portrait

How an Unplanned Portrait Became the Face of a WHO Campaign

About a month ago, photographer Eldar Nurkovic took a spur-of-the-moment portrait of his girlfriend—a pharmacist-in-training—in the middle of the street. That photo, showing the imprints of her mask and fear in her eyes at the impending outbreak, is now the face of an international awareness campaign by the World Health Organization.

How to Edit Portraits in Affinity Photo

Portrait and headshot photographer Ivan Weiss recently created a helpful tutorial that walks you through his entire portrait editing process in the popular Adobe alternative Affinity Photo. If you've been wanting to give Affinity a shot, this is a phenomenal resource.

My Portrait Session with Fidel Castro

It was my younger years. I had just published work from the Sudanese Civil War, and the Editor-in-Chief of Germany's GEO magazine, wrote that “Per-Andre risks life and limb for a good shot." Basically, I presume he meant I was a young fool, who took on assignments very few in their clear mind would consider.

Shooting a Portrait with Light, Shadow, and Highlight

Light, shadow, and highlight -- this is always a great combination for creating portraits from a lighting point of view. This is the interesting part: changing the intensity of the highlight or the tone in the shadows while maintaining the exposure can produce a different feel to an image, from being dramatic to soft and subtle, and that is what is so intriguing about photography.

Shooting Creative Holiday Portraits at Night with a Single Flash

Photographer and YouTuber Irene Rudnik was recently scrolling through Instagram when she stumbled across some beautiful blue-hour snow portraits by photographer @kateblc. Like any good artist, she decided to run with that inspiration, and in the video above, she takes us along behind the scenes to see how she captured a beautiful holiday-themed nighttime portrait using only a single flash.

5 Creative Portraits in a Crappy Parking Lot

You don’t always get perfect locations or circumstances on every shoot, so in this video, we wanted to show you how to achieve 5 creative and unique portraits in a small parking lot.

5 Ways You Can Use a Softbox to Shoot Stunning Portraits

Portrait photographer Miguel Quiles is back with the third part of his series on various lighting modifiers. Part one covered the beauty dish, part two covered the umbrella, and part three is all about the different ways you can use a softbox to capture distinctive portraits.

A Simple One-Light Portrait Setup Every Photographer Should Master

Portrait photographer Miguel Quiles' most recent video breaks down his favorite one-light setup for portraits. The tutorial is perfect for beginners who are just getting started with flash photography—not only is it easy to replicate, but having a one-light setup in your back pocket is a must as a portrait photographer.

See Canon’s ‘Dramatically Improved’ Eye Autofocus in Action

Portrait photographer Manny Ortiz recently got the chance to try out Canon's recent autofocus update for the EOS R, and the news is good: according to Ortiz, the update has "dramatically improved" Eye AF performance and totally changed the usability of the EOS R for portraiture.

Back to Basics: A Beginner’s Guide to Capturing ‘Moody’ Portraits

Rachel and Daniel of Mango Street—one of the most popular photography channels on YouTube—have put together a great, straight-to-the-point guide to capturing that "moody" style of portrait that's become a popular counter-point to the "dreamy" overexposed look that often dominates lifestyle imagery.

A Wet Plate Portrait of Greta Thunberg

Greta Thunberg exploded into the public consciousness last month after the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist gave an impassioned and scathing speech to world leaders at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York. Earlier this month, wet plate photographer Shane Balkowitsch got 20 minutes with Thunberg at Standing Rock and used the time to make 2 wet plate portraits of her.

Shooting 250MP Portraits with a 42MP Sony a7R II

The latest Sony cameras have the ability to shoot "pixel shift" images that create an ultra-high-resolution version of your scene. But what if you don't have a Sony a7R III or IV? Do what wedding photographer Ben of Bach Photography does in this video and steal a technique from landscape photographers.

Four Subtle Lightroom Adjustments for Better Portraits

If you're looking for a quick set of useful techniques that will help improve your portrait photography, this video from Tajreen Hedayet of Tajreen&Co is a great resource. In just four minutes she covers four subtle-but-impactful Lightroom adjustments that you can use to create more professional-looking portraits.

