1. Make a connection with your subject

There’s more to creating a great portrait than just taking a picture. Every portrait photography guide starts with the most important information: connect with your subject! Without knowing the person you’re creating a portrait for, there’s no way you can convey their inner beauty and personality that makes them unique.

Your connection with your subject will allow you to explore and take a more personal approach to your photography, which, in turn, will really shine through in your portraits.

2. Plan the scene

Portraits focus on a specific subject, but that doesn’t mean that you should ignore the surrounding scene. Often, the setting in which you place your subject can help to draw focus, or it can help to convey a theme or message about the subject, or help to place them in a context that says something about their personality.

Try designing the scene the way a director would for a movie, and play with different angles to try and say more with your setting than you could with just focusing on your subject alone. It helps to be creative, but this is something you can learn on your photographic journey.

3. Choose the appropriate camera settings

Portraiture can be difficult because you often need to use your camera settings in more specific ways. Where you might have natural light and different focus points in other types of photography, portraiture requires that your subject is the center of attention. In order to do this, you may require the extra help from reflectors, and your exposure settings may need adjusting depending on the amount and sources of light that you are working with.

One popular way to draw focus in a portrait is to use shallow depth of field, which keeps your subject in focus whilst slightly blurring everything else in the shot. Experiment with your aperture and shutter speed settings to achieve the perfect shot.

4. Go on a photo-walk

Developing your portrait photography skills isn’t going to happen on its own, and you’ll need to avail yourself of every opportunity to practice in order to perfect your art. One of the best ways to do this is to go on a photowalk.

These gatherings are for photography enthusiasts and are designed to help you learn with the benefit of exposing you to others who are going through the process as well. While some photowalks usually focus on specific techniques, you will have the opportunity to practice your portraiture on people you wouldn’t have ordinarily come across. These walks are excellent for learning new skills and will allow you to gain a new perspective on your work.

5. Shoot RAW and edit in post

Taking the photo is just one step of your journey, and you need to put some effort in editing your images in order to create the perfect final product. One huge benefit in this process is shooting in RAW format, which forgoes the compression and digital nuances that your camera often adds behind the scenes. RAW mode allows you to take a photograph of exactly what is there and no more, so that you can have complete control of the editing process in post. This process is how professional photographers perform their craft, and while your files may be bigger, so is the payoff.

Portraiture is one of the most beautiful photography styles, but also one of the hardest to master. There are many key steps in creating the perfect portrait that will enable even the beginner photographer to create beautiful portraits. By using these tips, you can start to create amazing and eye-catching portraits of your clients.