What is portrait photography and what simple techniques can you use to make beautiful portraits?

Have you recently joined the ranks of the professional photography industry? Have you got a wedding, family portrait or fashion shoot coming up?

Perhaps you're an enthusiast photographer striving to make better portraits of your family and friends.

You may have gone down the fill flash road and found it to be too expensive and/or too difficult to implement.

Don't worry, you’ll find the solution you need below.

Portrait Meaning

There are lots of ways to photograph people. Here’s just a few:

• Formal portrait

• Environmental portrait

• Candid people photo

• Action photo

Before we go any further it might be worthwhile exploring the definition of a portrait.

A portrait is a pictorial representation of a person that usually shows their face. Most often photographers create head and shoulder portraits that provide a detailed description of the person depicted.

With that simple definition it’s easier to understand what’s meant by a portrait photograph.

Famous Portrait Artists

The history of western art is full of great portraits. Famous portrait artists including the following:

• Pablo Picasso

• Rembrandt

• Vincent van Gogh

• Leonardo da Vinci

• Michelangelo

• Raphael

• Titian

• Jan van Eyck

• Frida Kahlo

• John Singer Sargent

• Chuck Close

In the world of photography many great portrait artists have emerged. Some of the most important photographers in this list include the following:

• Julia Margaret Cameron

• Edward S. Curtis

• August Sander

• Walker Evans

• Dorothea Lange

• Edward Weston

• Arnold Newman

• Yousuf Karsh

• Cecil Beaton

• Richard Avedon

• Helmet Newton

• Annie Leibovitz

• Diane Arbus

• Mary Ellen Mark

• Sally Mann

• Cindy Sherman

• Joe McNally

• Steve McCurry

I highly recommend that you spend some time checking out the above links as they’ll help to provide an historical background to the development of portrait photography over the years.

Beautiful Portraits

The history of photography is indeed rich.

In addition to spectacular landscape and architectural photography we’ve come to better understand the Human Condition through amazing sports photos and through great photojournalism and documentary photography.

Given all the amazing photos I’ve studied over the years it’s hard to go past the work of great documentary and fine art portrait photographers.

For me photography is a way by which I can sense the sublime beauty in all things. Perhaps, more than any other area of photography, it’s in beautiful portraits where I feel the strongest connection.

Portrait Orientation

Cameras are normally held along a horizontal axis. These days that’s referred to as a landscape orientation which is commonly used when making landscape, architectural and group photos.

Rotating your camera, either to the left or right, by 90 degrees will result in what’s called a portrait orientation.

While not compulsory a portrait orientation is often ideal when photographing an individual or couple when it’s deemed desirable to frame out much of the surrounding environment.

That’s because a portrait orientation does help to concentrate viewer attention on the subject depicted.

As you can see in the above photo I chose a portrait orientation to keep attention on the subject, particularly their eyes.

What’s The Best Portrait Lighting?

Lighting is key to making great portrait photos.

When considering the best portrait lighting one needs to be aware of the environment in which you’re working as much as the story you want to tell or the look or mood you wish to explore.

Studio lighting is an art in itself.

While it may not be advisable to think in terms of the best portrait lighting it is important to identify and achieve the most desirable lighting for the subject and outcome required.

The popularity of certain lighting styles has changed dramatically over the years. This is evident in motion picture films as much as it is in still photography.

The most appropriate lighting style can also be dependent upon the age and gender of the subject depicted and the mood you and/or the person being photographed is wanting to achieve.

Some basic considerations for anyone thinking about setting up their own portrait studio space include the following:

• An indoor space appropriate to the number of people (e.g., individuals, couples, groups) you’ll most likely be photographing

• Studio lighting equipment and accessories designed for portrait photography

• The most appropriate lenses for head and shoulder and full length images

Successful studio photographers, in addition to marketing and business skills, need to blend an appreciation for light with a solid technical understanding of how to control contrast and shape light to achieve the desired result.

Importantly they need to do so while staying in control of the photography session.

