Fortunately for our clients – and for us – the world of formal portrait and people photography is now coming to a new era: Portrait Photojournalism.

Stiff, unrealistic, unnatural portraiture is no longer a Photographer’s only option.

A technique used by internationally acclaimed wedding photographers of Poser Image, Jim Garnier and Jerry Ghionis, Portrait Photojournalism combines the techniques of formal portraiture and photojournalism.

The Photographer will “set up the shot” by formally posing the subject[s], to include location, poses, etc. Then, in a seeming irrational move, the Photographer will either coach the subject through expressions by pulling out emotions through dialogue, or leave them to interact with one another.

Sound too simple? Don’t take my word for it. Organize your shoot with the following steps and you’ll find a technique that will revolutionize the way you take portraits – and your results.

1. Location. Location. Location.

Just as you would in a formal shoot, find a few locations that will facilitate the look and feel you want to achieve. This location should match the subjects personality, and be creatively stimulating [Read more about finding locations here].

2. Consider your Lighting

Watch your location for the kind and quality of available light. Is it harsh and contrasty, lending to a dramatic feel? Is it soft and subdued, more conducive to a nostalgic mood? If the available light isn’t sufficient to create the portrait you want, be sure to add light with a reflector, or an off/on camera flash [Read more about using flash in on-location photography here].

3. Set up your Scene

Place your subject within the context of your entire setting. Remember, you aren’t taking only mid and detail shots of your subject; with the photojournalism aspect, you are shooting to tell a story. The story of your subject will include their place and involvement in the scene, and the mood you are creating.

4. Pose your Subject

You don’t have to pose your subject in a complicated manner. At the least, pay attention to the placement of your subjects feet, knees, and shoulders. So long as you pose to achieve variance and levels of these joints, you will be set [More on posing here].

5. “Break” the Shot

Think everything is perfect? Now is the time to make it all natural. Tell your subject to “relax”. Allow them to settle into the pose by drawing them into conversation, or allow them to interact with one another. Achieve authentic expressions, natural posing, and artistic portraits by letting go the expectation of “perfection”. After all, nothing in life is perfect. The key to perfect portrait photojournalism is controlling which elements are broken.

6. Take the Shot

Watch for that “After moment” and “Spontaneous moment”. Oftentimes the most beautiful moments happen just after you take the camera away from your eye. Allow your subject to believe you are done with that set up, and take the shot that they are most natural and relaxed – pulling a hat down, tucking hair back, the cute shoulder shrug. You truly never know what you will be able to achieve.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Poser: Achieve Perfect Portrait Expression

Image by Takeuchi Kiyoshi

Lets kick our Summer Series off with a look back on the best Portrait Photography Tutorials on dPS – written in the last year (based upon what tutorials were viewed the most this year).

• 10 Techniques for Amazing Portraits
• How to Go Beyond the Regular Composition Advice and Get the Best Shots of Your Kids
• How to Take Portraits that Stand Out
• 6 Tips for Photographing Larger People
• How to Photograph Newborns
• 5 Classic Lighting Positions for Portrait Photography
• 5 Tips for Capturing Great Street Portraits
• Composition: Not Just about Positioning Your Subject, But About Positioning Yourself Too
• Beginners tips for Sunrise Portraits

More Portrait Tutorials from Our Archives

Of course there are HEAPS more portrait articles and tutorials in our archives. Here’s just a taste of them!

1. 10 Tips to Take Stunning Portraits
2. 10 More Tips for Stunning Portrait Photography
3. Give Your Subject Space to Look Into
4. 4 Quick Tips for Portraits
5. Photographing Children – Composition
6. How to Photograph People When Traveling
7. 10 Tips for Photographing Babies
8. Asking Permission to Photograph People
9. How to Take Environmental Portraits
10. What the Mona Lisa Can Teach You about Portrait Photography
11. Posing – Which Way Should Your Subject Lean?
12. A Fresh Look at Depth of Field
13. Posing Tips – Shoulders
14. Posing – Waistlines, Thighs and Bustlines
15. Where is Your Subject Looking and Why Does it Matter?
16. How to Pose Hands in Portraits
17. The Perfect Portrait Guide – How to Photograph People – Book Review
18. What Clothes to Wear in Portraits
19. How to bypass the Portrait Mode on Your Digital Camera and Get Great Portrait
20. 4 Tips for Natural Looking Portraits
21. An Introduction to Catchlights
22. 11 Tips for Better Candid Photography

Don’t forget to check out our portrait eBooks:

