5 Ways to Improve Your Portraiture Now
Often while enjoying a positive experience we take photos and expect them to give viewers a feel for our experience, yet when we see the final results we're disappointed because the image fails to convey our experience. You see this all the time on Facebook - your friends post pictures from that amazing party they've been to, yet the photos don't really live up to the story they're trying to tell. The reason for this is that during our experiences we're present, we see, hear and feel our surroundings, yet photos are only a visual recording of a limited to what our viewfinder could see at that particle of time.
This is why in order to tell a good story, we must take the type of photos necessary to convey our narrative. Just as telling stories is subjective and uses descriptive terms and body language to share our experiences, so do good photos convey the story the photographer wants to tell. The language and gestures used to tell this story includes composition. Understanding composition can boost your photography significantly. The great new is that composition rules aren't limited to pricey DSLR users, rather anyone can even implement them using any camera, including cell phone cameras. Here are 5 composition tips that can help you improve your portraits right away.
Watch the Background
Ever see a picture where you can't help but notice the lamp post that looks like it's growing out of the subject's head? Or maybe the background is just loud and distracting your eye from what could have been a great picture? Our minds are wired in such a way that we focus on what we want to see and we just don't notice such distractions while taking the picture, yet cameras capture the background as well and these distractions are visible in the final images. This can be easily avoided if we train ourselves to take a few seconds to scan the background prior to clicking the shutter release and take the picture from an angle which includes a non-distracting background, or if you can't find such an angle, kindly ask your subject to move a bit, so that the background is less distracting.
Another important thing to pay attention to is the background is color - do the colors compliment your subject, or do they pull the viewer's eye from the subject. It is often better use solid or similar colors in the background in order to ensure the focus remains on the subject. Don't be afraid to ask your subject to move in front of a more suitable background.
Don't Cut Off Limbs
Although you can take a full body, upper body portrait, close up and even an extreme closeup portrait, it is important to understand how to frame your photo in a way that doesn't crop the subject in an unappealing way. The rule of thumb to frame or crop the image in a way that your subjects limbs aren't cropped at the joints, rather they are cropped in the middle of the arms or legs for instance. Framing or cropping an image at the subjects elbows or knees looks very unnatural and leaves the viewer with a feeling of unease.
Have Your Subject "Look In to the Photo"
Your subject's face will usually be facing a certain direction in the photo. Even if it's only a very slight tilt of the head in that direction, it is better to compose the photo in a manner where the subject has enough space to "look in to the photo." This means that there is more space on the side that the subject is "looking in to" than the other side of the subject. This gives a feel that the subject has some breathing space. Not leaving enough space for the subject to look into can convey a feeling of the subject being caged.
Rule of Thirds
Generally in portraiture, the eyes are the focal point of the our photo. this is why you should try and place your subject's eye one third of the way down from the top edge of the photo and one third of the way from the sides (or at least one of the sides) of the image. This will give your portrait a more balanced feel.
Headroom
Headroom is the area above your subject's head. Too much headroom or too little of it can make your photo look unbalanced. Too much headroom will distract the viewer while not enough headroom can make your subject look caged and convey and uneasy feeling. A rule of thumb regarding headroom is the more you zoom into your subject, the less headroom you need. When taking a closeup you can even crop the top of the head a bit. It will let you increase your viewers' focus on your subject.
Try using these composition rules in your portraits and hopefully you will see your photos improve. Have you implemented any of these rules in your portraits? Feel free to share your photos in the comments bellow.
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Keep up the good light!
Yehonathan