The Basics Of Portrait Photography

The digital camera has led to increasing numbers of people taking to photography. They love to be out there happily snapping away, and many of the pictures they take are of friends and family. Portraits, head and shoulders pictures, are some the most popular pictures these amateur snappers love to take. And while they may appear easy to take, many people make a thorough mess of them.

Many of us do not know the basics of portrait photography, so our pictures appear with head shots cropped and the photo centring on an elbow.

To help avoid those problems lets look at some basic principles and tips for taking portrait photography.

Cropped head shots can be avoided by using your digital cameras LCD screen. Always use the LCD screen to help compose the shot. Ensure everything you want to capture is centred in the screen as the photo produced will be exactly as you see it in the LCD screen.

Unless you are trying to take a professional style close up portrait don't worry about the background. In fact you should use the background to produce a really interesting shot. Now, I'm sure the person whose portrait you are taking is very interesting in their own right, but by allowing the background to add context to the shot the photograph will be enhanced and will really tell a tale about that person and their environment.

Don't worry about 'posing' your portraits as off the cuff or spur of the moment photographs can be the best. Of course, if it doesn't work out and you find the subject had already wandered out of shot when you pressed the shutter button then don't worry. Just delete the picture and move on.

Whether the picture is posed or taken off the cuff, it is important that photo fills the frame. That is important as it will add character to the picture. You should also try and fill the frame with something that will add to the quality of the portrait.

Another basic factor to consider when taking your portraits is the lighting. Most of us will I suspect be taking the majority of our portraits outdoors in the daylight so lighting won't really be a consideration.

But, if you are taking the photos indoors than there some things you need to think about. Natural light can be handy in helping bring some shadow into the picture. Be careful though, if the light is too bright the shadows will too strong though, if the portrait is a posed one, you could use white card to reflect the shadows.

Finally, when taking a portrait remember to focus on the eyes as they are a persons most important, and revealing, feature.