To achieve a pleasing likeness of the subject it’s essential that the majority of your attention is placed upon the person you’re photographing and not the technical aspects of camera, lens and lighting.

A great studio based photographer balances technique with excellent communication skills.

At the end of the day a pleasing likenesses, a great expression and a positive experience is what will determine the success of your photos.

This level of expertise and confidence is not easily acquired and can only be achieved with a lot of practice.

Be Careful About Split Lighting

While a variety of lighting styles (e.g., split lighting) are used in advertising photography most commercial wedding and portrait photographers pay attention to illuminating most of the face and using shadows to add shape and definition.

My favourite lighting style for portraits is referred to as Rembrandt Lighting as it’s based around the style of lighting the artist used for many of his famous portraits and self portraits.

Be careful about split lighting. While it can produce a dramatic effect it’s often considered to be too aggressive for most wedding and portrait photography.

If you do decide to make use of split lighting it’s probably worthwhile doing so sparingly.

That’s because split lighting hides the eye on the shadow side of the face and can provide the impression that the nose is longer than it actually is.

As most people probably think their nose is too long you’d only apply split lighting to a portrait in the case of certain kinds of character portraits or commercial photography.

But if the subject depicted or their mother has commissioned the portrait I’d be choosing a more flattering lighting style. Just another reason to consider Rembrandt lighting or a similar lighting style.

Outdoor Portrait Photography

Most folks will be involved in outdoor portrait photography, as either a subject or as the photographer, at some stage in their lives.

It’s great being out and about exploring the world on a beautiful, sunny day. It’s the type of day when most folks feel good and, if they have the time, will want to make photos.

(And that's were it suddenly began to go wrong, your honor).

The problem is that bright light, particularly around the middle of the day, is the worse time to make photos.

Just think about the sun for a moment. We all know that it’s huge. However, it’s also a very, very long way away and the size of the sun, relative to your subject’s face, appears to vary throughout the day.

Just think about how large the sun appears to be around sunrise and sunset. The closer it gets to the horizon the larger it appears in the sky.

Actually it’s an optical illusion similar to how we perceive the moon when it appears low to the horizon compared to how it looks as it rises higher into the sky.

Nonetheless, white light from the sun scatters air molecules and airborne particles as it passes through earth’s atmosphere.

This scattering of light results in two key phenomenas evident as warmer colored light and light of a softer (i.e., less harsh) quality.

The key learning is that if you want to make beautiful, flattering portrait photos it’s essential to avoid bright, midday sun. That’s because it produces extremely unflattering results.

What you want is softer light which is produced by a larger light source. That’s why photographing early or late in the day, when the sun is closer to the horizon, is ideal for beautiful outdoor portrait photography.

Alternatively try photographing under open shade or when a cloud obscures the sun. In both cases a larger and softer light results compared to photographing under bright, midday sun.

Perhaps in the past you’ve been lulled into a false sense of security by the subject of your photos, themselves swept up in the positive vibes associated with a bright sunny day.

Likely the results were pretty average, to say the least.

But you’re the photographer and you’re supposed to know what to do to produce beautiful photos.

That means taking control and directing the subject in such a way that places them into the kind of lighting that produces optimal results.

The Problem

You just can't make great portraits under bright outdoor light without converting the light you’re photographing under back towards something more like what you’d expect on a winter's day.

I’m not talking about the ambient temperature but about the quality of the light under which you’re making your photos.

Sadly, you can’t control the weather you find yourself making photos under. Likewise you can’t always determine the time of year or the time of day at which you find yourself out and about making photos.

However, you can usually control where you and your subject stands, in relation to the sun, during the photo session.

This is the key to making beautiful portrait photos outdoors on a bright, sunny day.

If you don't make the changes you need to make you'll find your subject will be adversely affected in one or more of the following ways:

• Eyes closed due to the intense brightness of the sun

• Dark shadows appearing under the eyes as a consequence of bright overhead sunlight

• Bright, shinny areas appearing on subject’s forehead, cheeks and nose

Will Back Lighting Help?

