Recent Portraits Articles

These Celebrity Light-Painting Portraits Were Photographed in a Single Take

Photographer Jason D Page was invited by Wango Tango festival 2019 to create a series of light painting portraits with some of the acts playing over the weekend, including Halsey, CNCO, and The Jonas Brothers. The photos were shot in a single take, with a team creating the surreal effects using light-painting brushes.

Pye Jirsa VS Lee Morris Round 2: Vote now!

Yep you read that right! After Pye Jirsa completely destroyed Lee Morris in our last Puerto Rican Photo Challenge, Lee is back for revenge. We need your help deciding the winner so please vote in the full article.

Shooting Large Format Portraits for the First Time

Have you ever wondered about what goes into producing images with a large format film camera? Take a look behind the scenes as photographer Willem Verbeeck tries out large format portraiture for the first time.

Five Helpful Tips for Better Portrait Photography

Portrait photography takes both technical competence and the ability to work with people, making it a challenging but rewarding genre. This great video will give you five helpful tips to improve your portraits.

Three Easy Posing Tips for Engagement Shoots

If you've ever shot a couple or a subject who doesn't much care for having their photo taken, you become immediately and acutely aware of how important your direction is. Here are three easy posing tips for engagement photos.

Battle of the Photography Blogs: SLR Lounge Versus Fstoppers

It's another day in Puerto Rico and another photography shootout. Last week, we asked you which photo was better, but today, we take you behind the scenes and reveal the winning images. This is a battle for the photography blogs!

Simple Ways to Use Flash to Create More Looks in Outdoor Portraits

There is certainly quite a lot that you can accomplish with natural light, but you're at the mercy of the weather outside, and sometimes, adding a bit of flash can go a long way to augment the light at hand or to even reshape it entirely. This great video will show you some different ways to use a flash to create a variety of looks when you're shooting portraits outdoors.

Fstoppers vs SLR Lounge: Vote For Who You Think Won

While you are waiting for me to finish the video edit on our last Puerto Rican Photo Challenge, we have a new competition for you guys to judge. This time I take a back seat and let Lee Morris and Pye Jirsa of SLR Lounge battle head to head in the streets of Old San Juan.

One Piece of Equipment Every Portrait Photographer Needs

Whether you’re shooting headshots at a Fortune 500 company or taking photographs of a family member for Mother’s Day, there’s one piece of gear you should definitely have in your kit for every portrait session.

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.

How to Pose Men Who Are Not Used to Being in Front of the Camera

Posing professional models can be easy, but how do you get the best poses from someone who’s not used to being in front of the camera? Creating a rapport with your subject that puts them at ease is crucial, and having a small repertoire of posing options can be an incredibly useful part of the process.

Posing Tips for Portrait Clients Who Are Not Models

Let's face it, when you're in business as a portrait photographer, the person who usually ends up in front of your camera is not going to be a professional model. That's why it's all the more important that you can give a regular person the guidance they need to look and feel like a superstar.

Sony GM vs Sigma Art: Which 135mm f/1.8 Lens Is the Best?

Portrait lenses are getting more and more ridiculous these days with their oversized glass elements and their super wide apertures. It's like every year a company will come out and try and outdo everyone by producing the most over the top lens they can and honestly, I couldn't be happier.

Getting the Perfect Beauty Shot

Looking for the perfect beauty shot? In this video, Daniel Norton takes us through his way of lighting the subject in order to achieve the "beauty shot".

Eight Posing Tips and Ideas for Portrait Photography

Portrait photography can be a tricky genre full of nuance, and posing can be one of the most difficult aspects. This helpful video will show you a variety of portrait poses and tricks and tips to get the most out of your subjects and to produce better images.

Lighting Tips and Tricks With JB Sallee

Do you want some new or different ideas on how to use your lighting when shooting a scene, a portrait, or both? Do you have multiple strobes or lighting but haven’t really put them to the test outside with a client? This set of lighting tips from B&H Photo Video and JB Sallee may be right up your alley.

