Compositional Techniques for Better Photos

When we learn about portrait photography, we generally focus on things involving the subject: posing, retouching, etc. However, your subject also needs to be surrounded by a compelling composition to complete the image, and this fantastic video tutorial will give you some great tips for improving yours.

Coming to you from our friend, Pye Jirsa, with SLR Lounge, this excellent video tutorial will show you how to improve the compositions of your portraits. It is easy when you are first learning portraiture (or even as an experienced professional) to overlook the composition a bit, as we are often very focused on working with the subject. A lot of us simply resort to using a very wide aperture to blow out the background to make it easy to emphasize the subject, and while there is nothing inherently wrong with that look, it can make your work a bit one-dimensional if you rely on it as your sole way of shooting portraits. Even if it is your preferred style, it is certainly worth taking the time to try out different looks and compositional methods, as they may just expand your creative palette a bit. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Jirsa.