I want to learn how to become a great portrait photographer

shaylou

shaylou

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Shayne
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I have a good understanding of photography basics and have shot street portraits with natural light and some with an off camera flash but I really don't have much experience with portrait photography. What I am looking for is a good place to start my studying. Most of my work will be out doors with the aid of a flash or two. It's odd but I really don't know where to start. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.


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... Following with interest .... I'm especially bad at directing models .... Good luck.
 
Get outside with a friend and practice. Offer to give them any pictures you take. Once you've got a few shoots under your belt and feel comfortable hire a model and practice more.
 
Go get Greg Heisler's new book, 50 Portraits. I've just finished reading it and realised how much I have still to learn...
 
As above, and remember its 10% photography and 90% psychology. To shoot anything well you have to love it and learn to understand it. That's the same for people wildlife or sports.
Great portrait photographers love shooting people.
 
See if you have a local photo studio that does workshops. Appreciate this will be indoors but would get you help on directing a model and thinking about lighting.

You can then take those skills and start outdoors. I am sure you would learn a lot from fellow photographers also attending the workshops.
 
Phil V said:
As above, and remember its 10% photography and 90% psychology. To shoot anything well you have to love it and learn to understand it. That's the same for people wildlife or sports.
Great portrait photographers love shooting people.
Click to expand...

For me it really doesn't matter what I am shooting. I want to shoot it not only the best I can, but I want to shot it as best that anyone can. I may never reach that point but falling a little short would not be so bad.
I have only been shooting two years this month. When I started out my goal was to be an extremely rounded photographer. I found that I really love to shoot street photography and the people are the trilling part.
I'm getting ask to shoot people all the time now but I am so critical of my photography that I do not want to take on a job until I am good at it. That is one reason for my post. To get some direction on how to study portrait photography. I have an idea, composition, lighting and posing but there is so much info out there I haven't figured out how or where to start.

So far I think starting here seems to be a good choice. I am already getting great leads and advise. For that I thank you.:ty:
:canon:
 
If you want to become a great portrait photographer, then start really analysing the work of great portrait photographers.

Erwin Blumenfeld
Nadav Kander
David Bailey
Richard Avedon
Cecil Beaton
Philipe Halsman
Yousef Karsh
Annie Leibovitz
Marie Ellen Mark
Irving Penn
Herb Ritts

That should get you started.

There's a reason some images stand the test of time, whereas others are just of the moment, and fade into obscurity.
 
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Pookeyhead said:
If you want to become a great portrait photographer, then start really analysing the work of great portrait photographers.

Erwin Blumenfeld
Nadav Kander
David Bailey
Richard Avedon
Cecil Beaton
Philipe Halsman
Yousef Karsh
Annie Leibovitz
Marie Ellen Mark
Irving Penn
Herb Ritts

That should get you started.

There's a reason some images stand the test of time, whereas others are just of the moment, and fade into obscurity.
Click to expand...

Good advice.

I'd also advise learning about a history of art. Kicking off with Rembrant and Vermeer, perhaps :)
 
shaylou said:
For me it really doesn't matter what I am shooting. I want to shoot it not only the best I can, but I want to shot it as best that anyone can. I may never reach that point but falling a little short would not be so bad.
I have only been shooting two years this month. When I started out my goal was to be an extremely rounded photographer. I found that I really love to shoot street photography and the people are the trilling part.
I'm getting ask to shoot people all the time now but I am so critical of my photography that I do not want to take on a job until I am good at it. That is one reason for my post. To get some direction on how to study portrait photography. I have an idea, composition, lighting and posing but there is so much info out there I haven't figured out how or where to start.

So far I think starting here seems to be a good choice. I am already getting great leads and advise. For that I thank you.:ty:
:canon:
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Don't worry, you won't get a job until you're good at it ;)
 
I love doing portraits, and have learnt loads by doing stock photography. Some sites have great critique forums and will point out (in very blunt terms) what is wrong and how to improve a shot. I know there is a forum here too, although I find it to be a bit too "nice"! You don't need to hire a model, why not pair up with another photographer and then practice on each other? Review each pic and see what looks right, what lighting works, etc. I tend to use natural light most of the time, but sometimes use a speed light, especially if it is sunny and I can't find any shade. I have loads to learn! It is not only about the pose but about lighting (like anything in photography). Panda eyes are not a good look! Good luck!
 
A lot of it is about making the person feel at ease, so it's talking, interacting with them. Sometimes you get nothing out of the first ten minutes whilst they relax but eventually they forget about the camera, it's just something thats there.
 
Start of learning basic natural lighting. One light source such as a window and a single reflector. Commonly known as Rembrandt lighting. Plenty if examples on Google.
 
To photograph people well, you need to be a people person.
If you are not... I am not sure any thing will help.
I am steeped in Lighting and techniques, I have seen more exhibitions by the greats than have had hot dinners.
I Can take a technically good portrait... but I am not a people person so I rarely get the necessary spark to make a great portrait.
To be any good you need to love people, be obsessed by everything about them, emphasize with them, understand them.... and above all they must like you.
 
