Great Portraits – Photographing People

I have spent my entire professional photographic career, now going on 27 years, employed to photograph people from all walks of life, and I love it. People portraits come in so many variations and that is because every portrait subject is different, which makes taking people pictures so much fun. My time in the media as a photojournalist allowed me to photograph some of the worlds’ most famous people including ; Pope John Paul II, Royalty figures like Princess Diana, Prince Charles and Princess Anne, musicians like Phil Collins and Bob Dylan, many political leaders, as well as fantastic sporting and news events .

Hopefully I can share some photography tips that you will find helpful when you have a camera in your hand and a person in front of you. My main concept regarding people photography is to Keep It Simple! You do not need the latest gadget or the most expensive equipment to take great people portraits, you simply need to use your imagination and really “look”.

Rule 1 – Enjoy Yourself Because Photography Is Great Fun.

Portrait photography like all styles of photography should be fun. This is particularly important though when photographing  other people because if you are relaxed and having fun your subjects will be more inclined to relax and enjoy the experience of being photographed by you. So be yourself and smile a lot and like they say the whole world will smile with you!

Rule 2 – Get In Closer.

If you want to create impact in your people portraits then get in close, you can use a longer lens or simply take a few steps towards your portrait subject to fill your frame with good subject matter and physically crop out the distractions. Faces can tell such a story, they reflect the life lived by the owner, from the pristine faces of babies to the deeply lined leather like skin of someone who has toiled in the elements all their life. So get in a little closer and capture some of those stories. You can see with the portraits below that filling the frame creates a strong photograph.

Rule 3 – Even Light.

Our eyes are incredible things, they are able to discern minute changes in light and movement but they are also easily distracted. Dappled light like that that spills down from tree tops is a major distraction when photographing people as is light that overly darkens a portion of the face so avoid these situations if you can.

One of my favourite methods when shooting a portrait is to simply use the available light that comes through windows and doorways. Now I don’t mean with the sunlight belting through, but rather when the sunlight is diffused which creates a beautiful and natural looking ambient light source. You can achieve a range of moods using this method by varying the distance from the light source and by the angle at which you and the subject are to the light source. You can also add a fill of light to the darker side of the subject by using large white card or reflector to bounce light back into the subject.

When shooting structured portraits like this it is a great idea to use a tripod. This will mean you avoid camera shake and allows you to concentrate on your composition of the photograph. It also means you can take pictures in low light conditions and use lower ISO speeds to give you the best quality results (remembering that the lower the ISO speed the finer the noise, which in the old film days was called grain. So the finer the noise the better the detail in your image). Obviously this is possible with a subject that is static and not moving about, if you have to increase the ISO speed to freeze movement then do it. The portraits below was shot using window light and the camera on a tripod.

OUTDOOR/LOCATION PORTRAITS

We live in an amazing world that offers portrait photographers such a variety of natural surroundings so take advantage of them. The rules stated above absolutely apply when you are photographing people outdoors. I will always spend time planning which location to use for a shoot prior to the photo session so I can achieve the feel and mood of the portrait that the client and I are looking for, and then a moment or two when we arrive at the location to check out the light and possible areas for the shoot. So take the time to source locations that could be used.

My best tip for outdoor portraits is to backlight. The two pictures below are examples of this. I also prefer to use a longer lens so I can compress and blur the background as well as avoiding sun flare in the lens.

Backlight for even skin tone and beautiful hair light.

In tight and backlighting to eliminate distracting background and give good skintone.

Bouncing light back into your subject and fill in flash can be used to great effect when shooting outdoor portraits to even up the disparity in light between your subject and background. When you are using a flash experiment with the strength of it because in some situations too strong a flash output will render the background too dark and in other situations it could create a very moody result, so don’t be shy to try a range of flash strengths. If you have the ability to get your flash off camera and use a lead from your flash to your camera then have a try at that. This is by far my preferred option when using flash outdoors as is gives a more natural and flattering result than direct flash. It will also eliminate red eye.