portraittips

Mother’s Day is about a few things: flowers, lunch or dinner together, and of course, family photo time, a good opportunity to update the archive with images of us all together again.

Portraits of sitting subjects can make up a big portion of a gallery, particularly for those who shoot indoors. To help avoid shooting unflattering poses, photographer and educator Jessica Whitaker has shared her best tips on how to capture seated women looking their best.

Of the many creative photographic genres, it is perhaps portrait photography where two camps—the representative and the artistic—can be most clearly observed. Whilst the former requires context through captions and backstory to elevate it, in the later, the absence of such requires creative aptitude. Attempting to merge both camps in one photograph can often diminish its effectiveness.

Our friend Pye Jirsa over at SLR Lounge has put together a great portrait photography tutorial that explains when and why you SHOULD blow out your highlights sometimes. It might seem obvious to seasoned shooters, but a balanced exposure is not always the right choice.

Photographer and YouTuber Julia Trotti has put together a helpful tutorial that'll help you capture more natural looking portraits. In this short BTS video, she shares some of the common posing 'prompts' she uses with her subjects to capture a variety of different looks in each session.

Photographer Joe Edelman has put together a helpful beginner's guide that explains one of the most important (and easy to overlook) details in portrait photography: catchlights. These specular highlights can make or break your photo, and in this video, Edelman covers all of the basic "dos" and "donts" of catchlights in portraiture.

Photographer Tajreen Hedayet of Tajreen&Co has released a simple, straight-to-the-point tutorial that will show you how to capture soft, colorful, 'dreamy' looking portraits even if you don't have much budget to work with.

Portrait photographer Miguel Quiles is back with another useful video for aspiring portrait photographers. This time, he's put together a video outlining the five most common portrait photography mistakes that he's seen over the years, and how he suggests that beginners avoid or fix them.

Ready for some rapid-fire DIY tips? A team of French photographers who goes by the moniker "Shootr" has put together a simple photo hacks video that offers a few creative ideas for your next portrait shoot.

I am often asked how I manage to photograph a celebrity in a few minutes or what is the best way to shoot a good portrait. Here is my list of hints for shooting better portraits.

Popping a gel in front of your rim light is a quick, easy way to change the feel of your portraits.

It's your job as the photographer to make your subjects look their best, and one of the first steps to making this happen consistently is knowing how to find a person's "good side" for portraits. It is possible, and photographer Joe Edelman explains how in this short video.