Lyope said:
Go get Greg Heisler's new book, 50 Portraits. I've just finished reading it and realised how much I have still to learn...
Click to expand...

The Heisler book is very good.

I've been waiting on Dan Winter's Road to Seeing, which promises to be even better from all the reviews I've read. After pre-ordering on Christmas Day, it finally looks like Amazon UK started shipping copies yesterday. I suspect it's going to be hard to get hold of a copy though, before it's even dropped through the door Amazon are already offering me more as a trade-in than I paid for the pre-order!
 
Damn, I wish I'd pre-ordered that now!

I've just had Annie Leibovitz's "At Work" delivered though - which looks really good :)
 
What you need to get some idea of first is what you like and how what style you want to aim for. Then progress to learning how.

Start somewhere like here first to learn a history and you'll find we're lighting just like the masters:-

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=history+of+portrait+photography

For specific "how to" videos try these:-

National Portrait Gallery
http://www.npg.org.uk/learning.php

100 Most influential photographers of all time
http://www.professionalphotographer...00-most-influential-photographers-of-all-time

Adorama - especially check out anything by Mark Wallace
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8Pksdbj37CdE00kmE7Z1dw

B&H - especially check out anything by Robert Harrington
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHIRBiAd-PtmNxAcLnGfwog

Ben Sant
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnA8Jh2pYcmzALeL_eySp5A

MAC-On- Campus
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD0UStsvhecPxvNONLz3clA

sekonicvids - check out everything by Joe Brady
https://www.youtube.com/user/sekonicvids/videos

That should keep you busy for a bit :)
 
The technical details of lighting and exposure are important but far more important is the need to convey to the viewer what you want to express of the person whose portrait you are taking. That, to me, is the essence of great portrait photography and what sets it part from your high street studios. Other posts have recommended some great photographers to study but i would again mention Gregory Heisler's '50 Portraits'. Worth buying for the cover shot alone it describes mostly his creative rather than his technical process. Finding, and realising what you want to express of the sitter is the key.

Good luck.
 
shaylou said:
For me it really doesn't matter what I am shooting. I want to shoot it not only the best I can, but I want to shot it as best that anyone can.
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This is why so many of us are advising you to de construct and understand other people's work. I've seen you react quite badly to feedback in other threads, and that's a dangerous trait to have. Even now, after so long.. after doing this for decades... I listen to other people's opinions of my work. The minute you get selective about feedback... listening only to those who say things you want to hear... you're screwed.

Get feedback from those you admire (and by that, I don't means someone who shoots the same stuff you're currently shooting), not just general feedback from forums. There's always someone who will like your work in a general forum environment.. always someone to make you feel good about it. That's not actually very helpful, as above... you'll just tune out what you don't want to hear, listen to what you do... and just carry on doing what you're doing regardless.

Proper professional portfolio review events are good for this. Your work will get critiqued by people who know what they're talking about, and they'll just tell it as it is... no BS. Of course you can still choose to ignore that advice if you wish.

Anyone who genuinely wants to improve will listen to those with more experience... and after a while, learn how to ignore the opinions of those with less.
 
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tcfletcher said:
The technical details of lighting and exposure are important but far more important is the need to convey to the viewer what you want to express of the person whose portrait you are taking. That, to me, is the essence of great portrait photography and what sets it part from your high street studios. Other posts have recommended some great photographers to study but i would again mention Gregory Heisler's '50 Portraits'. Worth buying for the cover shot alone it describes mostly his creative rather than his technical process. Finding, and realising what you want to express of the sitter is the key.

Good luck.
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Good advise, thank you.
 
shaylou said:
I said I am already getting ask to shoot jobs now in my post if you read it and I have been turning them down. :banghead:
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Turning down any paid photographic work is silly. It's money... it allows you to live, and carry on doing what you want to do with you personal work. If someone is asking you for work, then THEY are clearly satisfied, so why are you not doing it? It's experience.. and that is something you probably lack at the moment.
 
shaylou said:
I wish I could but like I said I am so critical of my work that I won't charge for something if I don't feel like I am very good at it. This is the reason for me posting her. To get some insight. Thanks.
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I admire your ethics. I know how you feel, I spend a lot of time not liking my own work, I see all the faults in it. Customers, thank goodness, like it - and I have bills to pay.
 
Pookeyhead said:
Turning down any paid photographic work is silly. It's money... it allows you to live, and carry on doing what you want to do with you personal work. If someone is asking you for work, then THEY are clearly satisfied, so why are you not doing it? It's experience.. and that is something you probably lack at the moment.
Click to expand...


There is nothing silly about it. I do not want to put out inferior work, I hardly see that as silly. It is also not about money, I make a good enough living with my current employment. In all fairness people see my work and like it and ask me to shoot them. What they do not see is my portrait work because I do not have any to speak of. So they are assuming if I'm good at one thing I'm good at everything which is not the case. I hope that clears it up and we can get back on topic. Thanks.




