Portrait Photography

Added colored gels to your lighting can have a bigger change than you first expected. It's not quite the same as shooting with white lights, as there are a few additional factors you have to consider to get the optimal color you are looking for. 

If you own a pet, you've definitely taken a picture of him or her more than once. Belgian photographer Vincent Lagrange does just that for all sorts of animals as a big part of his career.

One photographer has turned a shipping container into a huge camera, complete with a built-in darkroom. The creation is capable of producing large, traditional analog prints.

When working with models, posing is an important element in the shot. If you are not comfortable with posing your models, or maybe they are not as experienced, there's a lot of information to help you learn from when working with female models. When working with male models, not every approach will work the same and there are not as many resources out there. 

This day and age, bad news or gossip spreads a lot faster than praise and good feedback, especially when you are a photographer that's been labeled as a creeper among models. Models and other professionals in the industry do talk to each other.

Prominent photographer Nadav Kander recently found his portrait of David Lynch on the cover of UK magazine The Big Issue. The problem is he never provided the portrait that was used and the image looks to be a photograph of his photograph which was purchased on stock photo site Alamy.

Lee Morris recently flew out to LA to compete with Pye Jirsa from SLR Lounge in an epic shoot-off to see who is the better photographer. You won't be disappointed by this challenge. 

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. 

When you move beyond the technique of capturing people with appropriate lighting, while maintaining a flattering expression and pose for the subject, what should you be adding or recreating in your imagery next?

In part of three of making prints of my shoot with Cognito, I made a kallitype from a film scan. A kallitype is an iron-based contact printing solution that yields a wonderful tonality that, in my opinion, can only be found in analogue printing. Here's a quick overview of the process and some thoughts on why you should venture out and try something different!

When you get to peek behind the curtain of Martin Schoeller's shoots, it's always worth stopping what you're doing, and taking that peek.

When used correctly, frequency separation can be a very powerful and efficient tool for editing your portraits. This great video tutorial will show you a straightforward method to use frequency separation in your portrait retouching.

Are you thinking of trying out portrait photography and want to get some insight as to exactly what you need to create beautiful portraits without a lot of trial and error? Read on for some tried and true suggestions that will get you started without all the hit-and-miss experimentation.

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.

A couple weeks ago, I did a quick photo session with my Jiu Jitsu coach, Rafael Moreno, and I filmed the process from start to finish. 

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. 

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. 

No matter how technically proficient you are with your camera, an inability to direct becomes painfully obvious when you don't have experienced subjects handling the posing side of the shoot.

Hiring retouchers is something often talked about but I’ve never considered until recently as it has always seemed out of reach. Canadian company, The Image Salon, recently allowed me to try their portrait retouching services and I was excited to give them a whirl!

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.

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.

In this video, see behind the scenes of Joey L's shoot with Kerala India, and how he created rich and vibrant portraits for a tourism campaign, with a difference.

With a staggering and well received portfolio, one New York street photographer seemed to fall through the cracks of photographic history, which was a wholly undeserved end to her career.

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!

In this article you will discover helpful portrait tips you need to know to improve your photos. These tips apply to you whether you are shooting in natural light or with flash.

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.

A photographer has spent seven years tracking down over 100 people he had photographed in the past, recreating the original images for a remarkable collection of “then and now” pictures.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In this article, you will witness a portrait shootout between a landscape photographer and a portrait photographer. Who do you think will capture the best portrait images?

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.

A British photographer has been documenting New York City since the day she moved there. With her archive now including photos during all seasons and from both the street and the sky, we’re showcasing some of her best work.

For my latest photoshoot I decided to use harsh light to photograph my buddy Bart in two different ways. If you've wanted to learn how to get that vintage movie style look, you'll enjoy this full tutorial. 

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. 

With the light on the model's face to perfection, there's still a lot that can be done in high key, low key, and all the exposures in between.

Often we scroll through other photographers' Instagram feeds, wondering "How the heck did they get that shot?" We now have the unusual opportunity to learn exactly how one photographer captures “that shot,” and what we learn is surprising.

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".  

In a collection of street photos, one Russian photographer has documented his local city in a cinematic, surreal manner.

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. 

Studio backgrounds can be either expensive, boring, or both. However, with small adjustments you can make them look far more cinematic and interesting.

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.

How do you spot a good retoucher from a novice? It's in the skin. Sure, that’s an oversimplification, but one thing that separates the best from the lesser is how they treat skin.

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?

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?

One photographer is drawing attention online for his new photo series, which captures portraits of dogs while they’re in the middle of catching treats.

If you're getting into business headshot photography, have you considered providing a brief list of tips that will not only improve the quality of the images but also make your job easier?

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.