8 Nov 2022
In portrait photography, in addition to capturing the subject, the photographer has to convey a story in the image through the model’s expressions, the studio décor or the lighting.
Those of you who are involved in portrait photography will already know that, although it may seem like one of the simplest disciplines, the reality is that the person behind the camera has to have a great command of the technique and a lot of experience in portrait photography.
“In portrait photography the photographer has to convey a series of emotions in a close-up photo.”
Contenido
- What is portrait photography?
- How to take a good portrait photograph?
- 4 tips for doing business with portrait photography
- 9 Arcadina websites with great portrait photography
- 1# Dani Ferrer Foto: portrait photography in advertising campaigns
- 2# Carlos García Calviello: photographic art
- 3# Gabriele Ronchi: boudoir portraits
- 4# Fotografía Márquez: corporate portraits for professionals
- 5# Alejandro Sanchis: portrait photography for models and advertisements
- 6# Guille Escalante: social portraits
- 7# Studio Saul Cano: personal and professional portraits
- 8# Rubén Mefisto Photography: groundbreaking and creative portraits
- Portrait photography is about conveying the essence of your subject
- Arcadina goes with you
What is portrait photography?
In portrait photography, the author has to know how to represent the essence of the person he or she is portraying in a simple and straightforward photograph. Knowing how to capture their personality, professionalism if it is a corporate portrait, their versatility in model books or simply the charisma of a child in front of the camera, is a task that requires a lot of practice and mastery of the technique.
In this type of shoot, the photographer has to know how to direct the model and play with the lighting to create the right message.
If you are starting to take your first portraits, learn the law of thirds very well. It will help you to centre the subject of your photograph. Or the law of the gaze, which is very useful for profile shots.
How to take a good portrait photograph?
Although it may seem obvious, for portrait photography it is important to plan the session in detail. Depending on the type of model and the purpose of the photographs, the photographer will have to take one approach or another.
Let’s look at the steps to take to organise a good portrait session.
Organisation of a portrait session
- Type of model: taking a portrait for personal use is not the same as taking a portrait for a professional. It is important to have a previous talk with the client and ask him/her what the purpose of this photography session is going to be.
- Indoors or outdoors? Portraits only in studios are a thing of the past. Now portrait sessions can be held outdoors, at home or at the workplace. Therefore, when planning this reportage it is important to know in which location it is going to take place.
- Lighting: depending on whether the shoot will take place in your studio, in another indoor location or outdoors, you will need to have the most appropriate lighting equipment ready.
- Photographic equipment: depending on whether the session is going to be indoors or outdoors or the touch you want to give to the photographs, you will have to have different types of equipment ready.
- Other accessories: depending on the approach you want to give to the portrait, you can add a background, props, tripod, shutter release, reflectors, flash, flash diffuser, etc. to the session.
- Direct your model: in portrait photography it is essential, unless you are dealing with a professional model, to know how to direct the client in order to achieve the desired result.
- Post-production process: once the session is finished, you can make a series of retouches and adjustments to achieve the desired result.
- Presentation of the photographs: so that you can increase your client’s initial budget, you can use the private galleries to present the final work. This way you will get them to buy more photographs, Arcadina Labs prints, hard copies, etc.
>> Do you want to make an impactful delivery of images to clients?
Different types of portrait photography
Within portrait photography you can find different specialisations. These are some of them:
- Social photography: children’s portraits, family portraits or even couple portraits.
- Corporate sessions: portraits for employers and employees.
- School images: both university and children’s ornaments.
- Fashion and advertising: professional books and advertising photography.
- Artistic or fine art style: more creative portraits where the aim is to create authentic works of art.
- Boudoir: more sensual close-up photography.
And these are just a few of them because, as you can see, portraiture can be present in almost any discipline.
>> 6 glamorous boudoir photography websites
>> Fashion photographer: 5+1 fashion photography websites that will surprise you
The most classic portrait photography has always been done inside a studio with a plain background. But like everything else in life, portraiture has also evolved and now you can also see some fantastic portraits with more colourful backgrounds or on location.
4 tips for doing business with portrait photography
When it comes to marketing your portrait images, you can use a number of strategies to make the most of each portrait session.
Here are 4 ideas:
1# Explain the way you work on your website so that undecided visitors can not only enjoy your latest portraits but also get an idea of what you have to offer.
And if you want to have all the information hidden and share it only with those who contact you, the ideal is to create a Landing to share it with your contacts by WhatsApp.
