You want to make a beautiful portrait photo of your partner, best friend or grandmother. But you have no idea how to best handle this. With the right exposure, composition and photo color, you can go a long way. Below you will find 5 tips for taking the best portrait photo.
Tip 1: use the portrait mode
Does your camera have a special portrait orientation? Use this mode when taking the portrait photo. The portrait position can often be recognized by the icon with the puppet. In this position, the camera ensures that the focus is automatically placed on the face. You also create a vague background and a sharp foreground with it. This removes your subject from the background. This helps you to draw the attention in the photo to the model.
Tip 2: provide soft light
If you decide to take the photo outside, do not place your model in full sun. It is not nice to look at this. In addition, the face of your model becomes pale. Photographer preferred it at the end of the day. This often produces very nice pictures. Do you photograph indoors? Then provide sufficient natural light. A flash makes faces very flat. Moreover, a flash causes unwanted reflections on the skin.
Tip 3: create an interesting composition
The composition determines a large part of the success of your portrait photo. A photo with your subject exactly in the center quickly becomes boring. Try the third-party rule. Divide the image with 2 lines into 6 equal planes. Place the person’s eyes at 1 of the 4 points where the lines intersect. This composition is found attractive in one way or another by our eye.
Tip 4: Have the model look in the right direction
For portrait photos, besides composition, the viewing direction of your model also plays a major role. Your eye automatically follows the viewing direction of the model in a photo. Because we read text from left to right, we also want to view a photo in this direction. Therefore, place the person in the left corner of the image and let the person look to the right. We feel that the person also looks ahead. This gives the photo something positive.
Tip 5: shoot in black and white
Black and white photography lends itself particularly well to portrait photos. You create more atmosphere with it in an easy way. This is partly due to the fact that a black-and-white photo enhances the dark-light contrast. As a result, the skin of your model often lights up a little, which draws attention to the face. In addition, a face in a black and white image becomes much more expressive. This way the photo becomes more fun to look at.
