Portrait Photography How To

Budding portrait photographers are constantly in search of new ways to shoot creative images without a heavy investment in expensive studio equipment. This quick tutorial is designed to help you do that with basic lighting gear and a few simple tricks.

Posing a model properly can make or break portrait photos, especially when using a single flash to light the images. In the video below, you’ll learn eight simple poses for achieving attractive results.

Michigan-based photographer Robert Hall came up with this interesting project while attending last week’s WPPI Expo in Las Vegas: He challenged two fellow photographers to an off-camera flash shootout, in which the three of them would devote no more than a minute to taking portraits of total strangers on the street.

One way to increase the quality of photos taken in a home studio is to use some form of supplemental light to brighten the scene, increase depth of field, and avoid noise and other artifacts that tend to occur when shooting in low light with wide apertures and high ISO settings.

We’ve featured brief photo retouching tutorials in the past, each explaining one aspect of using Photoshop to adjust the colors of a photograph. In the powerful video below, Unmesh Dinda puts it all together in one place, with a comprehensive guide to color enhancement.

If you shy away from shooting people pictures because you think low light portraiture requires a boatload of expensive lighting gear, think again. The video below corrects that common misconception, by demonstrating how to achieve stunning results using simple and affordable off-camera flash.

Unless you’re a professional portrait photographer with a well-equipped studio, the best way to make pleasing people pictures is to keep things simple and either shoot outdoors under good light, or use a basic indoor setup at home. In this tutorial, you’ll see how to do the latter with a technique that delivers dramatic results.