Portrait Photography Essentials

Jessica Kobeissi shoots a portrait session with Christina at Salon West in Dearborn using nothing but window light and plain walls, on a Canon 5D Mark II with a 50mm f/1.2. The point is that soft natural light and simple backgrounds, her usual choice, need no studio or expensive lighting.

Mark Wallace photographs singer Nikki Nikki two ways with one kit. First a safe setup: Leica M 240, 50mm at f/8, Profoto B2 in a two-foot octa, plus a fan. Then the modelling lamp at f/1.4 and high ISO, a 2100K against 4000K shift turning the background blue, cropped 16:9.

Jessica Kobeissi and fashion photographer Kayleigh June share eight portrait tips: add accessories to lift a dull frame, get to the model's eye level, clear hair from the neck, release tension around the mouth and shoulders, shoot wider to leave cropping options, shoot through objects, and watch for claw-like hands.

Miguel Quiles shares five portrait fixes, including: fill the frame instead of leaving headroom; check catchlights and create them with reflectors or by moving; have subjects look where their nose points so the iris, not the sclera, dominates; find flattering light first, then place the subject, recalling Disney's picture spots.

Lee Morris and Patrick Hall of Fstoppers take on Pye Jirsa at an Old San Juan property, each allowed five minutes and one image anywhere on site. Lee gambles on the rooftop in hard afternoon sun with a single flash while Pye hunts soft light downstairs, before 1,200 votes decide.

Bach Photography offers fourteen portrait tips: fill the frame with what matters, use complementary colours like blue and orange, favour vibrance over saturation, keep horizons straight, place eyes in the upper third, seek direct eye contact, shoot bursts, focus on the eyes, find soft even light and angle the body.

Andrew Boey lets model Alicia list what annoys her about photographers. Mistakes include blurring a location into nothing, kit lenses that cannot open beyond f/4, giving no separation, shooting backlit scenes without fill flash, fiddling with metering while the subject sweats, forgetting napkins and grooming, and trusting the meter blindly.

Karl Taylor draws eight faults from member images critiqued live: distracting backgrounds, ignored details like stray hairs and loose threads, subjects posed square to camera, claw-like hands lacking a staircase shape, black backgrounds swallowing dark clothing without rim light, formula lighting unsuited to the subject, over-bright hands, and missing narrative.

Andrew Boey continues his list of portrait mistakes with Alicia: over-tilting the camera when a level frame can be tilted later; shooting the first spot seen instead of walking the location together; opening with complicated setups; barking instructions without smiling; over-posing; and stumpy fingers, badly posed feet and over-extended legs.

Andrew Boey explains headspace, the gap between a subject's head and the frame edge. The rule: the more of the body a crop includes, the more headspace it should carry, and taking lots of body while leaving no room above the head looks wrong. Good and bad crops are compared.