5 tips to take the perfect portrait photography

From the first days of good weather, we like more than anything else to immortalize portraits of our loved ones. But it is not always possible to hire a professional photographer. That is the reason why we want to offer you some useful tips…

Do you know of a parent who does not appreciate being able to immerse him/herself once more in the portraits of his/her children? Or a child who does not like to see again and again the portraits of his/her parents and ancestors once they are gone? Certainly, nothing beats a photography taken on the spot (a specialty maintained by Ghislain Bruyère), but sometimes it is necessary to frame - no bad pun - things. Here are five things you should take into account.

Take care of your framing for your portrait photography

It is always important to frame properly the subject of your photo in portrait mode. Indeed, if you photograph an adult, you will have the choice to make a close-up on his face, or also to integrate other parts of his/her body. It is therefore essential to avoid cutting certain body members at the risk of giving a bizarre impression to those who look at the photo. An example? If you decide to take a picture of your model of the day by framing him/her at bust level, don’t forget to integrate his/her hands into the frame. Likewise, when you want to take a picture of a child, consider putting yourself at his/her height to avoid surprising optical effects. One thing remains in both cases: place the focusing point right on your model’s eyes.

Be careful of lighting and shadows for your portraits photography

Naturally, we could believe that a bright sunlight is the ideal situation to take a picture of a person and more specifically of his/her face. It is not necessarily the case. In fact, when you take a picture at midday – just as an example – there is a risk that you get impacted by significant shadows which will naturally distort your model’s face. Similarly, if this same model looks at the sun, chances are that he/she will wince and eventually will not offer you the prettiest portrait. Therefore do not hesitate to use the ambient light, by placing your subject in a shaded location, or wait for early mornings or late afternoons to get less aggressive light. It is interesting as well to ask the model to turn his/her back to the sun. You will then use a reflector to bring natural, but softer light toward the face you want to photograph.

Take care of the background for your portrait photography

The most beautiful face will turn into ridicule if we discover an element of the background behind it that will spoil it all. Hence it is important that you carefully choose the location where you want to take your photo, so that the focus remains on your model. Various solutions are available to you: opt for a neutral background, or on the contrary choose a very contrasting background, in relation to the clothes your model wears for instance. There are also various settings allowing to blur the background of your photo. Some smartphones allow you to do this. That will enable to dramatically improve the result of your portrait. However, note that the blurring feature on a smartphone is an artificial operation that will never provide you with the same results than those obtained with the settings done by a professional photographer.

Think of posing your model

Of course you will need to compose with the variety of individual facial features of the person you are photographing, but there is one certainty: a portrait facing the lens has something boring, or even sometimes disturbing. Some tricks are often used by professional photographers. You can then rotate your model’s body by 45° in relation to the position of your lens and ask him/her to slightly turn his/her face towards you. You will then give the impression that it is slightly smaller. Some models will thank you for that. These tips are also valid for legs, arms, and hands if these appear on the portrait. Facing too much the lens, they become less relevant.

Set the colours correctly

In shooting a portrait, it is important that the picture reflects a natural skin colour. It is therefore necessary to compose with all the external elements which will come in and modify this colour in a more or less natural way. By adjusting the white balance on your camera, you can get a more natural result. The best is to do several attempts with different settings to find out which one is the most appropriate in specific circumstances. Last little tip: if you have a sufficiently sophisticated camera to record your photos in RAW format, you can rework the colour rendering later on.

Immortalize a face, a person, to keep a precious memory of him/her requires practice. You can also organise a photo shooting with a professional photographer in order to make sure you get the perfect result. The memory created then is often unbelievable.