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10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits

Being part of the 365 Days/threesixtyfive self-portrait a day for a year project, I found this article over on the DPS Blog today very interesting. Always looking for different ways to shoot myself, and I’m sure this will come in handy for portrait shooting as well!

How do you take Portraits that have the ‘Wow’ factor?

Today and tomorrow I want to talk about taking Portraits that are a little out of the box. You see it’s all very well and good to have a portrait that follows all the rules - but it hit me as I was surfing on Flickr today that often the most striking portraits are those that break all the rules.

I want to look at some ways to break out of the mold and take striking portraits by breaking (or at least bending) the rules and adding a little randomness into your portrait photography.

threesixtyfive : oneeighty : hello? is there anybody in there?

In a nutshell here are the ten points from the post today:

  1. Alter your perspective
  2. Play with eye contact
  3. Break the rules of composition
  4. Experiment with lighting
  5. Move your subject out of their comfort zone
  6. Shoot candidly
  7. Introduce a prop
  8. Focus upon one body part - get up close
  9. Obscure part of your subject
  10. Take a series of shots

My favorite technique, as you can see, is playing with and experimenting with light (photo above). I also find some of my best portraits are when shot candidly - as can be seen in the two photos below.

Avalee & Mommy

Mike

Be sure to head on over to the DPS Blog and read in detail 10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits!

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Tags: 365, DPS, People, portraits, self-portraits, threesixtyfive, Tips

09 Jul 08 | Black & White, Children, DPS, People, Portrait, Tips, self-portrait, threesixtyfive
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2 Responses to “10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits”

  1. pixelens photography » Blog Archive » 10 More Tips for Stunning Portrait Photography | July 11th, 2008 at 2:34 pm

    [...] follow up the 10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits post from the other day, DPS has posted 10 more tips: 11. Frame your subject 12. Go with a wide [...]

  2. frans | July 18th, 2008 at 3:53 pm

    this are very helpful tips! thanks so much for sharing! i agree with you though, on breaking the rules…il try to incorporate this in my future works. :-)

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