Recent Portraits Articles

Photographer Shoots Fashion Images on Top of the World's Deepest Lake

A photographer has released a captivating collection of images combining elements of both landscape and fashion, as she photographs models wearing extravagant dresses atop the deepest lake in the world, located in southern Siberia, Russia, which remains frozen for most of the year.

Stuck at Home Alone During Lockdown? Try These Creative Self-Portrait Ideas With Strobes

At this point, it's fair to say that all of us have felt a touch of cabin fever over the past year, and with lockdowns/restrictions still in place all over the world, it's all the more important to keep the mind and body active, not least of all, the creative mind. This video has a few nice ideas for you to try with some basic gear.

Different Key Light Modifiers and How I Use Them for Portraits

Big softbox, little softbox, umbrella, or beauty dish? When choosing a key light modifier for your portraits, it can be daunting to decide which one is the best for the job. I've been working as a portrait photographer for 19 years, so in this article, I'll take you through the modifiers I grab most often for shoots and explain what each one does and the best scenarios to use them.

How to Color Correct Portraits in Adobe Photoshop

When it comes to portraiture, the power color has to make or break even your best images is not to be underestimated. In this video, Aaron Nace of PHLEARN walks you through how to correct the colors in Adobe Photoshop.
5 One-Light Portrait Photography Setups

A lot of the work by professional portrait photographers uses more complex two- or three-light setups. And such setups absolutely have their place and give a wide amount of technical and creative control, but you can also accomplish quite a bit with only a single light. This excellent video tutorial will show you five great one-light setups for portrait photography.

Never Before Seen Photos Of The Blues Brothers

It's always fun to see photo never released during the time they were taken. Norman Seeff talks about these shots of the blues brothers he took in 1978.
“In 1978 I got a call to shoot the Blues Brothers. They were new on the scene for me and I wasn’t yet familiar with their work. But the guys in my crew were completely thrilled with the idea of filming this duo and convinced me that we should definitely film the session."

What I've Learned Shooting Drone Portraits

I have way too much fun with my drone. And while it's great for landscape shots, I wanted to try something a bit different, so I put a call out for musicians, told them to lay on the ground, and put a camera in the air. However, using a drone to take portraits is far different from having your camera at eye level.

How I Shot This Self Portrait With Natural Light

Most of my portraiture work is known for two things, lots of color and using strobes. I love self portraits to try out new techniques; it's actually how I got myself started in photography, so for this self portrait I wanted to go in a totally different direction and take a shot with natural light and push it as far as I could.

Which Fresnel Is Right for Your Portrait Photography

Should you add a Fresnel-type light to your collection of gear for portrait photography? Besides looking like a great prop in your shot, is it a light you can use as your main source for photos?

FS Reviews PhotoBoothSF, A Portrait Studio Specializing in Tintypes And Vintage Film Processes

I have been absolutely fascinated by wetplate processes for a while now: I find the medium absolutely unlike anything else in the world of art and photography, and the one-of-a-kind results from this hand-crafted process are simply beautiful. When I learned that there was a studio in San Francisco that specialized in taking collodion (tintypes, specifically) portraits of clients, I absolutely had to have one done.

[Video] Go Behind The Scenes With Mary Ellen Mark

I've always been a fan of documentary photographer, Mary Ellen Mark. Having published over 15 books, she has taken some of the most compelling images and is considered a living legend. In this video, she talks about the state current state of documentary photography and gives helpful advice to those trying to break out in the field. She is shooting on a Mamiya 7 II camera with a 55mm and 65mm lens. She lit her subjects using a Profoto AcuteB 600 Air and an AcuteB Head with a Profoto Zoom Reflector attached. Click to full post to watch her in action.
How To Master Environmental Portrait Photography

I enjoy environmental portraits more than anything else because it’s something you can do anywhere, indoors or outdoors, across many genres of photography. The obvious opportunities arise with travel and street photography. So what exactly is an environmental portrait compared to a normal portrait? And where do you start?

5 Helpful Tips for Photographing People Who Aren't Models

Most of us who shoot portraits do not work with professional models on a regular basis, and as such, it pays to know how to work with regular people to make them as comfortable as possible in front of the lens. If that is something you struggle with, this excellent video tutorial will give you five tips for taking better shots of regular people.

