Introduction
Do you want to shoot a a beautiful portrait that looks natural and spontaneous? Are you trying to avoid a generic staged photo and capture a genuine portrait where the subject feels truly represented? Let's find out how!
The Spontaneous Portrait
How many times have you realized that someone you know looks very good in a photo more for luck than for a real photographic technique? In this article we'll analyze the reasons why one portrait results better than another through four essential elements: the naturalness, the composition, the light, and the emotions it evokes.
On this page we don't want to go into studio portraits, as they involve professional lighting, reflective screens, professional models with perfect makeup, and a huge amount of experience. We'll consider the classic situations that can be found shooting every day: the occasional photographic portrait.
We'll learn what you have to consider if you want to take a decent photo on a day out with friends or relatives, without reflective panels, flash, and a make-up artist.
The Naturalness
In technical terms, naturalness refers to the absence of perceived artificiality. To achieve this, there are a few key points to keep in mind. The first is that the subject should feel completely at ease, with a natural expression that reflects the mood you want to convey.
The second point is that the subjects should always be placed in a setting that aligns with who they are. A friend who spends hours in the workshop will likely feel better represented in a photo wearing work clothes rather than in the one rare moment when he dressed up to be the best man at a wedding.
It has to be said that it could also be the opposite; maybe wearing a nice suit may improve his self-esteem. Some people can be completely at ease even in underwear; other will never be natural in front of a lens. There's not a recipe; every person is different.
There is a very simple way to achieve a guaranteed natural result: the candid portrait. In this type of shot, the photographer becomes invisible, waiting for the right moment to capture the subject, who in the meantime has forgotten about the camera.
This allows you to obtain the highest degree of naturalness, as in the photo below where a Masai Mara ranger was observing rhinos, unaware of being photographed.
One thing that often makes photos look less natural is the distortion caused by wide-angle lenses. When shooting with a smartphone, you should try to keep the subject in the center to minimize distortion. An even better solution, if your phone allows it, is to shoot using the telephoto lens, usually defined with 3x, 4x, or 5x depending on the model.
If you're using a more traditional camera, the ideal focal length for portraits is between 85 mm and 135 mm. We personally love the photos taken with an extremely bright 50 mm at its widest aperture, since it's the only focal length with a reasonable price and acceptable weight, and it can be used inside in small ambients.
In the case of a planned photo session, there's an unwritten rule dating back to the era of film cameras: for a professional portrait, it was common to shoot an entire roll for each single pose, which meant thirty-six photographs.
To recap: try to be invisible; when that's not possible, make the subject feel at ease; avoid using wide-angle lenses; and don't be afraid to take plenty of photos.
The Composition
When composing a photographic portrait, it's important to follow a few simple guidelines, as the main error of rookie photographers is to wrongly cut the body where the frame ends.
The cutting line of a human figure should always fall halfway through a body section. The same concept, but with different words, is to never cut the body where it can bend. It's anyway easier to explain this concept in practice:
- For half-body portraits, keep the crop line around the navel area.
- If you decide to include the legs, try to crop at mid-thigh; never cut the knees in half.
- If you need to crop out the arms, never cut along the wrist or the elbow.
- In full-body photos remember to include the feet, or at least avoid cropping along the ankle.
- Always leave more space in the direction of the subject's gaze: give more room where the gaze is pointing and less on the side the subject isn't looking toward, especially in three-quarter views.
A very common rookie mistake is letting the horizon line pass across the subject's neck, breaking the visual continuity between the body and the head. If you notice it, raise or lower your camera to change the perspective and shift the horizon higher or lower.
A good way to draw the viewer's attention to the subject is to have a blurred background. To achieve this, you can use a very wide aperture, when possible, or shoot with telephoto lenses. Most of the phones can fake the same effect with a filter.
A timeless way to frame a photo is to follow the rule of thirds, where the main point of interest should never be placed at the center of the image but slightly shifted toward one of the thirds of the frame. Since we've written a great page on this topic, we recommend clicking below if you'd like to explore it further:
Keep in mind, however, that rules are made to be broken. Feel free to experiment with unusual crops, close-ups showing only one eye and half a nose, alternative perspectives, artistic motion blur, or tilted compositions. Never forget the classic rules, but don't let those limit your creativity; have fun and experiment.
In summary: Never crop along the joints, don't cut the neck with the horizon, and the rule of thirds is timeless, but never be afraid to experiment.
The light
In portrait photography, light is the element that more than anything else influences the result, but it's also the one we have the least control over. Unless you always carry a couple of wireless flashes and an assistant with a reflector panel, you'll need to learn how to make the best of whatever situation you find yourself in.
