Videos

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.

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.

Keegan of Keegan's Cams presents twenty-one creative self-portrait concepts as a music-led montage shot in cold, snowy conditions, several Photoshopped but kept believable. The closing advice covers two tools behind every shot: a wireless intervalometer firing the camera from a distance instead of the self-timer, and a light travel tripod.

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.

Alex Kilbee tackles the dread of photographing people by listing ways to ruin a session: arrive with no plan, fuss with gear rather than setting up before the sitter arrives, ignore the person instead of chatting, and be too casual. He argues nerves are useful and elaborate flash kit unnecessary.

Julia Trotti walks through her composition habits on a Sony A7 III and 35mm f/1.4: never crop full-length shots at the ankles, leave negative space above, crop mid-length portraits above the knee, centre faces to limit 35mm distortion, deliberately crop feet from seated shots, and set faces against dark backgrounds.

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.

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.

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.

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.