Basics Of Portrait Photography

We all enjoy snapping away with our digital cameras and more often than not we will be taking portraits of friends and partners. Unfortunately, although portraits or head and shoulders photos sound easy enough to take, quite often the results are less than great.

Too close, to far away or heads and other body parts mysteriously missing, let's face it we've all been there.

To help avoid those problems lets look at some basic principles and tips for taking portrait photography.

With a digital camera the problem of missing heads shouldn't be too difficult to solve. Always use the LCD screen to help compose the shot. Ensure everything you want to capture is centred in the screen as the photo produced will be exactly as you see it in the LCD screen.

Unless you are trying to take a professional style close up portrait don't worry about the background. In fact you should use the background to produce a really interesting shot. Now, I'm sure the person whose portrait you are taking is very interesting in their own right, but by allowing the background to add context to the shot the photograph will be enhanced and will really tell a tale about that person and their environment.

Don't worry about 'posing' your portraits as off the cuff or spur of the moment photographs can be the best. Of course, if it doesn't work out and you find the subject had already wandered out of shot when you pressed the shutter button then don't worry. Just delete the picture and move on.

One of the best tips in taking portraits, either posed or spontaneous shots, is to ensure that you fill the frame and use every available bit of space. Everything in the frame of the photo should add something to the portrait.

Another basic factor to consider when taking your portraits is the lighting. Most of us will I suspect be taking the majority of our portraits outdoors in the daylight so lighting won't really be a consideration.

But, if you are taking the photos indoors than there some things you need to think about. If there is natural light coming through a window it can be used to disseminate the shot by adding some nice gentle shadows. Be careful though, if the light is too bright the shadows will too strong though, if the portrait is a posed one, you could use white card to reflect the shadows.

Finally, when taking a portrait remember to focus on the eyes as they are a persons most important, and revealing, feature.

Andy Crozier is a professional Hull portrait photographer

Printing Digital Photos

If there is one thing we are all guilty of it is taking lots of great photos and then leaving them gathering virtual dust on our computer hard-drives or even on our cameras memory cards!

We have all done this but with the huge range of cheap inkjet printers available now there really is no excuse for not doing our photos justice by printing them out and displaying them. But which printer should you choose? Here are a few basic tips:

Always choose a ‘photo quality’ inkjet printer. All printers will of course print photos but those that are true ‘photo quality’ will produce the best results.

Select the biggest printer you can afford. Most of us will have to plumb for an A4 but A3 and A2 printers will produce the best quality prints. Of course the larger size comes with a much larger price tag and are usually only used by professional photographers. But, if you are treating yourself, try and look beyond an A4.

Ink is expensive but printers that use separate cartridges for each colour are more economical to run

Software For Digital Photography

If you have purchased a digital camera there was more than likely a CD included with some software to enable you to transfer your photos from the camera to your PC. But once the images are stored on your computer you will need other software for editing and enhancing.

But which is the best package to use?

Most professional photographers will use Adobe Photoshop which does just about every tool you would ever need to manipulate your images. This package is undoubtedly the best to use but the downside for the enthusiastic amateur is its cost. But don’t be put off.

Adobe Photoshop Elements is basically a scaled down version of Photoshop and is a bespoke package for digital photography. It is a very good piece of software, reasonably priced and idea for editing digital photos on either a PC or MAC.

Hull Portrait Photographers Insight Photography

As a Hull Portrait Photographer, I had the real pleasure of photographing Lisa, Marcus and their beautiful son Jamie last weekend. Jamie was just as most other 1 year olds are and was a real dynamo.

The real key to success with this type of photography is working with the child and not expecting the child to work for you. To that end, I never bring out my camera until I have spent at least half an hour getting to know and gaining the trust of the children through play. After that it's all systems go! We spent a little bit of time in the doorway of their home getting some gorgeous portriats under our belts and then spent the rest of the session playing in the garden and then off for a walk down a country lane where we found some great features including an old wooden barn door that looked just great when I threw it out of focus.

This type of lifestyle photography has been popular for a few years now and when parents see the results they are often amazed at the number of 'keepers' I am able to show them.

My goal is to tell a story, my aspiration is to bring families together and hopefully with my lens I can help to reveal a family's true nature - that which is already there.