>> Learn how to create Pages and Landings on your photography website
2# Organise your portrait portfolio by theme in different galleries. This way visitors to your digital business will be able to appreciate the different styles you can master within the portrait discipline.
3# Create blog posts talking about your latest portrait sessions. Here you can give recommendations to all those ideal clients who are looking for information. Some ideas you can talk about are: wardrobe, how to pose if you don’t have experience, locations near your studio, etc.
>> Would you like to be part of the best photography blogs? Enter here
4# Create multiple customer galleries so that in addition to being able to select the photographs they like the most, they can also purchase more images, prints, prints from Arcadina Labs etc.
>> Create multiple photo galleries on your photography website
9 Arcadina websites with great portrait photography
There are many photographers who have their digital business with us who do portrait photography. Today we wanted to name 9 of them. We hope you like and are inspired by this selection of portrait photography.
1# Dani Ferrer Foto: portrait photography in advertising campaigns
With 20 years of experience behind him, Dani Ferrer is a fantastic photographer and advertising creative director from Madrid who bases his portrait photography on making each person who passes through his camera into, as he says, “the great protagonist“.
On his Bangkok-designed website you can find everything from corporate portraits, advertising campaigns and sports photos converted into portrait photography.
2# Carlos García Calviello: photographic art
Carlos García is an Argentinian lover of photographic art who, in addition to taking some of the most inspiring portraits, also teaches courses in photography, design, lighting, etc. and has had the opportunity, on several occasions, to exhibit some of his work.
If you visit the portfolio of his website with Tokyo design, you will be able to enjoy true works of art created from portraits.
3# Gabriele Ronchi: boudoir portraits
Gabriele Ronchi is a Swiss photographer who shoots portraits, boudoir, landscape, night and nature photography. In essence, what Gabriel seeks in each portrait photograph is to convey the essence of what he sees using technique.
On her website with Arizona design, you will be able to enjoy some of her portraits and boudoir portraits.
4# Fotografía Márquez: corporate portraits for professionals
Behind Fotografía Márquez is José María. A photographer from Granada with a traditional photographic studio who does social reports, books and portrait photography and corporate photography for companies.
On his website with Bangkok design you will find a small sample of his corporate portrait photography of professionals and in his biography you will discover that he has also conducted workshops, conferences and has even created his own training.
Did you know that Arcadina has also launched a training programme for photographers?
>> Get to know Arcadina’s most comprehensive training for photographers
5# Alejandro Sanchis: portrait photography for models and advertisements
Alejandro Sanchis is a Valencian photographer who specialises in product photography, advertising and portraits for models. In addition, Alejandro also does social and boudoir photography sessions.
On her website with New York design you will be able to enjoy some of her work. As a curiosity, you can visit her Studio / Make-up gallery and you will discover some of the most inspiring portraits.
In the city of Apóstoles (Argentina) you can find Guillermo Escalante, a photographer who does wedding photography, advertising campaigns and 15 years old photos, among others.
In her photo gallery on her New York design website, you‘ll be able to enjoy social portraits with an advertising twist that her quinceañeras are sure to love.
7# Studio Saul Cano: personal and professional portraits
The Studio Saul Cano photography studio is located in the city of Burgos, where in addition to being able to hire a product photography session, this studio also specialises in commercial reportage for companies and portraits.
If you want to get ideas on how to turn a portrait session into a unique experience, take a look at his portrait gallery on his website with New York design.
8# Rubén Mefisto Photography: groundbreaking and creative portraits
And to finish this compilation of portrait photography we are going to introduce you to the Bangkok design website of Rubén Mefisto Photography, or Born to Shoot Wild.
If you want to be surprised with portraits out of the ordinary, you will love Rubén’s photographs. Shocking, original and very creative are the portrait photos of this great photographer.
Portrait photography is about conveying the essence of your subject
As you have seen, within portrait photography there are a multitude of styles and intentions. The ideal is to find your own and adapt it to your way of photographing life.
Today we would like to share with you the interview with family portrait photographer Luis Bañeres.
>> Interview with Luis Bañeres
Luis also does other types of portrait photography in addition to children and family portraits. In his studio he also offers sessions for models, personal, for artists and other professionals. In addition, some of the photographs he takes are used for the sale of stock photography.
>> Do you want to multiply the sale of free photos with download?
And to say goodbye for today we would like to ask you a question: What do you think is the most complicated thing when it comes to doing portrait sessions? We would love to read your opinion in the comments.
Arcadina goes with you
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