Basic Tips for Portrait Photography

Here are a few simple tips on taking portrait photography. :)

Phones these days do take some pretty good pictures, but its not nearly the same as having a camera your comfortable with. I like using NIKON. But these prompts should help taking pictures regardless of the camera. :-)

The first poses you'll want your subject to do are just smiling at the camera ones. Just ask them to smile directly at the camera. :)

You can also ask them to smile while doing something; leaning against a prop, walking, spinning, playing with their hair etc.

You'll also want to get a few full body shots; Leaning against a fence is nice, or against a wall. (If the ground isn't wet,) sitting poses are great too. Ask them to hold their knees, lay their legs to the side.

Try asking them to walk toward you slowly, messing with their hair, maybe looking to the side. When having them walk towards you, remind them to not look directly into the camera, especially if its more than one person. This can be nice sometimes, but usually looks awkward.

Door frames! Have your subject lean their back against it, lay their head on it, or prop their arm on it to mess with their hair. Have your F-number small so you don't focus on the things inside the door. :)

Try and have your subject bring a statement piece; or you can bring one for them. Such as this bright coat, or a hat, bunch of flowers, baskets, etc. It's nice to have something to make a few of the pictures different from the rest.

Black and White. Although the picture won't be black and white until you edit it, it's good to have a few poses in mind for a black and white one. Tell them to look off into the distance. Look longingly at something.

Its kinda hard to get a person to laugh sometimes. Telling them to laugh usually looks forced. Sometimes someone will laugh out of awkwardness, or just because they are a good model. Sometimes asking them to think of a funny memory can help.

I love snow pictures, especially if its powdery, and can be blown from your palm! :)

If the weather isn't great, (over even if it is,) Indoor pictures can be really nice. These were done by reflecting sunlight off of a CD.

Having a detachable flash is great for outdoor portraits. It also makes for great white-background pictures. In a completely dark room with a light colored wall, set the flash behind the subject at low brightness. It lights up the whole room!

I took these with a dim movie light. You could have someone hold a dim light if you don't have one. Having light illuminate one side of someones face always looks cool.

I really like doing artistic editing. I use lightroom; it allows you to edit every aspect of the picture and I really like it.

Photographing kids is my favorite. But most of the time they don't love getting their picture taken. For these, I had a horse for her to hold which she liked. :) For the first one I asked her to face the wall, then look back at me. ( I love that one.) For the second one I asked her to show me her dress. And even though she refused to smile, they still turned out super cute!

Glow sticks are another great prop for kids, because they love them! And the pictures always look so cool. (see my profile photo;) They usually need lots of editing tho. (But I love editing so thats ok. ;)

Well thats all, I hope this helped you to be more confident✨shooting people✨ ;) I'm going to put up some tips on shooting a wedding pretty soon.