How to Make Your Friends Look Good in Portraits?

There is a famous saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Similarly, a good portrait is one that tells you the whole story behind it. The best thing about making a friend’s portrait is that you know your friend well. It shows that you know what kind of person your friend is, and what would make your friend look good. There are lot of personal preferences, but here are some of my thoughts on making a good portrait.

1-      Camera and its use

The key to the right picture is the camera. The camera you use is very important when it comes to photography. You cannot simply have a good portrait using your phone as a camera. You need to have a high-definition camera that gives you different options and modes to work with. Most photographers use an SLR camera. After having a camera, play around with it until you know all the functions that the camera has.  This helps in deciding the type of a photo you want to take.

2-      Know how about portraits

After self-educating yourself on how to use the camera you move forward to making the portraits. There are different types of portraits you can work on. There are the up-close portraits which capture the facial features, and then there are the portraits that capture personality through dressing and surroundings. You need to figure out how your portrait will best describe your friend.

3-      Features of the subject of picture

A good way to work on your friend’s portrait is to focus on his or her most vibrant feature. That feature can be anything ranging from coloured eyes to the long masculine beard to the tall height of your friend. This gives you something to work around and keeps focus on something that is unique and distinctive about your friend. This technique is mostly used while working on the up-close portraits.

4-       Different angles of the subject

Another good technique for portraits is to play with different angles. The standard, cliché way to take a photo is from the eye level of your friend. That is the normal and boring way, but if you want the portrait to be something that is out-of-the-box and which will capture the viewer, then you should try unique angles. You can try taking pictures putting the camera on the floor, from above your friend or tilting the camera at an angle to give an interesting impact.

5-      Lighting and background

A good portrait has the right amount of lighting and the appropriate background. It depends on the situation to decide the angles and proximity of lights, while considering the background. The lighting should be used in a way that brings out the main features of the subject in a portrait.

There are many other ways to make friends look good in portraits. Would you like to enlighten us with your interesting tips and techniques? Please share!