Portrait Photography How To

Most of us are familiar with the use of out-of-focus, seamless backgrounds by studio photographers, especially those who shoot portraits. Often, these backgrounds are a single color, such as white, black, or gray. In other cases, the backgrounds are a muslin material, adding texture to the background. The sole purpose of these backgrounds is to create a cleaner overall composition, giving the viewer no choice but to look at the man, woman, or child.

It’s amazing how a small shift in vantage point can add a big boost in creativity to portrait photos, as you’ll see in the tutorial below. These tips are especially helpful for photographers who lack a big budget for building sets and purchasing expensive backgrounds to spice up their images.

One of our favorite photo editing apps for portrait photography is back with a new version. 

Posing tips, tricks and how-tos for plus size women have been popular with Shutterbug readers so here’s another great tutorial on the subject. This one is coming to you from plus size model and influencer Ashley Lopez who shows you “how to pose for pictures as a plus size woman.”

When it comes to portraiture, celebrities are like everyone else, except that for editorial shoots your time with them is very limited. “I’ve literally had as little as 3 minutes and as much as 20 minutes with an individual,” Los Angeles-based photographer Michael Becker observes.

If you’re feeling low and uninspired about your photography, travel photographer Pierre T. Lambert has some advice for you: try shooting from a low angle. As Lambert explains in the somewhat counterintuitive video below, going low can yield high quality results.