Portrait Photography How To

Good portraits are taken, great portraits are made. That's the message behind Gavin Hoey's easy and helpful tutorial below where he shares five tips he says will instantly improve your portrait photos.

There are several approaches to photographing couples. As with all portraiture, you can pose the two people for a more-formal look. Or you can shoot a more-candid portrayal that will convey the strong relationship between them. For example, just watch through your viewfinder and click the shutter when you see a special look or gesture that passes between them. Whichever approach...

When taking portraits of a pet, most of the time the goal is make the animal look as adorable as possible. This is either to get your friends go "Aww!" on social media if the pet is yours, or to please a client who is paying you to photograph their beloved cat, dog, or goldfish.

You don't, necessarily, need a big clunky camera with a big clunky interchangeable lens to shoot great photos. In fact, you really can get fabulous photos from a simple "point-and-shoot" camera with a small imaging sensor about the size of your fingernail. You just need a few helpful tips.

Sometimes working with natural light is the best way to create a stunning portrait. I love lighting, don’t get me wrong and I use artificial light almost always. However, sometimes, the opportunity is right to allow natural light to be the only source.

Sooner or later you'll be asked to photograph a female friend or significant other, even if portraiture isn’t your thing. In fact, you may even decide to model for yourself.

We all tend to get a bit stale on occasion, shooting the same types of images over and over again, instead of stepping outside our comfort zone to try something new. And that tends to limit our vision and stunt our growth as photographers.