Photo Experiment: Shooting Portraits at 900mm

Photographers and YouTubers Manny Ortiz, Irene Rudnyk and Gerald Undone recently teamed on on something totally ridiculous. During Sony's recent Kando trip, they got a model, slapped a 600mm f/4 lens onto a Sony a6400, and tried shooting some portraits at 900mm.

Skylum Shows Off AI Skin and Portrait Enhancer Coming to Luminar 4

Skylum continues to tease impressive AI features that are coming to its Luminar 4 software this fall. First we got AI Sky Replace, then AI Structure, and now the software company is showing off two impressive new AI-powered tools that will take out blemishes, whiten teeth, adjust facial features, and more: AI Skin Enhancer and AI Portrait Enhancer.

Portraits of Honor: Photographing the Last of the WWII Veterans

This is a year for monumental anniversaries of events in American history—particularly the WWII 75th anniversaries of the D-Day invasion, Operation Market Garden, and the Battle of the Bulge. With those in mind, I started a project in April photographing WWII veterans, knowing that the numbers still surviving are dropping rapidly each day.

Photographer Uses Backyard Shed to Shoot Gorgeous Natural Light Portraits

Calgary-based portrait photographer and YouTuber Irene Rudnyk recently put together a photo shoot that's getting some well-deserved attention. Using just the shed in her backyard and the natural light pouring in, she was able to capture some gorgeous fashion portraits that imitate a popular in-studio lighting setup.

Researchers Developed an AI that Can ‘Relight’ Portraits After the Fact

A group of researchers and engineers from UC San Diego and Google have trained a neural network to "relight" portraits after the fact "according to any provided environment map." In other words: their system can take any photo and adjust the lighting at will—including the direction, temperature, and quality of the light.

Nikon Z6 and Z7 Eye Autofocus Tests Reveal Struggles with Front-Focus

Chris Niccolls and Jordan Drake of DPReviewTV recently took the new Nikon Eye Autofocus firmware for a spin to see how it performs in the real world. But rather than comparing it directly to Sony and Canon, they wanted to put the firmware through its paces all on its own using both the more affordable Nikon Z6 and the high-res Nikon Z7.

10 Helpful Tips for Posing Hands in Portraits

In his most recent video, portrait photographer Miguel Quiles decided to tackle what we'll call the "Ricky Bobby" problem: what do you do with your [model's] hands? After years of trial and error, Quiles has come up with 10 "hacks" or tips that have helped him conquer this issue.

Mirrorless vs DSLR: Is Canon’s New RF 85mm f/1.2L Lens Worth It?

Ever since Canon and Nikon debuted their latest lens mounts, there's been a lot of talk about the "optical advantages" of the shallower, wider Z and RF-mounts. Canon even released a video more-or-less shaming their own EF lenses by comparison. But does this translate into meaningful real-world results?

Watch a Portrait Shooter Try Street Photography for the First Time

Well-known portrait photographer and YouTuber Manny Ortiz recently gave himself a challenge. In an attempt to get out of a creative rut, he decided that he would try street photography for the first time. As those of you who regularly shoot in the street can probably predict, it didn't necessarily go so well.

5 Lighting Portrait Positions for Couples

Lighting two people can be difficult to do, so I’m going to use 5 portrait lighting positions to breakdown how to best light a couple.

How to Shoot an All-White Background with a Single Light

If you don't have access to a full cyclorama wall or large studio, you're in luck. In this 2-minute video, I'll teach you how to create a pure white background and light the subject using a single light source.

How to Make and Shoot a Bokehlicious Tin Foil Backdrop

I love bokeh and wanted to incorporate it into some upcoming holiday-themed beauty shoots. Well, I didn't want to shoot in the cold and I really didn't want to buy strings of lights (or generally spend any money at all) so I put together this great backdrop with basically just tinfoil.

Building an Off-Camera Flash Portrait: A Step-by-Step Look

When it comes to online educational content, there aren’t many photographers out there willing to share their mistakes when trying to create a photo. I think it’s fair to say that there are easily far more who only share their best work online and for good reason; as educators, you want to create an image of a photographer who makes little to no mistakes at all.