The Essential Guide to Portraiture

The Art of Self Portraiture

Click! How to Take Gorgeous Photos of Your Kids

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Our Best Portrait Photography Tutorials of 2011

We talk a lot around here at Digital Photography School about Depth of Field. I’m writing this based on the assumption that we all understand that in layman terms, “depth of field” is the portion of an image that is in sharp focus. To illustrate: in landscape photography, generally you’re working to achieve a very large depth of field. You want EVERYTHING in the scene to be in sharp focus. With portraits, photographers are often shooting for (lame pun intended) a more shallow depth of field, focusing in on their subjects and working towards fall off or blur in the background. Why do you think this is the case? Clearly to draw focus to the story being told. Well what if you want to tell a different story OR what if you want to tell the same story in a different way? Today let’s talk about depth of field and some ways you can use foreground in a different way to draw a different kind of attention to the story you’re trying to tell. Here are 3 ways to create “story telling images” using foreground to achieve creative depth of field.

1. Framing with foreground:

I wanted to find the most straight forward illustration I could to get the point across clearly. This shot (left) is from a recent senior portrait session. I wanted to draw attention to the senior, particularly I wanted him to seem strong and capable: READY to take on the world.

The frame of the foliage around him draws attention right to him… it focuses the story of the image. I recognize that foreground used in this way can also be distracting, this image is borderline distracting, I recognize that. You need to be aware of that and be sure to make foreground work for you, not against you.

How to get a shot like this: well I was shooting with a 50mm lens. I got right up close to the foliage that separated Melvin and I. First I tried with auto focus, but because of my proximity to the leaves, I had to switch over and focus manually.

2. Don’t be afraid to throw your subject out of focus:

When you’re doing portraiture, you’re generally trying to establish some kind of mood through imagery: happy, solemn, lovesick, sexy. . . Generally the mood is created through posing etc. For the next shots I let the foreground tell a few different kinds of love stories for me.

Back in March, I was shooting on Balboa Island in California. We were out on this dock shooting the typical, fun, happy, “we can’t wait to get married” stuff and I was getting bored. I had them take their shoes off and put their feet in the water. Better, but still pretty typical. So I waded out into the water, hitched my skirt up around my waist, nearly dropped my camera into the ocean, and created these. First I focused on the couple and threw the water out of focus. It’s a nice shot. It looks like they’re sitting on the dock watching the sun set. Nice. Then I focused on the water throwing my subject out of focus. A little sexier huh? Like, we’re sneaking up on some steamy make-out sesh. . . ha ha! But really, both images are good, while neither image is going up for any awards any time soon, they’re both good images. The second just speaks to you a little differently, tells their sexy love story a little more clearly.

Here’s another image where I decided NOT to focus on my subject, again to tell his story better. Back to Melvin’s senior session. Here he is walking into his future. I wanted to show where he was going, but also to illustrate that he’s on his way there because of where he’s been. . . I think this image is a powerful one that illustrates hope for the future and grounding in the past.

Don’t be afraid to throw your subject out of focus!

3. Same shot+different focus=different story:

This next series is a favorite of mine. Essentially the same shot, but different focus makes it tell a different tale. Both images were taken within seconds of each other. But they each tell a different person’s love story. First, the love of a father for his daughter and the second the love of a little girl for her daddy. Framed side by side. . . ahh. I get all warm and cozy just thinking about it.

Depth of field is a simple concept, but the ways it can be arranged to create powerful images are endless. Go get fresh with depth of field! Feel free to report back! We’d love to hear/see how you did!

Happy Shooting!

Natalie Norton lives and shoots on the North Shore of Oahu, HI with her husband Richie and her 3 crazy boys. See more of her work at natalienortonphoto.com.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

A Fresh Look at Depth of Field: Using foreground to achieve creative depth of field

One subject that I guess is many of our viewfinders more than any at this time of year are kids.

Kids enter into the spirit of the holidays with much enthusiasm and make great subjects – but how should we tackle photographing them?

I mean they never keep still, they’re always dribbling food on their best clothes, they throw tantrums… (ok, who can tell I’ve been home all week looking after the kids?)

One of our resident experts on the topic – pro kids photographer Rachel Devine – has put together a great article over at the site of our good friends at Photojojo – it’s got Top 10 Tips for Photographing Kids and it makes a great read. Check out out her article here.

Of course if kids photography is something that you want to improve in – check out Rachel’s dPS Kids Photography eBook which one of the most comprehensive collections of kids photography eBooks that you’ll ever find!

