Helpful Tips for Better Portrait Compositions

In portrait photography, we often focus strongly on the posing of the subject, sometimes to the detriment of the overall composition of the image. If you would like to improve the composition of your portrait photos, check out this fantastic video tutorial that features an experienced portrait photographer sharing a wide range of helpful tips that will help you create better images. 

Coming to you from Julia Trotti, this great video tutorial shares some useful advice for improving the composition of portrait photos. While extreme lenses are a lot of fun, I think the trend of portraits shot with extremely shallow depth of field that we have seen in the last decade or so has been a bit of a detriment in the sense that composition has fallen by the wayside a bit. There is certainly nothing wrong with a portrait shot at f/1.4 with a silky smooth background full of bokeh, but it can be beneficial from a creative perspective to explore more complex compositions and can help to diversify your portfolio. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Trotti.

If you would like to continue learning about the art of portraiture, be sure to check out our range of tutorials on the subject 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.

Log in or register to post comments