If I need to give some tips for other photographers or people who have no idea about how I shoot studio portraits, this is the way that I do.
1. Planning
1st tip in studio portraits is planning. I think a lot of beginners don't pay attention to this, or maybe some photographers don't need it. But Planning your shoot is critical.
What do you want to shoot? What kind of look/style do you want?
What kind of pictures do your clients want?
How do you want to hit the light?
If your client is ready for the shoot, and you suddenly start thinking how you want to hit the light or how you want them to pose, it's too late. In hat case, your client can tell you're not sure what you are doing, and I can tell that shoot will never goes well, and client will not call you again.
So 1st thing that I always always do is communicate with the person you shoot before the actual shooting day.
How? and What do I talk?
Here is the thing that I do before the shoot.
1. send contact through social media or email.
2. ask your model/client what picture are they looking for, and tell them what picture I am looking for or I can offer.
-send them inspiration pictures and ask them send me some example pictures that they are looking for too. (use Instagram, Pinterest is helpful)
By planning your shoot, you can control your shoot, and everything goes smoothly.
2. Guess how you need to hit the light.
This might not be easy topic for beginners and people who have no idea about photography, but this is also what I do before the shooting day.
After you and your model/client decide what kind of pictures you will try, now it's a time to think about how you need to hit the light, and how you want to compose them.
I think Lighting is the most important elements in photography, so DO NOT try to skip this part.
But how do I analyze lighting of pictures?
Here is the thing that I recommend.
1. See carefully
This is the exercise which you can always do in every situations.
Pick up a magazines nearby your place, or find big billboard which has people on it, and see where the light coming from. Which part gets brighter? which part get darker? And look the light inside of their eyes, it tells you where is the light.
It's an everyday practice, and experience, but after few months training, you will be able to guess where you need to put light.
3. Shooting
After you set the light, and model is ready, so it's a time to make pictures! The most exciting part!!!
I'm not going to talk about how to use camera correctly in this blog, but I want to share with you about what I most care about in studio Portraits.
Portrait, I believe it's all about eyes. And secondly expression.
Even when you take the simple headshot, be careful about eyes.
Eyes tells everything, if the eyes are happy, picture has positive energy, if the eyes look bored, models look like negative person or very uncomfortable with your shoot.
Here is the Youtube Video, which I recommend to watch for understanding how important of eyes energies are. The speaker is Peter Hurley who is the most famous headshot photographer in the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff7nltdBCHs
But How me and models/clients get the eyes which we both like.
Do I ask them to do like Peter Hurley's video?
Sometimes Yes, but more importantly, first you need to make them comfortable enough.
Otherwise, they will never liked their photos and eyes will keep look like very wide open, and expression will be surprising face.
The things that I do is, first take your camera down, and spend time for getting know your subject.
It's not about photography, it's people skill, but this is essential for photographer.
This is hugely important to build connection and getting trust from them.
I try not to put myself in hunting mode, as a photographer I also need to be calm down and naturally enjoy time with them.
After spending a little bit of time for taking, your subject will look like more relax.
From my experience, if your models start saying "I want to do this!" "Can I try this?" or "How about this?" in positive way with smile, that shoot will goes well and we both are happy about final images.
Suggesting from them in very exciting way means they also start enjoy making pictures together, they are comfortable enough, and photographer gets the trust from them.
So these are the my 3 tip for how to shoot studio Portraits.
I hope this is helpful for your photography.
Thank you so much for reading.
and for more exciting post?
Check this blog every Wednesday, I will keep posting it.
1. Planning
1st tip in studio portraits is planning. I think a lot of beginners don't pay attention to this, or maybe some photographers don't need it. But Planning your shoot is critical.
What do you want to shoot? What kind of look/style do you want?
What kind of pictures do your clients want?
How do you want to hit the light?
If your client is ready for the shoot, and you suddenly start thinking how you want to hit the light or how you want them to pose, it's too late. In hat case, your client can tell you're not sure what you are doing, and I can tell that shoot will never goes well, and client will not call you again.
So 1st thing that I always always do is communicate with the person you shoot before the actual shooting day.
How? and What do I talk?
Here is the thing that I do before the shoot.
1. send contact through social media or email.
2. ask your model/client what picture are they looking for, and tell them what picture I am looking for or I can offer.
-send them inspiration pictures and ask them send me some example pictures that they are looking for too. (use Instagram, Pinterest is helpful)
By planning your shoot, you can control your shoot, and everything goes smoothly.
2. Guess how you need to hit the light.
This might not be easy topic for beginners and people who have no idea about photography, but this is also what I do before the shooting day.
After you and your model/client decide what kind of pictures you will try, now it's a time to think about how you need to hit the light, and how you want to compose them.
I think Lighting is the most important elements in photography, so DO NOT try to skip this part.
But how do I analyze lighting of pictures?
Here is the thing that I recommend.
1. See carefully
This is the exercise which you can always do in every situations.
Pick up a magazines nearby your place, or find big billboard which has people on it, and see where the light coming from. Which part gets brighter? which part get darker? And look the light inside of their eyes, it tells you where is the light.
It's an everyday practice, and experience, but after few months training, you will be able to guess where you need to put light.
3. Shooting
After you set the light, and model is ready, so it's a time to make pictures! The most exciting part!!!
I'm not going to talk about how to use camera correctly in this blog, but I want to share with you about what I most care about in studio Portraits.
Portrait, I believe it's all about eyes. And secondly expression.
Even when you take the simple headshot, be careful about eyes.
Eyes tells everything, if the eyes are happy, picture has positive energy, if the eyes look bored, models look like negative person or very uncomfortable with your shoot.
Here is the Youtube Video, which I recommend to watch for understanding how important of eyes energies are. The speaker is Peter Hurley who is the most famous headshot photographer in the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff7nltdBCHs
But How me and models/clients get the eyes which we both like.
Do I ask them to do like Peter Hurley's video?
Sometimes Yes, but more importantly, first you need to make them comfortable enough.
Otherwise, they will never liked their photos and eyes will keep look like very wide open, and expression will be surprising face.
The things that I do is, first take your camera down, and spend time for getting know your subject.
It's not about photography, it's people skill, but this is essential for photographer.
This is hugely important to build connection and getting trust from them.
I try not to put myself in hunting mode, as a photographer I also need to be calm down and naturally enjoy time with them.
After spending a little bit of time for taking, your subject will look like more relax.
From my experience, if your models start saying "I want to do this!" "Can I try this?" or "How about this?" in positive way with smile, that shoot will goes well and we both are happy about final images.
Suggesting from them in very exciting way means they also start enjoy making pictures together, they are comfortable enough, and photographer gets the trust from them.
So these are the my 3 tip for how to shoot studio Portraits.
I hope this is helpful for your photography.
Thank you so much for reading.
and for more exciting post?
Check this blog every Wednesday, I will keep posting it.
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