If you're shooting in harsh light, with the sun high in the sky, always try to avoid placing your subject with the sun in their eyes. The blinding light will force them to squint, bringing out every wrinkle on their face. Not ideal, especially for women.
A cloud passing in front of the sun, the shadow of a tree, or a canopy makes the light much easier to manage, without creating overly sharp shadows. If you really must shoot under the midday sun, try using a white wall or the roof of a car as a reflector so you can illuminate the shaded area with reflected light. In this case, the trombone player's face is lit by reflection during the Cortina Band Festival.
In the early or late hours of the day, when the sun is low on the horizon, it's best to position it to the side of the subject's face to increase tridimensionality.
At sunset, you can try to place the sun behind the subject. This backlight will create a very striking rim of light, but to avoid having the face too dark, you'll need to use the flash or overexpose the photo. Alternatively, you can lower the exposure and create an evocative silhouette shot.
For indoor photography, there are no alternatives: either you use a flash or a very fast lens, raising the ISO as much as needed. In some situations, low light can actually lead to interesting photos, like this statue at the entrance of a bar.
If you're hired to shoot in a nightclub, forget about ambient light; you'll always need to shoot with a flash. If there's a ceiling, point it upward to soften it, or you may use a flash diffuser. On the other hand, shooting with the soft ambient light of indoor spaces often gives you a very interesting illumination.
With so much low light, the motion blur is not even the biggest problem: even the autofocus will work poorly, and the stroboscopic lights will make it almost impossible to have the right exposure without the help of the flash.
To recap: Avoid harsh shadows; if you can't, do what you can to soften them. Often the most difficult light conditions are the most interesting.
The Emotions
Here is something really difficult to express in portraits: emotions. Some people are very expressive, others a little less. In order to be able to capture an intense emotion, you have to clearly know what you're looking for, take place, observe, and wait for the right moment. Timing is essential.
Remember that humans are excellent at grasping facial expressions, consisting of fifty-seven muscles, and a natural expression is almost impossible to fake if your subject is not a pro actor or a model.
If you really can't get anything out of your subject, you can try a little trick: ask them to look straight ahead, focus on something that makes them sad, but not desperate. Tell them to think about it deeply, and let themselves drift into those depressing thoughts. You should be able to capture something interesting, although melancholic.
If you're asked to take some pictures at some event, put yourself in a corner, observe the environment, and wait for the situation to become interesting. Shooting without being noticed and without the flash will ensure you authentic emotions. Stolen photos are always the most expressive, because they're completely natural.
Unfortunately, there are exceptions. Sometimes a photograph needs to be a bit staged, and the subjects have to be positioned. Group photos are the classic example, where everyone is asked to say chee-ee-eeese!
In this situation, shoot as much as you can and don't let the group scatter right away. There will always be someone with their eyes closed, someone distracted, or someone looking off camera. If you take plenty of shots, you'll be able to pick the least bad one.
To recap: Don't force your subject to smile, best expressions are natural, even better if taken without the subject even notice you.
Final considerations
After examining in detail the previous four chapters, with the in-depth advice, we want to leave you with a few extra tricks to help you take your next portrait photograph:
- Try to keep the camera at the subject's eye level.
- Shooting from above flattens the perspective and compresses the subject, conveying emotional fragility and submission.
- Shooting a subject from below makes them appear more imposing; it can work well for men, but it's generally not recommended for women.
- Make sure there's a catchlight in the eyes, perhaps by using a window.
- If the background isn't very interesting, use the blur to hide it.
- If your subject is nervous, try to distract them with a bit of small talk or a compliment.
- Avoid taking perfectly frontal shots with a straight eye line.
- Rotating the body 45° relative to the camera makes the portrait more elegant.
- When the subject looks straight into the camera, it conveys confidence and connection.
- When the subject looks off-camera, it creates mystery and suggests a story beyond the frame
The last point to clarify is if or not enhance the subject through photo editing. This is a rather controversial topic, as it ranges from removing a small pimple to substantially altering the face of the model.
Unfortunately, the rise of apps that remove wrinkles has made it increasingly easy to transform a person's face to the point of becoming almost unrecognizable. When should you stop? The answer is subjective and depends mostly on personal taste. We do feel the need to recommend moderation, as some edits can easily slip into the borderline ridiculous.
The temptation to add a few touch-ups could be strong and may affect both men and women, but people often forget something very simple: others are used to seeing us, so our appearance is familiar to our close group. Any modification made through retouching will be easily spottable, considier avoid turning yourselves into a funny caricature by piling on too many touch-ups.
Conclusion
We hope you liked this page about how to take better portraits. Before saying goodbye, we would suggest you read all the articles we wrote about photographic technique.
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