Digital Portrait Photography Lighting

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Portrait Photography Tips - How To Improve Your Portrait Photography Technique

When you look at portrait photography, you will see that it is different from other branch of digital photography. You can see that your subjects are human beings who speak their own words, have personal feelings and want to look good in the pictures. Surely you won't hear the mountain complain when you didn't capture the best side of it. Right?

One of the important portrait photography tips is that you will want to look at the details around your subject before you snap the picture. Sometimes it only takes a small thing to ruin the perfect picture. It can be an old scar, a folded skirt, or simply a pole in the background. Imagine your client complain about the slipped bra strap in the picture. You will have a lot of trouble explaining to your client why you didn't notice that.

Now, portrait photography doesn't always mean that you only take close up face shot of your subject. You are not using that picture to apply for driving license. The essence of this portrait photography technique is to capture the natural side of your subject. Lets say your niece is blowing off the birthday candle. Don't you think it is only logic to include the candles that you can show what your niece is doing? Your niece will look silly instead of natural with only her head in the picture.

Then, for those who are using compact digital camera, you can look into the setting of your camera and select the portrait mode. This will then slow down the shutter speed and allow more light to go into the camera. This will then create a shallow depth of field (how shallow it can go depends on your camera) hence enhancing the details of your subject. You will see the difference when you compare portrait photography taken with portrait mode and other mode.

The last thing you can do to improve your portrait photography technique is to talk to your subjects. Professional photographers don't just take good pictures. They also want to know what their subjects want and how they as professional photographers can enhance that.  After all it is their pictures you are taking and they have all the rights to look good in the pictures.

About the Author

Do you enjoy taking photos? Do you want more digital photography tips and techniques? Michael Wong is happy to share his knowledge about digital photography with you and hope you enjoy them. Just visit

=>www.Learn-DigitalPhotography.blogspot.com

3 Quick Tips For Better Portrait Photography - Lighting


digital portrait photography lighting5
digital portrait photography lighting5

Digital Portrait Photography Lighting

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The Basics Of Portrait Photography

The digital camera has led to increasing numbers of people taking to photography. They love to be out there happily snapping away, and many of the pictures they take are of friends and family. Portraits, head and shoulders pictures, are some the most popular pictures these amateur snappers love to take. And while they may appear easy to take, many people make a thorough mess of them.

Many of us do not know the basics of portrait photography, so our pictures appear with head shots cropped and the photo centring on an elbow.

To help avoid those problems lets look at some basic principles and tips for taking portrait photography.

Cropped head shots can be avoided by using your digital cameras LCD screen. Always use the LCD screen to help compose the shot. Ensure everything you want to capture is centred in the screen as the photo produced will be exactly as you see it in the LCD screen.

Unless you are trying to take a professional style close up portrait don't worry about the background. In fact you should use the background to produce a really interesting shot. Now, I'm sure the person whose portrait you are taking is very interesting in their own right, but by allowing the background to add context to the shot the photograph will be enhanced and will really tell a tale about that person and their environment.

Don't worry about 'posing' your portraits as off the cuff or spur of the moment photographs can be the best. Of course, if it doesn't work out and you find the subject had already wandered out of shot when you pressed the shutter button then don't worry. Just delete the picture and move on.

Whether the picture is posed or taken off the cuff, it is important that photo fills the frame. That is important as it will add character to the picture. You should also try and fill the frame with something that will add to the quality of the portrait.

Another basic factor to consider when taking your portraits is the lighting. Most of us will I suspect be taking the majority of our portraits outdoors in the daylight so lighting won't really be a consideration.

But, if you are taking the photos indoors than there some things you need to think about. Natural light can be handy in helping bring some shadow into the picture. Be careful though, if the light is too bright the shadows will too strong though, if the portrait is a posed one, you could use white card to reflect the shadows.

Finally, when taking a portrait remember to focus on the eyes as they are a persons most important, and revealing, feature.

About the Author

Insight Photographers are based in Hull, East Yorkshire and are specialsts in wedding photography, corporate work, head shots and portrait photography

Studio Lighting Essentials for Portrait Photography


digital portrait photography lighting5
digital portrait photography lighting5
digital portrait photography lighting5