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

10 Great Tips for Photographing Your Kids

In the following video Jay P. Margan demonstrates 5 different types of lighting:

• Rembrant Light
• Split Light
• Broad Light
• Butterfly Light
• Loop Light

While Jay’s using some great studio gear in this video many of the principles will apply with different sources of light. Of course these are not the only ways to position lights – as mentioned in the video the way you light a subject will vary from person to person and these positions are more presented as ‘departure points’ from which you’ll create your own techniques.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

5 Classic Lighting Positions for Portrait Photography

This is what Henri Cartier-Bresson famously called “the decisive moment”.

The term “decisive moment” is used in countless fields of study. Absolutely everything that relies on human say-so relies on our ability to accurately choose the moment when we act. You can describe these moments in so many different ways. Brooke calls them “the moments in between” the typical shots. Henri said they were “…the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event…”  And me? I sum it up this way: “the impetus”. When I began exercising myself to the point of only shooting in those decisive moments, I found that what began as an exercise of my brain eventually became more automatic and finely tuned. It became an impulse or a reflex.

You might be able to call a photographer who clings to the decisive moment careful, circumspect, thoughtful or wise. That is, a photographer whose impulses are so finely tuned that rather than being random bursts of passion, they are truly moments of decision: decisive moments. And although Henri Cartier-Bresson utilized his ability to foresee these moments in high action street photography, I find them in other ways as a portrait photographer. The twinkle in a child’s eye. The moment where a smile turns from fake to real. The moment where a groom is saying everything he feels for his bride on his face. These, too, are fleeting moments that require a calm, decisive photographer.

Here are a few ways I settled myself down in the excitement of pursuing my greatest passion so that I can feel those precise moments milliseconds before they occur:

Breathe. Take a moment to breathe if you find yourself feeling frantic and taking way too many shots.

Restrain. If you’re a film photographer, you probably don’t have this problem because you’re restrained to 12 or 24 frames on a roll of film. Digital photographers can exercise their restraint by giving themselves a set number of frames to get the shots they need. This will force you to slow down and begin feeling the moments that matter.

Restrain more. In addition to not having the luxury of thousands of frames at his disposal, Henri Cartier-Bresson also didn’t have 10 FPS. He couldn’t hold his finger on the trigger and cross the fingers on the other hand, hoping for something good. He could take one shot at a time. Exercise this yourself and you will be amazed at how you find yourself able to eventually make those decisions yourself.

Hunt. Hunters don’t run around with their guns on fully automatic, spraying bullets in the air. Neither should we. Hunt for the moment, the decisive moment. Lay in wait. Hold your focus for as long as it takes.

Embrace the awkward moment. Push past the awkward moments. That’s usually when it happens. Whatever ‘it’ I was hoping for, that’s where I often find it.

My nature is that I can be quite an impetuous person. I’ve had to learn to reign in my shutter finger. In short? Don’t spray and pray. Get to know the decisive moment.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

The Decisive Moment {from an impetuous photographer}

This post is based on the portrait shoot of a young family who are DPS readers. After hearing of my work in Battle Ground, they contacted me for a portrait session. I am very happy to feature them in this post.

Shooting family portraits is always a varied experience based on the number of people you are photographing. Depending on the number and ages of your clients, you will need to be spontaneous and learn to adapt to different levels of interaction. Portraits of a young family is no exception. Here is a starting point for a Young families portrait session:

1. Interact with the children

If the children in your shoot are happy, the parents will be comfortable, and you will be able to achieve natural portraits. This said, focus on interacting with the children. Do your best to be “entertaining” through the session to draw out laughter and smiles.

2. Avoid “posing”

Children do not sit in one place for a long time. They are active and moving. Keep your session this way also. Constantly be moving with your clients. You may be able to position or pose the couple where you want them, and then encourage the child to move around – walking, twirling, etc.

3. Follow the Child

Sometimes you may not be working with children who will follow your guidance. In this situation, keep the session lighthearted and fun, by having the parents follow the child until the child stops. Your job then is to have the parents draw close to the child, and then snap a series of shots.

4. Be shutter happy

Especially working with small children, don’t be afraid to take more shots than a normal portrait shoot. You want to make sure to catch the right expressions and no blinking – and with children this is much easier said than done.

5. Be ready for anything

Don’t walk into a family shoot with set ideas that can’t be adapted to in the scenario. Have some ideas in mind that may serve you if possible, but be prepared to take what you have and run with it.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

5 Tips for Young Family Portraits

Using natural light can produce some of the most pleasing portraits, but it’s not just the light we should pay attention to, there’s a lot that can be said for using the available shade in a given environment. After all, it’s the interplay between light and shadow that creates a sense of dimension; the contrast and shadows in our portraiture define the form and textures on our subject and in the scene.

