portrait photographer

Photography

Fix your hair.

portrait photographyThis is probably the last thing that you would have thought about worrying about for as far as posing for portraits is to be talked about but the thing about this is that the hair actually takes up as much space and attention as the rest of your face and body. Even if the rest of all of the other elements in the portrait photography shots are on point and spot on but the hair isn’t, it could potentially ruin your shot nonetheless and you need to make sure that you get to do something about this one way or the other. If getting a professional hair stylist is something that you can afford, then you really shouldn’t deprive yourself of the opportunity to get your hair professionally styled one way or the other.

If it isn’t, you can be rest assured that there are actually a lot of tutorials and even simple tips on how to arrange your hair accordingly. Even the aspect of ensuring that the hair is properly conditioned and that you apply a thin film of serum on the top layers of your hair will be quite helpful in taming those tresses. Proper hair care is not something that you should be taking for granted anyway, whether you are in front of a camera or not.

Get those hands managed.

There will be a lot of times wherein you will end up feeling nervous and anxious about the thought of posing in front of a camera and having a professional in the portrait photography niche right in front of you but you should really relax some more if you would like to pull this off the right way. Relaxing goes beyond just your posture and your face. You should also take some considerable time and effort in properly relaxing your hands. If you are tense, your hands can shoot up and end up in all of these awkward looking positions that can totally ruin the portrait photography session and this isn’t something that you would like to happen at any point in time. You will be far better off if you plan out how your hand placements will factor in ahead of time. Ask your photographer for tips or go to sites like http://www.alanhutchison.co.uk for more tips on how to properly pose for portrait photography shots.

Posture will save the day.

Get this; no one looks good while slouching. It really doesn’t matter how fit you look or anything like that. The point in all of this is that you are going to look a little weird and look like you don’t have enough self esteem if you can’t pull off your posture the right way at the end of the day. You should practice sitting up straighter. It takes some time for you to get the hang of it but if nailing the portrait photography session is something that you are quite keen on accomplishing, then you should really start paying attention to how you hold yourself together or to how you carry yourself at the end of the day.

Invest on the emotions.

Great photos always have this element nailed down to a T. think about the kind of emotions that you would like to channel and do your best to communicate that through your eyes. Think of the camera as another person that you are trying to get a message out to.

Main

portrait photographyA portrait photo shoot is not the easiest thing for you to have to go through with as a client and as a subject and this is the kind of thing that you will have to make preparations for the right way as much as you possibly can. If you are not a model or if you don’t happen to be posing right in front of the camera all of the time for a living, the truth of the matter is that you are bound to come across certain challenges and insecurities in posing for the portrait photo shoot. It doesn’t have to be rocket science or anything like that.

You will be surprised how the most basic of things could turn out to really bring things around one way or the other. The thing is that you don’t have to be a professional model in order to come out looking great in the portrait shots that are being taken of you and that is really all that you need to know in the first place. Here are a few tips that you can try out in order for your photos to pan out the right way.

Make sure that you actually go through the effort of posing your hair.

It isn’t all about your face or about your body language. Most people would usually think that their hair is not something that they will be able to control one way or the other but the truth of the matter is that it really is something that you can control or more or less put a handle on at the end of the matter. Believe it or not, this might sound a little silly at times but it really is quite true that bad hair can really ruin a potentially great portrait photo so you need to pay attention to what you are bringing to the table. The top portrait photographer that you are trying to work with can only do so much if you have bad hair in the first place. That is just the kind of thing that is technically beyond repair and you need to do something about this or at least get this under control.

Pull and put your chin forward as much as you possibly can.

The thing is that for any average human being, there will always turn out to be a little bit of flab under the chin and this is not the type of thing that you would want to have or capture in your portrait shots. Your top portrait photographer will try to coach you about this in the first place. You need to make sure that your chin will not end up showing with multiple layers so try to pull your chin down and forward as much as you possibly can in order for you to have optimal results.

Lift your arms away from your body as well.

It can really do wonders in making you look slimmer and leaner and it can really turn out to make the photos look so much better at the end of the day.

Photography

Take angle from the subject’s perspective.

portrait photographyWhen you are in the process of getting into a portrait photography shoot, one thing that you will need to take care of is the angle that you are shooting the portraits from. One thing that you should take note of all of the time is the fact that you should be taking your angles from the perspective of the people that you are working and not from your own perspective. Unless you are pretty much the same height as of the subjects that you are trying to shoot, then you should go ahead and really adjust everything depending on the perspective of the people that you are trying to take photos of when it all comes down to it.

Adjust to kids and babies’ perspective.

One classic example is when you are taking portrait photography shots of children or of babies. When you are shooting children in general, what you need to keep in mind is that you will have to really adjust to their perspective. You should be creative and proactive enough to go ahead and crouch down so that you could get your camera lens lower and shoot from such an angle. This will make children look a little more focused and a little bit bigger than they normally are. This is a strategic play on distortion and this is something that you will really be able to make good use of in the angles that you are taking all throughout the time that you are able to go ahead and work with the portrait photography aspect of things when it all comes down to it.

In the same way, when you are shooting tall or big people, make it a point to shoot from a much higher perspective so that you can make them look a bit smaller. This is a reverse play on distortion as opposed to the way that you are supposed to shoot babies in portrait photography. Keep this simple principle in portrait photography in mind all of the time and you will be on a pretty good road towards success when you are taking portrait shots of your subjects, whether they will turn out to be adults or children.

Make use of window light

If you are holding your portrait photography shoot indoors, watch out for opportunities for you to be able to make use of window light. This kind of light gives out a natural looking diffused kind of lighting and it is something that will really get to work well with the portrait photography shoot that you are trying to bring together for your clients. Make it a point to go ahead and position the subject from a somewhat sideways angle. This way, your camera lens does not face the light head on. It ends up becoming really flattering on the skin because it falls across a fairly large surface of skin area. This is where the secret to the effectiveness of diffused lighting technically lies in. People usually think that they should automatically shift to flash photography or to artificial lighting when they end up having to shoot indoors but that really isn’t the case. For as long as there is still a certain amount of sunlight streaming in from the outside, you will be able to make use of diffused window light in your portrait photography shoot one way or the other.

Always remember to over expose your images for portrait photography.

This might come as a shocker given the fact that we usually see over exposure as a photography mistake but the truth is that most of the professional portrait photographers like photographer buckinghamshire actually intentionally over expose their images so that they come up with a more focused and more eye catching portrait shot of their subjects. When you over expose your images, you get to drown out the rest of the background, making the camera focus more clearly on the subject at in the center of the photo.