Photo Tip of the Week: Spice Up Your Portraits With These Easy Compositions
All too often, photographers shoot portraits that include all of the model, or at the very least, the top half of their model. While this is a perfectly fine method of composing your portraits, why not try something a little more unique to maximize the photo’s impact?
This week’s Photo Tip of the Week gives you two interesting compositional methods to consider when creating portraits, both of which are really easy to implement!
Zoom In
Resist the urge to back up and photograph your subject in his or her entirety and instead get close up. Filling the frame with your subject’s face can create a highly dramatic and moody shot.
The image above is a perfect example of the power of a close-up. By concentrating on the model’s face and hands, viewers are given access to the warmth and comfort she feels as her hands cup her face. You’re almost privy to her breathing deeply as she sighs in relief. Such a strong connection would be difficult to achieve had the photographer chosen a full-body composition.
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When you fill the frame, don’t get caught up in the notion that you have to include the model’s entire face either. As you can see in the image of the man above, cropping it tightly such that the man’s forehead and chin are cropped out allows viewers to zero in on the most expressive part of the man’s face – his eyes and mouth, thus creating an even stronger bond between viewer and subject. This concept is taken a step further in the image below. Although we can only see the top of the woman’s head, you can tell by looking at her eyes that she’s smiling. Yet, the mystery of not being able to see her smiling for sure makes the image that much more interesting.
Get Off Center
Photographers sometimes forget about the rule of thirds when shooting portraits, and instead compose their images with their subject in the center of the frame. This can produce interesting shots, but for added creativity, try moving your subject to one side of the frame or the other.
In the example above, moving the subject to the right side of the frame accomplishes two things. First, it gives the image a sense of greater depth, as though the child is farther back in the frame than he would otherwise be. Secondly, by moving the child to the right, the photographer is able to bring an added element of texture and interest to the image by incorporating more of the wall.
Even without an interesting background, moving your subject to align with the rule of thirds grid makes for a more dynamic composition. In the image above, the placement of the model in the right side of the image gives viewers the sense that the model is moving to our right, that the image is almost a snapshot in a series of snapshots as camera and model meet for just a few seconds.
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Conclusion
Capturing the essence of a subject in a portrait often requires you to think outside the box, and zooming in close or shifting the model’s presence in the frame of the shot can be the perfect vehicles for doing so. But creating more dynamic and interesting portraits doesn’t have to entail a great deal of work either! Taking these simple steps can get you an image that is far more impactful than if you go the traditional portraiture route.
So, get your gear, grab your model, and take some portraits! Play around with composition and framing and see how you can spice up your portraits with different methods of composition.