Portrait photography is by itself one of the interesting forms of photography and pursued by countless number of photographers. However, if you are doing it over a long period of time it sometimes become exhausting or boring. Here are 5 interesting ideas that can pull you down again to the craft, gets you rolling and spices up your game of Portrait photography.
A pinch of sparkle & colors:
Adding a third element after your model and background can draw the viewer to spend that extra minute on your photograph. Be it using sparkle on the model’s face or splash of paint (if he/she wouldn’t mind) would get the job done in minutes. Choice of colors play an important role since you should ensure that it doesn’t throw the photo off its mood.
Water and Glass:
If a glass of water’ had you thinking what portrait photography has got to do with it then – here is why I call it so.
Take a glass pane where its of dimensions that suit your requirement and water spray bottle. Spray a few drops on to the glass pane and keep it in front of the model. Now you can play around to get some interesting perspectives. I tried to create a series on the importance of water and ended up with this photograph.
Multiple Exposure:
This genre of photography has got countless possibilities in terms of creative storytelling. Blend it with portraits and possibilities are even more. You just need to have a vision and work on the different modes of Multiple exposure which varies for brand to brand. I did a latest work for a music album cover for independent music artists using multiple exposure portrait photographs. Multiple exposure in black and white can bring in a whole new intensity to your photograph.
A dose of sexy props for portrait photography:
Lets give your model a sexy prop like eye masquerade or mirror or even vintage clock (if it suits your theme) and just look how different your photograph looks. I bet, you can let loose of your imagination horses free here.
Use foreground objects
In many photographs you must have seen photographers using a prism, an old cd/dvd or fairy lights to bring that extra cool colorful light to dance on the subject. However you can use anything that’s around you while the shoot in the foreground to make the viewer see through it. In one of shoots, I was shooting my model in natural light in a garden kitchen set up. So I used leaves in the foreground to blur it and see through which turned out really well. Similarly you could use any object that is aesthetic to the scene.
Try few techniques in the weekend and share some of it with us!
Happy Shooting!