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shaylou said:
There is nothing silly about it. I do not want to put out inferior work, I hardly see that as silly. It is also not about money, I make a good enough living with my current employment. In all fairness people see my work and like it and ask me to shoot them. What they do not see is my portrait work because I do not have any to speak of. So they are assuming if I'm good at one thing I'm good at everything which is not the case. I hope that clears it up and we can get back on topic. Thanks.
Click to expand...

So returning to jenny's original point , you won't get any serious jobs until you are good at it (i.e no one is going to commision you to do a serious shoot without wanting to see a portfolio , friends of friends seeing other work and asking you for a cheap portatrait shoot isn't the same thing)
 
I had access to a studio, lighting, backdrops etc and spent two years shooting friends and colleagues families and children for free (or a bottle of wine) to build up my experience.
 
shaylou said:
There is nothing silly about it. I do not want to put out inferior work, I hardly see that as silly. It is also not about money, I make a good enough living with my current employment. In all fairness people see my work and like it and ask me to shoot them. What they do not see is my portrait work because I do not have any to speak of. So they are assuming if I'm good at one thing I'm good at everything which is not the case. I hope that clears it up and we can get back on topic. Thanks.




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It's an opportunity to learn under the real pressures of working professionally. It's worthwhile and your work will improve faster. When will you decide that your work is good enough to sell? What would be the minimum standard? How would you measure that? You say you have no portrait work, but define portrait? There's tons of stuff on your Flickr feed that could be described as portrait.

If people see your work, like it, and want to pay for it, what good will turning them down actually do? If you want to learn, then shooting portraits will help you learn. If your conscience is getting in teh way, then charge them nothing... you're still shooting portraits, and you'll still be gaining experience. If you currently have no portrait work, the first step is surely to start taking some, and it seems you have the opportunity to do so, and are not really taking advantage of it.
 
big soft moose said:
So returning to jenny's original point , you won't get any serious jobs until you are good at it (i.e no one is going to commision you to do a serious shoot without wanting to see a portfolio , friends of friends seeing other work and asking you for a cheap portatrait shoot isn't the same thing)
Click to expand...

With all do respect your making a lot of assumptions.
 
Pookeyhead said:
It's an opportunity to learn under the real pressures of working professionally. It's worthwhile and your work will improve faster. When will you decide that your work is good enough to sell? What would be the minimum standard? How would you measure that? You say you have no portrait work, but define portrait? There's tons of stuff on your Flickr feed that could be described as portrait.

If people see your work, like it, and want to pay for it, what good will turning them down actually do? If you want to learn, then shooting portraits will help you learn. If your conscience is getting in teh way, then charge them nothing... you're still shooting portraits, and you'll still be gaining experience. If you currently have no portrait work, the first step is surely to start taking some, and it seems you have the opportunity to do so, and are not really taking advantage of it.
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You nailed it sir! I am doing some free work for close friends for practice with the understanding that it is just practice for me and free shots for them. When will I know? It's kinda like now setting here staring at my 17 year old cat dying of cancer. When will I know it's time to put him down? I will just know same as my shots, I will just know...
 
shaylou said:
With all do respect your making a lot of assumptions.
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looks like my assumptions were pretty much spot on then

shaylou said:
You nailed it sir! I am doing some free work for close friends for practice with the understanding that it is just practice for me and free shots for them.
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on the question of how will you know - you'll know when your work is good enough to secure a paid commision, because if it isn't you won't which was the point jenny was making originally
 
shaylou said:
You nailed it sir! I am doing some free work for close friends for practice with the understanding that it is just practice for me and free shots for them. When will I know? It's kinda like now setting here staring at my 17 year old cat dying of cancer. When will I know it's time to put him down? I will just know same as my shots, I will just know...
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear about your cat :(

As for when you'll know. With commercial work... it's when people start giving you money :) I still advise divorcing these things from one another. Your own personal standards should remain just that, but don't let them get in the way of making money, even you have another income. The standards you'll end up seeking will probably not be truly appreciated by most of your clients anyway unfortunately.
 
Thanks everyone for some great advice. I am studying the people that were suggested and looking over the site and videos given. This will take a while of course but I'm sure it will be of great help. All the advise has given me some direction and I see now the topics I need to tackle first. I'm going to look into posing much deeper because I think that is one of my main weak points. 99 percent of what I will be doing is shooting out door family portraits. I understand light well enough and adding fill is not a problem. But it is now clear that i do not have a clue about posing. So I went from not knowing where to start to having a clear path on how to become a good portrait photographer thanks to your help.

Thanks a million!!


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If you have access to Sky Arts 1 there is currently a programme on portraiture on (started 6:00 pm). It's called Capture, and is being repeated at different times (as most things are on that channel). No idea how good it is but might be worth a watch. There are a couple of other programmes on there as well - the David Bailey Stardust exhibition and interview, and Close Up: Portraits. The latter one is the second in a series with Close Up: Photographers at Work. All will probably be recycled on Sky Arts though may also be available on YouTube (I know the last one is).
 
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