The End for the Business of Photography?

The rise and democratization of digital photography over the past 15 years has been, I would describe, as one of the most socially changing movements in the world, ever. Though the cellular phone may have been the initial catalyst, the camera accompanying that communication device has now allowed billions of people to interact and share worldwide events from a nation's political upheavals to the birth of their own child. With sales of standalone cameras dropping nearly in half in the past seven years, has photography changed for the better, and is this the end of making money in photography?

Do You Know the Difference Between Broad Light and Short Light?

There are several different ways to light your subject in portrait photography. You probably have heard the different terms or styles of lighting and have seen them before, but do you know the difference between broad light and short light?

What I Learned From Taking 200 Headshots in Just a Few Days

I enjoy taking headshots for people, and I shy away from the commercial, copy-paste, white background styles where the deliverable image is straight out of the camera. However, last month, I combined my preferred style of headshot with the number of subjects you'd typically see with a large corporate, straight-out-of-the-camera shoot. Here's what I learned.

Wedding Photographer Documents Man Pushing Piano to the Eiffel Tower for His Big Day

Recent years have seen the internet awash with outlandish wedding and engagement shoots, with photographers venturing to incredible locations for their backdrops. But Priscila Valentina recently decided to shoot an unconventional set-up, enlisting a model in order to document him relocating a piano to the grounds of the Eiffel Tower to sing his vows on his wedding day. The series of images are a stylized shoot in response to the Paris riots.

How to Use Your V-Flat as a Key Light With Strobes

When it comes to lighting your subject, there are many different ways to do so and many different tools to help create and shape the light. If you do not have a ton of modifiers for your strobe but you do have a V-Flat, here's one way you can use the V-Flat to create soft light in your shot.

Dodge and Burn Skin Retouching Mistakes to Avoid

Using dodge and burn to retouch skin is one of the best ways to achieve more realistic looking results. However, like any tool, its purpose can be misunderstood or it can be misused with negative consequences. Here are five mistakes to avoid.

Spice Up Your Portrait Lighting With Colored Gels

In this article, you’ll discover how to spice up your portrait lighting using colored gels. You are about to discover how to easily gel your strobe lights to create different lighting effects from gelled key lights to creating different color backgrounds.

A Conversation With Art Streiber

Art and inspiration go hand in hand. For photographers, curling up in the corner of the bookstore with a stack of magazines, oohing and ahhing at photographs we wish we had created seems to be a part-time job. However, equally as important as what our heroes produce is how they produce it. We can learn a lot from the methodology of the folks that do what we want to do day in and day out. With that in mind, here's a conversation with Art Streiber.

Ten Tips for Pet Portraits to Help Find Forever Homes

Pet photography has become extremely popular, as many pet owners are looking for photographs of their fur babies. One photographer took his talents to help shelter dogs find new homes and is giving tips to other photographers to do the same.

Better Headshots in Three Minutes: Five Tips From Peter Hurley

If you’re looking for your clients to walk away with imagery they think is top notch, it’s a good idea to understand how they see themselves in front of the lens. Peter Hurley gives us a quick rundown of tips and tricks to create headshots that will resonate with the tagline: "Confidence and Approachability."

Vote for the Winning Image in the Fstoppers Puerto Rico Photo Contest Challenge

This week we continue our Puerto Rican Photo Challenge. In our second challenge, two photographers explore the elaborate cave systems hidden deep within the central hills of Puerto Rico. In the full article, you can vote which image was the best and later this week we will reveal the winning image.

Sha-Bang! Peter Hurley Explains the Value of Consistency

Peter Hurley has grown into a household name among photographers over the past 15 years while working from his studio in New York City. With a personality that keeps his clients on their toes and a vocabulary that is ever evolving, the leader of the Headshot Crew has some tips for you that may help you grow even faster with your photographic journey.

Composition: Photography's Most Underrated Skill

Choosing an interesting composition might be the most underrated of all photography techniques. Here is a tutorial on why changing how you frame your subject can make or break your image.