Portrait Photography How To

Imagine this. Take photos of many of the top names in the music industry over the last 30 or so years, from Keith Richards to Radiohead, Gregg Allman to Tom Waits. Shoot for Spin, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and Esquire, to name a few. Make said images into a coffee-table book. And to top it off, have some obscure talent like Bruce Springsteen write the elegant foreword for the book. Is it just me or does this sound like a pretty good life?

Noted photographer and online educator Elena Shumilova has a great new video offering four expert tips on how to take the best photos of children. You can watch the child photography how-to video, which was produced by SmugMug, at the bottom of this post.

The reality is you can make portraits using any lens but most photographers will tell you the ideal portrait lens has a focal length in the range of 85-135mm. The first dedicated portrait lens was the 150mm f/3.3 Petzval developed in 1840, which had a 30-degree angle of view and was considerably faster than lenses of the period. It was so legendary that Lomography recently produced a new version for Canon EF- and Nikon F-mount cameras that costs $599.

Today’s wedding photography business uses many different self-promotional tools ranging from traditional bridal shows to social media advertising. No one photographer has the “right” way to run a wedding business; each photographer’s targeted wedding clientele, their individual photography style and business plan will dictate how differently they market and find clients.

As a child, I clearly remember my father taking Kodachrome images of my sister and I in the snow. I always associated childhood winter 35mm slides with the blue cast they possessed. Not understanding color temperature, I assumed photos were always blue because it was cold outside. Summer images were understandably warmer looking.

It’s welcome news to any photographer when the look of their images becomes a distinct, signature style. That’s exactly what has happened to Benny Migliorino, whose specialty is environmental and location portraits. “A lot of people say that what I’ve become known for is dramatic lighting,” Migliorino acknowledges, “but I didn’t set out to be known for that—it’s just the way I like to light, and the way I want my photographs to look.”

Giving a more modern twist to tradition, a team of digital imaging specialists from the Smithsonian Institute created a 3D portrait of President Barack Obama using eight high-resolution sports cameras, six wide-angle cameras, and 50 custom-designed LED lights.