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!

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Portrait Photography Tips - How to Improve Your Portrait Photography Technique

When you look at portrait photography, you will see that it is different from other branch of digital photography. You can see that your subjects are human beings who speak their own words, have personal feelings and want to look good in the pictures. Surely you won't hear the mountain complain when you didn't capture the best side of it. Right?

One of the important portrait photography tips is that you will want to look at the details around your subject before you snap the picture. Sometimes it only takes a small thing to ruin the perfect picture. It can be an old scar, a folded skirt, or simply a pole in the background. Imagine your client complain about the slipped bra strap in the picture. You will have a lot of trouble explaining to your client why you didn't notice that.

Now, portrait photography doesn't always mean that you only take close up face shot of your subject. You are not using that picture to apply for driving license. The essence of this portrait photography technique is to capture the natural side of your subject. Lets say your niece is blowing off the birthday candle. Don't you think it is only logic to include the candles that you can show what your niece is doing? Your niece will look silly instead of natural with only her head in the picture.

Then, for those who are using compact digital camera, you can look into the setting of your camera and select the portrait mode. This will then slow down the shutter speed and allow more light to go into the camera. This will then create a shallow depth of field (how shallow it can go depends on your camera) hence enhancing the details of your subject. You will see the difference when you compare portrait photography taken with portrait mode and other mode.

The last thing you can do to improve your portrait photography technique is to talk to your subjects. Professional photographers don't just take good pictures. They also want to know what their subjects want and how they as professional photographers can enhance that. After all it is their pictures you are taking and they have all the rights to look good in the pictures.

Do you enjoy taking photos? Do you want more digital photography tips and techniques? Just look at

=> http://www.Learn-DigitalPhotography.blogspot.com

Michael Wong is happy to share his knowledge about digital photography with you and hope you enjoy them.