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There’s a lot to think about on a portrait shoot. From locations to lighting, posing and directing your subject, it can easily become daunting, especially for anyone new to portraiture. It’s very easy to panic and completely forget basic photography rules like composition.
However, taking a little time to practice and plan ahead can make all the difference. In this video, portrait and fashion photographer Julia Trotti gives you her best tips for making your portrait shoots flow effortlessly.
Composition is one of the things that many photographers struggle with. The technical side of photography is pretty straightforward, and while there are “rules” to composition, it’s a largely subjective and artistic aspect. This makes it more difficult. We don’t always see the best composition right away. Sometimes, we ignore elements of the image that we don’t notice until we get back home and see them on our computer screens.
But how can you fix it? In this video, photographer Saurav Sinha takes a look at six common composition mistakes you could be making and how you can fix them.
It’s funny. These days, most people associate an image that’s cropped as a square as something that’s being done as a compromise for the benefit of social media – particularly Instagram. For the longest time, a square was the best format to use on Instagram because it’s all it would display, and it still is the most common crop today. On other social media, square became popular because it has the same dimensions whether the viewer holds their phone vertically or horizontally.
But square images have been around since long before Instagram or social media. In fact, they were around long before the Internet existed at all. And it has a very different psychological effect on the viewer than a vertical or horizontal orientation image. In this video, Mark Denney walks us through the square crop, how and why to use it and how you might want to use it to get better compositions.
Adobe Photoshop introduced the Subject Select feature in a 2018 update, but it’s more useful to us as photographers than we may have first thought. The ability to select a subject on command is a great feature that can help us with our creative vision, too.
The subject of a photograph is the most important feature. The subject guides our composition, exposure, lighting, and all other creative decisions. Our subject is the main focus of our scene, both figuratively and literally. It should be the sharpest point across the scene as well as being the obvious main feature our viewers are compelled to look at. We can use a simple trick in Adobe Photoshop to check whether our image has a subject. Here’s what to do:
It’s not unusual in landscape photography to put a lot of effort into the process of taking photographs, only to come home later and be disappointed when you download your images. You’ve probably researched your location in advance, got up before dawn, and hiked in the dark. You’ve reached your destination and now you’re just waiting for that golden light to hit your subject.
Doing all of these things will of course increase your chances of creating compelling images. However, there is still no guarantee. In this video, landscape photographer Mark Denney walks us through his thought process during an early morning landscape shoot and shares his best tip to improve your luck.
Composition is always such a hotly debated topic. There are so many “rules” (and sometimes a few that conflict with each other), but unless you want to start getting yourself obsessively wrapped up in those debates, you have to think of them more as guidelines. But they’re guidelines that we often see followed to great effect in many movies, TV shows, and photographs. Do you know why? Well, it’s because they often work.
In this video, Kellan Reck walks us through seven of what he considers to be the most important rules, tips and tricks to get a good cinematic looking shot. And while the video is geared towards filmmaking, much of what is said can be applied to photography, too.
We all make mistakes in photography, especially when we’re new to it and still learning. The sad thing is, no matter how long you choose to pursue photography and no matter how good you get, you’ll keep making mistakes. The important thing is that we are able to recognise them, acknowledge them and learn from them in order to keep improving.
That’s the focus of this video from Nigel Danson, who goes over seven compositional mistakes he often sees from beginners. And he’s not judging, because he admits he’s made these mistakes himself and provides examples of where he’s done it. But he also shows how he identified the problem and how he went about solving things.
The best kind of advice is usually the simplest, like “when spending time with others put your phone away” and “soggy cereal is never as good as last night’s takeaway curry so have the curry for breakfast.” In this latest video, Mark Denney tells us the “best composition advice he’s ever heard” and follows up by saying that it’s so simple that he wished he’d known this earlier.
Do you enjoy sticking to rules or are you a bit of a rebel? Some rules are there to be broken and in my opinion, especially those rules in photography that we all know and love. But there’s the old adage “first learn the rules before breaking them” to take into account. This is what Daniel Inskeep of Mango Street explains in his latest video.
Hashtag #accidentalrenaissance has over 17,000 posts on Instagram. And even though it’s often a joke or a meme, I believe all of us have also seen some pretty amazing photos that look like Renaissance paintings. But what is it that makes them remind us of the works of master painters? Chroma says that composition and light are the keys. In this video, they break them down so you can take “accidental Renaissance” photos – on purpose.
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.
John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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