With a smartphone or camera to their disposal, everyone can now take some sort of portrait, but like everything in life there is good and bad and what people think is good!!All I seem to see these days is skin that is so soft it makes a new born baby skin look like sand paper and eyes so big that even E.T could find his way home without any help.
I know not everyone has access to photography studios/lights and everything else can, by following just a few simple steps, make your images so much better.
If you are outside and in harsh sun light move to shade this will give you a more even light, taking images outside in full sun will give you harsh shadows casting on the face and a lot of squinting. Shoot into the sun don't have your subject stand with their face facing the sun as you will burn their eyes out and in all your shots their eyes will be closed, use your exposer compensation dial bringing back the highlights on the skin, if you don't your subject will just be black.
Think about your timings, working with the light it is a massive gift if used at the right time, sunrise and sunset will give you the best light. Using the sun at these times will give you a softer look for your portraits, even using the sun as a back light can give a nice rim light behind your subject. There is a brilliant app I use that shows me where the sun will rise and set, I use this on many shoots even at weddings for couple photos.
You can even introduce a speedlight [Flashlight] and a soft box to bring back more details back when using the sun as a rim light.
When using speedlight/strobes expose for your background first before putting your subject in the frame because all you will do is blow out all the highlight and you will not be able to recover in post-production, even shoot 1 stop under exposure is not a problem as this may give more details in the shadows.
Always focus on the eyes, the eyes are what draw you into the picture and tell the best story behind the person you are trying to understand.
Talk to and get to know the person you are trying to capture, understand who they are and pick the right setting and clothes, you aren’t going to put a biker in full leathers on a sunny beach. This may sound obvious, but I have seen so many good portraits put in the wrong location. It's not all about you subject it's what is around in the background that people miss and forget about. I did a wedding last year where I had to take out of the wedding ceremony a man having a fag in his Speedos in the background, I don't think my client would have liked that so much!.......Also taking to you subject puts them at ease, hence better and more natural shots………..
So next time you are out and about just try and follow these simple and easy steps and you should see a vast improvement to your work.
