Portraits

A beautiful shot of a friend of mine when she was trying a saree.
This shot was taken with only my mobile phone's camera.

Portrait photography is my favourite style of photography among all. I love taking photographs of people and their expressions. Capturing the moments and expressions and immortalising it in just one shot. There is no specific rule with portrait photography, thus it can be experimental or it can be safe. It’s all up to the individual taking the photograph.

It also does not matter what type of camera is used to take the photo. Take Elsa Dorfman, who is a world-famous portrait photographer for an example. She uses only a  20x24" Polaroid camera to take her portraits and not a fancy camera, thus proving that you don’t need the best camera to take the best portraits and instead all you need is passion and an interest in your subject (Greenspun, 2007).

When taking a portrait, it is always best to look at your subject and find his or her best angle. Take an interest in how he or she portrays or carries him or herself to find the best way to get the best photograph possible. If you know your subject well you might even be able to guess what he or she is going to do next or the expression he or she will give next thus making it easier to capture. If he or she gets very stiff when looking directly into the camera try taking candid shots instead. Alter your perspective, try high angles, low angles, side angles one of them is bound to be a great shot (Rowse, 2010) . Also try your best to make your model comfortable. They can only pose well when they don’t feel awkward. Also, always ask before bringing him or her out of their comfort zone.

A moment like this comes by rarely, so capture the expression and get into a good position
to get a good angle and get up close.

Apart from that, another tip for a great portrait shot is to try playing around with different apertures, this is especially for those with DSLR cameras. With a wide open aperture (lower number) the background will be blurry and a smaller aperture (higher number) will make the background sharp however typically f/2.0 -5.0 is used for portrait shots (Banerji, 2012).

Try photographing in black and white. Sometimes colourless is all you need to take the photo to whole different level. For example, a girl sitting on a chair bent forward in colour might look a little bland. However, taking the photograph in black and white might give a totally different meaning to the picture.

Just a matter of switching to monochrome and a whole different feel is created.

Sometimes rules are meant to be broken and they should. A photographer should keep in mind the rules but should also know when to break the rules. The Rule of Thirds is one of the most basic and a rule of thumb when taking a photo. The Rule of Thirds is breaking an image down into 9 parts and then placing the subject in the intersections or along the lines to make the photo more balanced as studies has shown that a viewer’s eyes automatically goes to one of the intersection points rather than the center of a picture (Rowse, 2010). However, at times by placing the subject in the center a more powerful picture can be created.

Portraits doesn't necessarily have to be only one person as it can also be a photograph of a group of people.

Lastly, don’t forget to play around with lighting. Not every portrait has to be lighted perfectly as sometimes a darkly lit portrait would be more powerful and captivating rather than a brightly lit one. It all depends on the angle and the subject as well as the setting.

An environmental portrait such as this one proves that you don't need to be cooped
up in a studio to take good portrait shots. 

Sometimes by including a prop, like the flower in this picture one can get a beautiful shot.

Reference:

Banerji, A. (2012). Tips and Tricks For Better Portrait Photography. Retrieved from http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/tips-and-tricks-for-better-portrait-photography/

Greenspun, P. (2007). Portrait Photography. Retrieved from http://photo.net/learn/portraits/

Rowse, D. (2010). Rule of Thirds. Retrieved from http://digital-photography-school.com/rule-of-thirds

Rowse, D. (2010). 10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits. Retrieved from http://digital-photography-school.com/10-ways-to-take-stunning-portraits