Tuesday, April 30, 2013

How to take good portraits


Here is my first tutorial ever.  *gulp*  Hopfully I won’t totally butcher it.   I'm just a self taught photographer so I'm still learning, and FAR from perfect.  ;)   So please let me know if you’re confused, and/or have questions. ;D


How to get good portraits:

1.Learn to shoot in Manual.  I cannot stress how important this is, if you don’t have this down you’ll never be fully happy with your portraits.  No matter how “smart” your auto setting are, you’ll be disappointed or frustrated with it.  It does take work to learn manual, but it is so worth it, you won’t be disappointed.


2. Learn to be an encouraging chatter box...  I know it sound lame and shallow (believe me, this is hard, I’m not a natural chatter box), but the constant encouragement makes your client confident that they are doing the right thing.   Then you will get more natural, comfortable pictures of them, and they love it!


3. 
Learn how to pose.   When you understand the best way the human body looks it will help you get much better shots, consistently.   Also learning how to get you’re client INTO the pose is very important.  I’ve found that showing the pose myself is the best way to get them into it.  Yes, it seems a little bit silly at first, but then it becomes pretty natural.  (And guess what?  If you were in their position you’d love to have the pose shown to you).





I’m planning on doing a post on posing with more detail.   As I said, I’d love to hear you’re thoughts/questions or random comments. :)