Placing your subject with their back to the sun will allow them to open their eyes, but it won't be much good because, without the use of fill flash or a reflector, they'll photograph as a silhouette.

A silhouette is fine if you’re wanting to make an iconic image that’s more about an activity or certain states of being. For example a javelin thrower can look great in silhouette.

Likewise a silhouette of a pregnant woman allows the photographer to explore notions of motherhood, birth and nature without necessarily intruding on the identity or privacy of the woman photographed.

However, if you’re wanting to illustrate the identity of the person in question then you need to make sure you light them adequately.

That’s because light reveals while shadows conceal.

How to Make Beautiful Portraits

The trick when aiming to make beautiful portraits is to scatter the light so as to, effectively, make the light source larger and more diffuse.

By doing so you'll produce a softer, more flattering quality of light that will illuminate the subject more evenly.

As a result you’ll reduce the subject’s need to squint and minimize the appearance of dark shadows and burned out highlight areas on their face.

Your subject will now be able to open their eyes and engage with the camera and, by extension, the viewer.

portraits Made Under Open Shade

The easiest way to control the light is to move the subject into the shade. And I don't mean deep into the Amazon jungle.

I mean into open shade which you'll find by moving the subject a few steps back from the demarcation between a sunlit and shaded area on grass, pathways or under verandas.

The amazing thing about this is that, as you're just out of direct sunlight, enough light gets in so that your subject will appear to be illuminated by a lovely, soft light. Their skin will begin to glow.

I've been using this very technique for decades and it underpins the vast majority of my outdoor portrait photography.

Of course there are always a few caveats including the following:

• To place extra emphasis on your subject, and help prevent underexposure, make sure that the background (and I mean all of the background) of the photo is darker than your subject's face.

• As a result the background may not feature as prominently in your new composition.

White Balance In Camera

To achieve the desired color try setting white balance in camera to Cloudy so as to cancel out the bluish colored light, reflecting from the blue sky above, commonly found in shadows.

This works for around 90% of the outdoor photos I make.

Very occasionally I'II use the Sunny (also called Daylight or Direct Daylight on some cameras) white balance setting if the resulting white balance is too warm.

Alternatively I’II choose the Shade white balance setting if the color of the light and, as a consequence, the photo appears too blue.

But, again, around 90% of the time Cloudy is the white balance setting I employ when photographing outdoors. 

The above photo was made on a very bright sunny day on the back steps of the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia.

Because our lovely young model, Jessica, has been moved out of direct sunlight she can open her eyes. A more engaging portrait ensues, without the creation of wrinkles caused by squinting.

As I'm well used to identifying color casts it was clear to me that, on that particular day, the light in the shade was bluish in color.

A cloudy white balance saved the day. Setting my camera’s white balance to shade would have added extra warmth to the image.

I’d say it’s a subjective decision as to whether or not that would have produced a better result.

In this case I wanted to balance the yellow and blue colors present within the scene.

Image Processing Portrait Photos

Most digital cameras, from my experience, render Caucasian skin too pink. I’ve also discerned that most cameras reproduce all skin types with too much orange for my liking.

I believe the orange color I’m referring to exists just below the skin’s epidermis and most digital cameras seem enhance it.

Frankly I don’t think that’s desirable and, for a lot of folks, the way their skin renders in photos is simply not flattering.

I use a variety of simply techniques in Adobe Lightroom to reduce these problems and, thereby, produce more natural looking skin tone.

There are also some options folks photographing in JPEG mode, who don’t normally post process their photos on a computer, can use in camera that will help in this regard.

Portrait Photographers Call to Action

If you're interested in learning how to master outdoor portrait photography you can book me for a private photography class.

It can be a totally hands-on practical session, supported by appropriate notes, if that suits you best.

Some folks choose to follow up with a private Lightroom session to improve their photography even further.

Any questions, please feel free to Contact Me directly.

Glenn Guy, Travel Photography Guru