Wedding Portrait Photography

Portrait photography is an integral part of any wedding. It is used to capture action shots of the ceremony as well as the reception in order to create photographs that will be a lasting reminder of the wedding. Portraits may be planned to create still shots or spontaneous moments that will be kept for remembrance.

Wedding portraits are used to capture members of the wedding party during the ceremony and throughout the day. Portraits of family members with the bridal couple are frequently taken by a wedding photographer. Other popular portraits include the cutting of the wedding cake, the first dance and other candid moments.

Candid photography is a popular trend in wedding portrait photography. These photographs are focused on moments that are spontaneous instead of posed and often provide a memorable moment. Examples of this type of wedding portrait photography include quiet moments with the bride and groom, photographs of children playing or other touching moments. Candid photographs of the flower girl and ring bearer are often chosen for wedding photography and can add a whimsical touch to a wedding album.

Wedding photographers will work with the bridal party to capture desired wedding portraits during the event. Many times they will continue to take photographs unprompted in order to create a series of lasting memories that the bridal couple can enjoy after the wedding. Some portraits may also be taken ahead of the wedding in a photography studio such as photographs of the bride, groom and parents of the bridal couple.

Photoconcept are award winning wedding photographers barnsley and also specialise in portrait photography yorkshire.

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Why Start a New Portrait Photography Business?

Firstly - I'm a parent, and there are certain pictures of the children that take center stage, and that's well done portrait photographs. I can stare at them for ages. My mother had little portrait shots covering every available space on her dining room cabinet of friends, children and pets too. Everybody will buy a good portrait photo if if captures a special memory.

Ollie, a good friend of mine, has always loved taking all types of pictures, the walls of his cottage have beautiful prints of shots Ollie and his wife favor mostly, their children - 4yr old beautiful twin girls. As you can imagine there are quite a few pictures of the girls all around. He has a canny way of 'capturing the natural' in his photography. in-fact on first looking at his photographs I thought they were professional prints!

Anyway, Ollie's hobby took center stage. The twins often had friends over to play, and when the parents came to collect their children they saw all the photography. Like myself they assumed they were professional portrait pictures. So when finding out that Ollie took them they would often ask if he would take portraits photographs of their kids. Soon enough he was taking bookings for portraits, christenings even weddings. He was getting very busy just by word of mouth.

I got a call from Ollie one morning, quite out of the blue. He said that he was considering starting a new portrait photography business; to be completely honest I knew he was good but I wasn't sure he could make a living out of it... Until he explained to me, that even I pay $70 for a single portrait picture of my kids. I thought about it for a second and then smiled to myself as I knew that of course it's possible.

So there you have it starting a new portrait photography business can be done quite easily if you have a good camera and a passion for taking pictures. I for one can't resist buying pictures of the people and the animals I love ... Who can?

If your thinking about starting a new portrait photography business have a look at how my good buddy Ollie got his venture off the ground. He essentially works from home now and says he's earning far more than he ever expected. Starting a new portrait photography business even whilst your working, is a great second income.

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

10 Ways to Improve Your Portrait Photography Now

An exceptional portrait will evoke emotion and will be treasured by its owner for a lifetime. As a portrait photographer, your work will be displayed in someone's home for many years to come. Keep the following tips in mind and watch your portrait photography (and your photography business) improve!

1. Keep it simple

Whether shooting in the studio or outdoors, try to keep props and backgrounds as simple as possible. They should be used to enhance and not detract from the subject. This means a solid colored background (I like black or white best) in the studio, and a nice subdued background if outdoors (make sure to watch for cars, buildings, and other people that might show up in your portrait when shooting outdoors).

2. Don't be afraid of close-ups

Remember to move in for your close up shots! Moms love a close up of their beautiful baby's face! Don't worry about facial blemishes being too pronounced (that's why you have Photoshop, right?)

3. Don't always go for the smile

Smiles are nice and you should always try to get some genuine smile shots. However, some of the nicest portraits have a more serious tone where a smile is not necessary. Try to get a range of expressions from your subject.

4. Get good catch lights

Catch lights are those little reflections you see in the eyes. Miss them and your subject will look lifeless. They are pretty easy to capture in the studio, but not so much when shooting outdoors. Bring a reflector along to outdoor shoots and make those eyes light up!

5. Use natural light or try to mimic natural light

Natural light in early morning or late afternoon (right before sunset) provides the most beautiful lighting for outdoor portraits. If you are shooting in the studio, you can get nice diffused light from a soft box.

6. Take numerous shots in one session

Don't limit yourself to a certain number of shots. Take as many as you can. Remember, you don't have to show all of them to the client. It's like the lottery...the more tickets you buy, the better chance you have of winning. So, the more shots you take, the better the likelihood that you will get some really great ones!

