Five Helpful Tips for Beginner Portrait Photographers

Portraiture is a challenging genre, as it requires the confluence of creative ideas, solid technique, and the ability to work with and direct people. If you are new to photographing portraits, this great video will give you five tips to improve your work. 

Coming to you from Jeremy Cohen with B&H Photo Video, this helpful video will show you five tips for improving your portraits. One thing I think a lot of inexperienced portrait photographers overlook is the importance of maintaining an active conversation beyond simply directing your subjects through poses. When you are new to photography, you will often spend a lot of time and energy during a shoot focused on dialing in your settings and the like, but it is important to remember that many people are quite anxious in front of the camera, and as such, you often need to help them feel more comfortable by removing the barrier through normal conversation and the like. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Cohen.

And if you would like to continue to learn about taking effective portraits, be sure to check out our multiple tutorials on the topic in the Fstoppers store.

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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