{"id":4170,"date":"2009-03-21T03:18:57","date_gmt":"2009-03-21T09:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.photography-basics.net\/learning\/?p=214"},"modified":"2009-03-21T03:18:57","modified_gmt":"2009-03-21T09:18:57","slug":"posing-portrait-photography-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/posing-portrait-photography-tips.html","title":{"rendered":"Posing for portrait photography"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are many things to take note when learning to take portrait photography. You can&#8217;t just ask the person to stand somewhere, take your camera and just shoot and hope for the best. A vacation family photo can be taken just like that. But to achieve more some additional understanding about basic portrait photography will be needed.<\/p>\n<p>It is fine to fill in the frame, get close up to catch the appearance of a person&#8217;s features. Sometimes you want to enhance the picture and thus you have to tell your subject to position in a way to get a better portrait shot.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><b>The head positions<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Dead centre look straight in the camera is the usual norm, but there other head positions that you can shoot for variety in your portrait photography. Let&#8217;s see some of the head positions that you can take.<\/p>\n<p><b>Seven-Eights View<\/b> &#8211; have the subject looking slightly away from your camera. You will see a little more of one side of the face than the other, however both the ears will be visible when the picture is taken.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"media\/portrait_photo_girl.jpg\" alt=\"Portrait photography of girl using seven-eights view.\" title=\"Portrait photography of girl using seven-eights view.\" width=\"400\" class=\"size-full wp-image-210\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Portrait photography of girl using seven-eights view.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b>Three-Quarters View<\/b> &#8211; The head is turn somewhat more than the above blocking the view of one of the ears and more of one side of the face will be visible. The far eye will appear smaller as it is further from the camera. Do note that people&#8217;s eyes are not balance so take note of the person&#8217;s eye. The smaller eye should be placed closer to the camera which would result in a more balance perspective of the eyes.<\/p>\n<p><b>Profile View<\/b> &#8211; This pose reminds me of those prison jailhouse mug shots with the head at a right angle to the camera. The best profile view is when the head is angled just about when you can&#8217;t see the far side eye lashes. Of course you are taking candid photos you won&#8217;t have the luxury to tell your subject to turn their head slowly to get your perfect profile view shot!<\/p>\n<p><b>Shoulders<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Have your subject sit straight towards you and what you get is a standard passport photograph. Most of us detest our passport and identity card photos because the photo just looked terrible. So likewise if you do so with your digital photography you get the same refugee escape from prison type picture! