Portrait Photography

Not all of us work with professional models that can turn on the natural-looking poses when the lens is bearing down on them. Whether it’s Auntie Jean or an aspiring model-to-be, some people just don’t feel comfortable in front of the camera, and this often makes for awkward-looking portraits. So, here are five tips you can use on your next photoshoot to put them at ease and take better portrait photographs.

There are times when I've wanted to photograph people, but haven't had any around to flex my photographic skills. That's when I've been able to turn to a subject that's always available and willing to work on my schedule: me.

Gender has become more and more of a prominent subject in contemporary society with the open challenge to gender roles, definitions, biases, and identities.This exhibition aims to embody the difficult and ever-shifting landscape to raise awareness for power and privilege associated with gender.

There's a lot of different reasons why someone would need a new headshot, but producing one with a pure white background may not be the simplest task.

I love longer focal lengths for portraiture, but how is the X-T4 and a 200mm f/2 for it?

A few weeks ago, Pye Jirsa from SLR Lounge traveled back down to Puerto Rico to battle Lee and I for the "World's Best Photographer" award. Today, we have the results and the full behind the scenes video of the shoot-off. Brace yourself; things do not go as expected. 

Pye from SLR Lounge is once again visiting us in Puerto Rico. In this four-minute video, we each teach a quick and easy two-light setup. 

This is the surreal moment a photographer captured a newborn baby giving a "death stare" to the doctors who were trying to make her cry. The process is undertaken in order to help remove liquid from a baby’s lungs, but even at just a few seconds old, little Isabela was having none of it.

This series of photographs was initially intended to celebrate the beautiful diversity of black women in honor of Black History Month, but by the end of the shoot, it had become so much more than that. I’m going to attempt to explain the powerful effect this shoot had on me, though I have to admit I may not have the words to properly elucidate why.

A few years ago, I reviewed the Hasselblad H6D 100c, and one of my biggest complaints was the lenses. This is not the case with Hasselblad's X1D system. Every XCD lens I've tested has far outperformed my expectations, and now, I've found the best portrait lens I've ever shot with. 

Mastering natural light can take a lifetime of practice, but there is one type of natural light that will produce amazing results in almost any situation: I call it "cave lighting."

Whether you are doing it professionally or simply looking to use your skills to capture lasting memories, family portraiture can be a challenging but rewarding genre. This helpful video will show you both how to light and pose family portraits. 

400mm f/2.8 lenses are generally the domain of sports and wildlife photographers, who need lots of reach and to be able to capture as much light as possible and are often willing to pay five-digit prices for the ability to do so. However, with such high-quality optics and thin depth of field, there is another genre in which it is fun to play with such a lens: portraits.

Are you a photographer that owns a business or are you a business owner who offers photography? That realization can sometimes mean the difference between having a successful business or not. Here’s why you should stop photographing people as the sole subject of your imagery.

It can be a lot of fun to deviate from the standard shoot and explore your creative side a bit. If you are looking to invigorate your photos a bit, this excellent video will show you two different looks based on a Valentine's Day theme and how they were shot.

When you're working, are you shooting just stills? Just video? Is there a way to combine the two to tell better stories? Can gear help with that?

Posing can be a tricky thing for a lot of photographer, and it can twice as tough when you are doing it with a couple. If you find you have trouble posing couples in a natural way, this great video will show you five reasons why your couples portraits might be a bit awkward.

In our last photography shootout, Lee Morris defeated Pye Jirsa and I to regain the crown of "world's best photographer." Yesterday we teamed up again to have another battle and we need your help deciding who took the most beautiful or interesting image. 

Posing for the camera my not come easily to everyone. If you understand the basics of posing but still find yourself looking for a way to improve the shots, here are a few tips you can use.

We do not always have the luxury of shooting in stunning locations, which can make it difficult to take great portraits. Nonetheless, you can still take compelling portraits even in drab locations with a little bit of know-how. This excellent video will walk you through the process as a photographer shoots in such a location.

Have you ever seen an incredible and compelling black and white image and wondered how you can create the same impact in your photos? In this quick Photoshop tutorial, learn how you can take your black and white photos to the next level by following this simple series of steps.

Being a master of your craft sometimes means taking exciting and memorable portraits in not-so-interesting locations and circumstances. Here are six simple tricks to help make your portraits more creative while removing distracting elements and creating more engagement.

Posing can be one of the trickiest aspects of photography for many people and takes a lot of work to truly master and feel confident at. If posing is something you personally struggle with, this helpful video will give you lots of tips and examples specifically for working with men.

Is there a faster and easier way to create dramatic images in Lightroom that still sticks with your style? Here’s a quick tutorial and a different way of taking one of your images and using the power of Adobe’s software to create a stunning portrait.