7. Stick to solid colors

Make sure to tell your clients to wear bright, solid colors. If you are doing a group portrait, some really like the look of everyone in the same color. Busy patterns on clothing are just too distracting.

8. Focus on relationships

When doing a group family portrait, remember that you don't always have to have everyone looking at the camera. Have them interact with each other and capture the feeling of those special relationships.

9. Get those heads close together

For family portraits, when you do have everyone looking at the camera, it is best to get heads close together...even touching in some situations. Everyone should be touching or nearly touching.

10. Watch your cropping

Finally, be careful when composing the shot in your camera. Leave a little extra room for cropping. You definitely do not want to cut off someone's hand, foot, etc.

Cindy Bracken is the founder of http://www.shuttermom.com, an online community for photographers of all levels of experience. Stop by to create a free blog, enter the photo contest, join in the discussion forums and more!

Start your own photography business today!

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

4 Portrait Photography Tips

Portrait photography is the art of taking pictures of people. Now whether you do this for family and friends, or just because you like people pictures, you may find these tips helpful in making your portrait photos more polished and professional looking.

1. Clear the clutter. When you take a person's portrait, you want the picture to focus primarily on that person. If you have a lot of clutter behind or around them, it detracts from the person in the picture. So before you shoot, try moving the person to a place where there is little to nothing else around. The middle of a room is an easy option, as is having them stand against a blank wall.

2. Focus on their eyes. Regardless of what else might be in the picture, and regardless of whether anything else is in focus or not... if you have a person's eyes in focus in a portrait photo, it always has much more impact and is considered a better picture overall. The old saying about eyes being a window to the soul actually applies in portrait photography, so if the person's eyes are clear and focused well, the picture will look much better.

3. Try to blur the background. If you have a point and shoot camera, you probably have a control setting dial on the camera that will help with this. Turn the control dial to portrait mode - this is usually indicated by a small icon that looks like a person's head. If you use a DSLR, or you shoot in manual or semi-manual mode with your camera, use a larger aperture setting. This is indicated by smaller numbers such as 5.6, 3.5 and 2.8. In fact, those three aperture settings are often the best ones to use when taking portrait photos, because those tend to blur the background best. A 2.8 aperture setting will give you a much more blurry background than 5.6 will, but 5.6 still does fairly nicely if the background is not too close to the person you're taking a picture of.

4. Get Closer. Yes, closer to the person you're taking a picture of. It's ok to just have a picture of the person's head and shoulders... it's even ok to take a picture of just their face with part of the head missing. The face and eyes of a person is where most of their expression is, so leaving out most of the body in a portrait photograph will often produce much better results.

These four tips are great starting places for creating much stronger, more appealing portrait photos. So go out and try them yourself now, and you might be surprised at how much better your people pictures look.

? 2006, Kathy Burns-Millyard. Kathy is a professionally published freelance writer and stock photographer who is currently involved in a fascinating adventure of living off the grid and working on the road as she travels around the southwestern United States.

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

6 Outdoor Portrait Photography Poses That You Should Avoid

Portrait photography is something that every budding photographer should master in order to become an accomplished photographer in the future, but before one is able to master this art of photography, one should be able to identify to do's and don'ts in this segment of photography. Being able to master the skills of portrait photography would ensure that you are able to take magnificently gorgeous photographs in the future with your compact digital camera, but in order to accomplish this, take note of this - not to commit these below poses and mistakes that are common in outdoor portrait photography:

1) Outdoor portrait photography poses should never be shot with the subject facing the sun - the best would be to have the sun behind your subject to provide good hair light, and also to provide some much-needed depth for your portrait. This works for both sunset and sunrise shots.

2) Avoid having the subject pose too close to a background until you get a clear, hard shadow in black in the picture. It is extremely crucial to allow natural light to wrap around the subject so that softer light is possible to be created for the benefit of your shots. It is best to have the subject at least 2 meters from a background when you are taking outdoor portrait pictures

3) Shooting a subject head-on is a definite NO! When you get a complete picture of someone with both shoulders and toes facing you, the created image would prove to be largely unflattering. You would successfully add weight to the subject when you shoot this way, and this is definitely not desirable.

4) Try to avoid forcing your subjects to pose in funny and uncomfortable poses, as poses that are not natural would most probably turn out to be awkward as well. Stick to the simple rules of posing, and let your subjects try to be as natural as possible when shooting outdoor portrait photographs

5) Do not place any objects in the background unless you have a specific need for it, or you would end up ruining your photograph

6) Also avoid shooting subjects from behind, a rule that can only be relaxed if you are taking pictures of babies or toddlers.

