Tips on How to Shoot Portraits and Faces

A lot of people keep asking me about useful tips and advice on how to shoot portraits and faces. Instead of "read a book about it", here's my 2 cents about the issue.

Don't approach the issue with a sullen do-or-die attitude. Your "portrait" will sense this very quickly and adopt the same attitude, which shows in the face immediately.

It's very important to take your time and be sensitive towards your opposite. You need to watch out for the exact moment when the person in front of you shows its soul and personality in a moment's time. You need to be prepared and trigger intuitively. There are many excellent and famous photographers who spend days with their costumers and only produced on or two pictures. But, you can also wait too long and the moment passes...

You need to concentrate on few but essential elements. A common mistake is taking pictures with too much details and stuff around the portrait-to-be, thus leading the eye of the beholder astray and away from the object and the message you want to deliver. Put your attention to the eyes of your opposite, they are the most important factor.

Pay attention to colours and contrasts. So called High-Key pictures play up to the person being photographed by emphasizing the dark parts like eyes and mouth and lighten up the rest of the face. This way wrinkles seem to vanish like magic... You might want to try the opposite as in Low-Key, but you need to watch out here, the result might be way to dark.

Let's talk about portraits for special occasions like a job application. There are totally different rules here. Your picture in an application folder you send out is the very first impression your future employer gets to see. Keep in mind that a good picture within your application might be the key to either yes or no. Never use pictures from your last vacations and dress accordingly!

Patty Delto is a hobby photographer with a few years experience in the field. If you are an enthusiast about taking pictures too, and also have fun doing so, you might want to find out how to make some nice income with your digital camera. Visit her site at http://cashforyourpix.com to find out how!