Catherine (Kate) Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, has created a series of images to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust.

It doesn't matter how many couples shoots you've done, you can always learn some new poses. Here are over 20 in under 10 minutes!

Grab a hot drink, sit back, and watch some street photography from the perspective of the photographer, in a blizzard in Chicago.

Skylum's Luminar 4 is quite the fascinating application, particularly with its artificial intelligence features that are meant to save you lots of time in post-processing work while still delivering quality results. If you are interested in using Luminar 4 to retouch portraits, this great video will give you five tips to ensure you get the best possible results. 

Traditionally, portrait lenses fall somewhere around 85-135mm, perhaps a little wider at times. But that does not mean you should totally discount ultra-wide angle lenses; in fact, in certain situations, they can be just the right piece of gear to help you create something more unique than the standard shot. Nonetheless, they require some special considerations. This great video will give you six tips to ensure you can get the best wide angle portraits possible.

Finding backgrounds for indoor portraiture can be a pain after a while. You can get mileage out of proper backdrops and different lighting setups, but there's an option for punchy portraits with for all intents and purposes, unlimited variations.

V-flats are some of the most flexible and useful accessories a studio photographer can have. This great video will show you five different portrait lighting setups you can create using v-flats in studio.

A good photo can be ruined by the bad placement of a hand in the shot. This part of the body can be overlooked while shooting, but can have a drastic effect on your outcome. If you are unsure of how to pose hands, this video will help.

If you've found yourself wondering how you can go about using hashtags on Instagram for tagging your work, here's how I go about it. Spoiler alert: I don't overthink it, and I keep it as simple as possible.

Portraits take the confluence of technical aptitude, creativity, and the ability to work with people to be successful, and the lack of any one can derail the entire endeavor. This great video will give you five tips to improve your portraits, ranging from composition to interacting with the subject. 

While you can use almost any lens to make an environmental portrait, there are a combination of features that make the 35mm a great choice for this style of portraiture.

Ken Heyman, a photographer that’s worked with cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead, shot commissions for Life magazine, and collaborated with President Lyndon B. Johnson, died on December 10th in Manhattan at 89 years old. He died at his home of a heart ailment, as reported by his daughter, Jennifer McCarthy.

Introverts find joy and comfort in being alone, not because of a dislike of other people, but because they are happiest when they're in their own space. So, how can a truly introverted person switch to a full-on social situation where clients need to be directed or posed in a confident manner?

It would be nice if we could all have access to beautiful shoot locations on a daily basis, but that simply is not possible for the majority of photographers. That does not mean you can't take interesting portraits in a boring location, however, and this great video will show you five examples of what you can accomplish.

A common challenge for many portrait photographers is shooting people in a room with very strong ambient light. This tutorial and demonstration video gives a good solution to that, as well as to the challenges of shooting in front of a mirror. 

I'm not a portrait photographer, but it is one of the genres that I've been studying and practicing. This video by Chris Eyre-Walker reveals the insights of portrait photographer Ashley Joanna and illustrates the essence of portrait photography: the person in the portrait. 

When traveling to new places, you may not have a solid network established to find talent to work with. Perhaps you are just starting and looking to local talent to work with. Where do you search to find potential models for your portfolio?

For many photographers, a good 85mm lens camera is simply indispensable. For full frame cameras, there are plenty of options; however, for those that shoot with an APS-C camera, options are somewhat limited. Fujifilm is one of the companies that offers something brilliant in this range, and I wanted to test and compare it to a full frame "equivalent." 

Over the last two years, photographer Pedro Oliveira has worked on a photo essay celebrating an underappreciated demographic, and the results are timeless.

Have you tried taking film photographs and then scanning them in and performing post processing? Perhaps now is the time.

The Fujinon 200mm f/2.0 is a beast of a lens designed mostly for sports and wildlife, but as a portrait shooter I wanted to see how it stacked up. 

A white backdrop is an incredibly versatile piece of equipment, and a must have for any studio photographer. But if you want to mix things up a bit, and you don't want to fork out for another background — like one of these beautiful hand-painted ones — or you just want to have some creative fun, making a gobo is a fantastically adaptable alternative.

A Dutch artist has created a video documenting twenty years by taking a short video of his daughter once a week for twenty years. That adds up to 1040 different clips that combine to make an amazing piece that might leave you needing some tissue.

Most people don't like their photograph taken. So if, as a photographer, you've taken an image of someone and they don't like it, is it your fault?

Thirty three and a half years as one of the most successful models on the planet and Naomi Campbell has only just completed a mainstream fashion shoot with a black photographer for the first time.