[BTS] Chris Crisman Shoots Lifestyle Photography In Florida

Chris Crisman is a advertising and editorial photographer who, after a series of missed jobs, set out to add an entirely new branch to his business, lifestyle photography. This video offers a behind the scenes look at his trip, as well as a glimpse at how he shoots and some of his lighting set ups.

A Start-to-Finish Guide on Creating Great Portraits With Smoke

There are certain rights of passage in photography that we all should try at some juncture of our time with a camera. They act as both important learning tools but plainly, they're good fun to do. In this video, Pye Jirsa walks you through how he created a great-looking portrait using a smoke bomb.

First Underwater Portrait From 1899

As I was perusing Reddit today, I came across this amazing photograph, said to be taken in 1899. The one thing that is both frustrating and beautiful about Reddit is many times, there is no additional information, which means I had to do a little research about the photograph and find out who the photographer was.

Intimate Exposé On Commercial Photographer Fred Lyon

I'm a big fan of the mission and idea behind websites like Kickstarter. I appreciate creating a community of people from all over the world who help each other pursue their dreams. On Indieagogo, a site similar to Kickstarter, I came across this cool project on photographer, Fred Lyons.

Full Tutorial for a Creative Grunge Retouch

Glyn Dewis goes through his process of retouching a creative grunge image from start to finish, showing how he uses Photoshop as well as plugins from Topaz and the Google Nik Collection. This video is great for some quick retouching tips which includes a simple lighting effect using paint brush and is some excellent inspiration for filters and effects to add to your images. As always, Dewis shows you how to work non destructively so that you are always able to go back and tweak your many filters and layers.

John Keatley Shoots For Wexley School For Girls

John Keatley's portraits always have a great sense of fun about them that I've always appreciated and this series isn't any different. This series is for the Wexley School for Girls Advertising Agency and John Keatley's sense of humor is in full swing. These simply lit photographs are a lot of fun and it's great to have a look at how they were made.

Images of Child Labor Between 1908 and 1924

Working as an investigative photographer for the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), Lewis Hine (1874-1940) portrayed working and living conditions of children in the United States between 1908 and 1924. The Library of Congress' National Child Labor Committee Collection includes more than 5,100 photographs that came with the records of the organization. Many of the pictures are familiar, but others are relatively unexplored.

Some Simple Steps to Planning and Photographing a Great Image

Has it been a while since you got back to your photography roots with a creative shoot just for you? Sometimes, we need to hang up the business hat and get back to what makes us feel happy and creative. Here's some inspiration.

PRO EDU Portraiture Photo Contest: Win over 50K in Prizes

PRO EDU unveils one of the biggest photo contest of 2016

You don’t need the best gear to take good photos, but it sure doesn’t hurt to have them. PRO EDU just dropped the covers on their latest tutorial featuring one of world’s greatest, two-time winner of the esteemed “International Photographer of the Year Award”, Sandro Miller.

Shooting Portraits Underwater Can Create Beautiful Results

Shooting underwater is not a simple task, and usually not very affordable. To shoot underwater you need not only the knowledge, but also expensive DSLR housing (or point and shoot cameras designed to shoot underwater) and also underwater lighting system if you want to fully control the lighting. Once you get underwater with your subject, the water lets you create striking and beautiful images, that you can never create out in the fresh air. Check out these great examples of underwater photography.

'Two Photographers Walk Into a Bar...' Or Injecting Humor In Photography

Telling a joke to an audience large or small can be a risk. An edgier joke can offend as many people as it amuses. Using humor in photography carries that same risk. Many photos can have a natural humor, but when a professional photographer is tasked with creating a humorous photo from scratch it can be serious business.

One Simple Tip That Will Level Up Your Portraits

All it takes is this simple composition tip to take your portraits to a new level. In this video and article, I'll be demonstrating this tip and how you can use it in post-production to completely transform your photographs.

Shooting Outdoors With Bad Light

When shooting portraits outdoors, you will hear many photographers saying you will get the best lighting within a few hours before dusk or after dawn. Unfortunately, there are many times when you find yourself shooting at other times of the day. Depending on the skies, the sun could be producing a much harder light than desired.