Videos

Pye Jirsa photographs strangers in Pasadena and Santa Monica, sharing compositional fallbacks for portraits made in two minutes: staircases as posing objects and leading lines, the strip of sky between buildings acting as a giant strip box, and one friend framing another's face at f/1.4 on a 50mm.

Brian Lloyd Duckett, who gets a yes from 80 to 90 percent of strangers, gives ten tips for street portraiture: set a project style, start with people who made an effort, approach smiling from the front, move subjects into light or add a reflector, direct confidently, take time, carry cards.

Andrew Boey, with Yiky in Kuala Lumpur, embraces backlight, overriding a meter warning of overexposure, and uses Sun Surveyor app to time lower sun. Other tricks: elevate the subject for high backgrounds, fill with TTL flash at f/4, count to three before the smile, and use murals and street signs.

Andrew Boey explains outdoor fashion catalogue shoots: shoot at f/2.8 to f/4 for sharp faces and clothes, cover waist, knee and full-length crops plus front, back, side and detail views, budget fifteen minutes per garment, carry two cameras, one for flash at f/11, 1/200s, squat low, use small umbrellas.

Jana Williams photographs blogger Devon Rachel for an outfit post, first asking what she loves about the look, then covering the full body and every detail: the Chanel emblem, fur sleeves, belt, ring and boots, shot at the subject's level. The aim is giving readers enough to recreate the outfit.

Karl Taylor introduces a series on environmental portraits, people photographed at work, popular with businesses. Shot in Switzerland with no reconnaissance, subjects include an electronics worker, farrier, cake designer, carpenter and whisky sommelier, each lit with portable flash. He advises researching the company website, understanding the job and checking clothing.

Andrew Boey's ten natural light tricks: open with establishing shots, shoot with a 50mm, use handrails as foreground lead-ins, have subjects look away, work the cube of eight angles, add foreground blur, spot meter on the forehead, crop where the body narrows, extend and cross legs, and exploit background lights.

J.M. Wilyat offers four tips for portraits in direct sunlight: use a neutral density filter, lens sunglasses, to shoot at f/1.4 without blowing highlights; run ISO 800 to 1200 to maximise dynamic range; keep shutter speed at 1/500s or faster; and shoot into the sun for evenly lit faces.

Jessica Kobeissi photographs Sophia in natural light with a Canon 5D Mark IV and 24-70mm, showing how angling the shoulders and tilting the head transforms a straight-on stance. She covers seated poses that settle the hands, waist-up shots from above, triangles from bent elbows, and over, under and correct exposure.

Jacek Sopotnicki shoots natural light portraits of Adriana in Faro, Portugal, with a Sony and 85mm f/1.8. Settings stay simple: aperture priority, f/1.8, plus 0.7 exposure compensation, spot and continuous autofocus on the face. Three scenarios always work: shade, sun as backlight, and shade beside a white wall as reflector.