A favorite little neighbourhood grocery store on New York City’s Upper West Side closed its doors recently. Where the outside floral section used to be, there’s now only a bare overhang and a few old relics of a once vibrant storefront. Yes, sad for the neighbourhood, but good for pictures. My subject, Jake, posed for a few editorial-style portrait shots that show how simple natural light can be used to create great portraits without the help of any bring-along reflectors or flash. This simple technique shows how using available shade can be just as important as using available light.

Camera settings: 800 ISO, f/4.0, 1/125 sec. The space provided us with an interesting background and available reflective surfaces.

These photos were taken on Broadway, an avenue which goes approximately north and south along Manhattan with our shooting location on the west side of the street. Being close to 4pm in the fall, the sun was already positioned lower to our relative south-west and not within our view at the location, so we weren’t dealing with direct sunlight.

Camera settings: 800 ISO, f/4.0, 1/160 sec. Note how we’re using the light coming in from the camera position, as well as the abandoned mirror (for a noticeable rim light).

We shot these images just off the main sidewalk and closer to the store windows. As you can see in the diagram, the configuration of the space, being an inset to the building, gave us an area of shade to work with. The mirror mounted on the wall was a bonus “available reflector” which provided us with a nice rim light effect.

Although there is a substantial amount of ambient light bouncing around the sidewalk and the street in general, most of the light is coming in from the sky. A large tree is providing more shade and blocking much of the light coming in from the subject’s left. This essentially narrows the overall light reaching the subject, giving us a nice catch light to the eyes. Because we’re using a good mix of ambient light, indirect sunlight from the sky, advantageous shade, and proper posing, we are able to get a great transition from light to shadow for a pleasingly natural contrast.

Tips For Great Portraits Using Natural Light:

• Avoid very bright or direct sunlight in your subject’s face. Direct sunlight creates a harsh lighting pattern and strained or squinting eyes.
• Use shade sources to mold and direct the ambient light on and around your subject.
• Use light-colored walls, reflective surfaces, and natural bounce lighting as additional light sources for rim lighting, hair light, and fill light.
• Position your subject in such a way as to avoid unflattering shadows, especially around the eyes and nose.
• Set your camera to Aperture Priority Mode so that you can control the f-stop (depth of field) while your camera automatically sets the shutter speed. This is good practice where natural lighting conditions can change constantly.

Camera settings: 800 ISO, f/4.0, 1/200 sec. Even a traditional portraiture “Butterfly” lighting pattern can be achieved with a good location and proper posing.

Ed Verosky is a professional photographer and author based in New York. For more portraiture tips and techniques, check out Ed’s popular eBooks, “Taking Your Portraiture to the Next Level,” and “Taking Your Portraiture to the Next Level II.”

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Easy Natural Light Portraiture Technique: Using Available Shade

It’s simple.

Take photos of your baby — or if you’re a professional photographer, of your client’s baby — in whatever state they’re in. Serious, curious, grumpy, sleepy, silly or sad.

For true lifestyle photography, shooting how people are naturally is what makes the photography truly editorial and photojournalistic. These are the kinds of images that will tell a story or show an emotion. Don’t just wait for a smile.

Of course, be respectful if they had just fallen and are wailing in pain, for instance. It may not be a good idea to be in their face with your camera. But if you can discreetly snap a shot with a zoom lens, then go for it! (Wait – did I say that out loud?!!)

From that shot, you can capture mommy soothing her baby or daddy kissing a boo-boo, which are moments to be treasured.

Too often I witness photographers waiting for the “perfect” timing to snap a shot: when baby is smiling, when the little boy is looking straight into the camera, when the girl stops playing to look up.

Capture the natural moments and you will capture personalities and stories behind the faces.
?Annie Tao is a lifestyle, commercial and event photographer in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can view her work at annietaophotography.com and see what she’s been up to at annietaoblog.com. Connect with Annie at Facebook.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Don’t Wait for a Smile

Those posts went up over the last week here on dPS and have been really popular with readers of all genres (but particularly those who photograph portraits). Here’s the summary of the full series for those who missed part of it.
 

1. Bursting the Burst Mode Myth
2. Natural vs Available Light
3. Embrace the Grain
4. Take the Camera With You
5. Eye Contact Smiles and More

Don’t forget to check out Rachel’s eBook – ‘Click! How to Take Gorgeous Photos of Your Kids‘ which is available for 33% off and puts you in the draw to win a $1000+ DSLR.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

5 Lessons I Learned about Portraiture From Shooting With Film