Shooting Compelling Portraits

Radical tips for Portraits!

  • Change the Skin Surface – water, sand, oil, creative make-up, jewellery reform the subject’s face
  • Capture genuine emotion – love, tears, happiness, fear, anger – sometimes hard to get, but lifts the image
  • Use a BIG aperture – emphasise your hero – throw background out of focus using a BIG aperture like f1.4, f1.8 or f2
  • Use light to show the shape of the face – use sidelight (Rembrandt or chiaroscuro to show shape of cheekbones, lips and nose
  • Eyes as sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel – the whole picture does not have to be sharp but the eyes need to say ‘notice me’!

Entries to FIPP 2019 open 5 May 2019.

Photo: © Bill Gekas FIPP Finalist 2017

Back to Index