All of these mentioned basic photograph tips would work well for your outdoor portrait photographs, thus avoid the above-mentioned poses that would decrease the quality of your pictures considerably.

For more tips on how to take professional photographs, visit http://CanonCompactCameras.com

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

A Simple Portrait Photography Course

What is Portrait Photography?

Portrait photography captures the essence and the personality of the person in a photograph. For a photographer, he must use his skills in his arsenal to bring out the real character behind an individual. He must show the power of CEOs, show the warmth of the smile of the children, or make a couples wedding day shine through a portrait. It is the job of the photographer to bring out the beauty in the subject rather than the environment.

How to Get Started in Portrait Photography?

There are many ways to get started in portrait photography without using an expensive equipment. I would recommend you to get a digital camera and start shooting photos of people. With practice, you will get better on how to capture the mood of a person. You don't have to kill your model in boredom while placing him in couch sitting idly.

One of the best ways to capture people is through wacky moments. This prevents your model from being awkward and unnatural. If you make them more comfortable about themselves, you are half way in your journey to create portraits in photos! Also, since you captured it in digital camera, you can edit the pictures through your computer to improve your image editing techniques.

How to Improve the Quality of Your Portrait Photography?

Sometimes, when you look at a poor photographic portrait, you will see that shadows in the face kills the quality. The one thing that you can improve about is the proper portrait lighting of your studio when taking pictures. Remember, if you go outdoors to shoot on a sunny day, chances are, shadows will cause unnecessary clutter on your images. To counter act these, use a soft lighting in your cameras. If you follow this tip, you will see immediate improvements in your skills as a professional photographer.

Remember, to truly improve in portrait photography, I suggest you find a course specifically targeting this field. Education can help you achieve award winning photos and maybe someday, you might even become a pro!

Gavino is a freelance writer that has 2 years of experience in his arsenal. His latest article, Portrait Photography Courses, reviewed 2 courses that can help students improve their photographic skills. If you want to find other reviews of photography courses and schools, you may want to subscribe to his latest website Pixel Course and make informed decisions on your photography career!

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Different Types of Portrait Photography - Tips & Suggestions

The term portrait may refer to Portrait Painting and Portrait Photography both - here, the facial expression of the subject is captured by the painter or the photographer. People interested in a career in portrait photography should know the basics of this subject and maintain these guidelines while taking pictures of people.

Portrait photography has many branches; let's learn about them first.

Different types of Portrait Photography:

Portrait photography is further classified under four main sections:


Close-ups

Facial Shots
Upper Body Shots
Environmental Portrait

Professional photographers always try to capture the true self of a person through photography. However, with a camera focusing on the face, people become nervous and make faces that do no represent their real personality or the mood. And the photograph looks artificial.

An expert photographer would follow his own tricks to make the person feel comfortable and relaxed so that the right facial expression is captured. As a photographer you have to make the subject feel easy and not worried about the camera. While taking pictures of professional models, you don't need to worry at all as they are quite trained on how to face the camera. But general people become very much camera-conscious during photo shoot. Hence, to capture natural photographs, you have to take few snaps without making them aware. You may go through portrait photography tips to know more about such tricks.

Some easy and widely practiced tricks are stated below:

Ask your subject to get ready for a photograph; let them prepare for the snap; and then take a

picture. Now as the shutter moves up and down and your subject starts to relax, take few more

snaps very fast. This would help you capture their true persona.

Some professionals tell funny jokes while taking pictures to ease up the situation; some ask the subjects to engage in some easy and fun activities and take the snaps when the person is unaware of the camera.

The activities may depend on the age of the subject. For example, if you are taking portrait of a child, ask him or her to look at a picture and count number of circles in it. OR ask them to play with toy, solve a puzzle or copy an easy illustration.

Tackling children is quite easy than adults. A matured person is very much aware of the situation and knows that you are trying to distract his mind from the camera. Hence, you may need to choose some other tricks.

Some professional portrait photographers prefer to chat with their subject for hours before taking them to the shooting floor. You can engage someone to talk with the subject when you prepare your camera, lens and lights. You can also ask them to continue talking when you take pictures.

You can also think of some tricks of your own OR consult professional portrait photographers for more effective ideas. Many such methods, tips and tricks of portrait photography are available online. You can go through online photography tutorials or attend workshops to know more about portrait photography.

Author's Bio:
Vernon Southward, a freelance photographer, self published author and photograper by passion. For more information on photography, portrait photography tips , macro photography, he recommends you to visit: Beyondmegapixels.

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.