in great condition to save without sacrificing the quality of your equipment.
Keen attention to detail is an essential component to becoming a successful portrait photographer. Some details to always keep in mind are to be mindful of hair, clothing, and other askew details that can impact the image. Details like having the subject smooth their hair or take a step away from a distracting background image can greatly impact the photo.
Alway take test shots to check for any distracting elements or issues. As mentioned above, it’s always good to try and see your location prior to the shoot, but if you’re unable to do so, you can also arrive early and take test shots before your subject arrives.
Another important tip is to shoot in RAW format vs JPEG. This allows you to have more control over the editing of the image in post processing. RAW files make it easier to adjust contrast, exposure, color, and clarity without losing any quality in the image. RAW files tend to take up a larger amount of storage space, so invest in plenty of external hard drives or shoot in RAW compressed if your camera has that option.
Change a color portrait to black and white to create a more timeless and classic look and feel. Black and white images also emphasize light, contrast, and texture differently than the same image in color.
Pro tip: Take your favorite photos, make copies of the images when editing and change the second version to a black and white to create a different feel!
Fill light can be direct sunlight than you reflect onto a subject’s face using a reflector or a DIY alternative. For brighter fill light, you can also use a camera’s built-in flash or an external flash.
Use a reflector to bounce light onto the subject and fill in any shadows. Position the reflector to accentuate the subject and the setting.
Many photographers shoot in burst mode or continuous shooting for better portraits. This allows them to capture a series of images in quick succession, which increases the likelihood of getting the best shots.
Burst mode also makes it easy to create GIFs or double exposure images layered together, which are always a fun way to get creative with your photography!
Portrait photography is more than just snapping a photo of your subject. Capturing stunning portraits takes the right equipment, understanding and using the best camera settings, good communication skills, creativity and experimentation, patience and dedication, and always striving to improve. And don’t forget to have fun!
To start developing your skills, purchase your digital camera gear and start experimenting.