In between sessions at Viewfinder Day, Serena, Amiyrah and I went outside for a quick photo shoot. I love taking portraits and every time I do, I am reminded why I love photography so much. We spent about twenty minutes shooting pictures of each other and sharing tips. When shooting other people, here are a few basic tips for capturing your subject at their best:
Amiyrah of 4 Hats and Frugal
- Catch them laughing. Do this and you know you will have a great shot. People who are laughing tend to be more relaxed and their pictures always look better. Get them laughing and you will have a great shoot.
- Let them “fall into” their poses naturally. I always ask the person I am photographing to stand comfortably. When they do this, the posing does not look forced. Have them extend or slightly alter the pose for the most flattering shot.
- Shoot in all kinds of light. When you have challenging lighting situations, make it work for you. The sun was at 1 p.m. when the ladies and I went out to shoot pictures. Instead of shying away from it, we embraced it. I had them stand in the shade and lots of light was coming through the tree they were standing under. I had them turn and shift their faces until the light was more of a highlight/accent before taking the picture. This gave the pictures a natural, artistic flare.
- Enjoy the process. When you are shooting with other people, enjoy the process of sharing something you all enjoy. Photowalks and group shoots are a great way to learn and share what you know. After seeing how images looked with the prime lenses I was using, Serena now knows the next lens she is going to purchase for her camera. Amiyrah did not bring her big camera, but she was still able to glean information that helped her shoot great self-portraits with her smartphone.
Serena of Thrift Diving
Never stop learning or practicing your craft. It does not take a three hour shoot to create some amazing portraits. And, if you are open to learning something new, you will. Keep shooting and don’t forget to enjoy the process while capturing your moments.
You, my friend, are talented and your subjects are gorgeous xoxo
Thank you, Danielle. I truly love, love, love a beautiful portrait.
So glad I got the chance to meet you at Viewfinder day at BlogHer ’13! I’m now following your blog and taking in lots of tips. Thanks for sharing, great ideas. This article is timely because I was just shooting my own headshot yesterday. Definitely not as easy taking your own headshot, but I learned a lot and I’m doing what you said at BlogHer -just take lots of pictures!
Laurie, so glad you found your way to my blog. Shooting self-portraits is not easy, but such a great way to learn and experiment. It was wonderful meeting you at Viewfinder Day, too.
Gorgeous shots. I need to work on photographing people more.
Thanks, Elizabeth! I am going to have a few post coming up soon that talk more about shooting portraits.
I’ve read this 3 times now and realized I never commented! I learned a wealth of knowledge from you in that short amount of time, and this portrait still makes me so teary-eyed and happy. Thanks for capturing me.
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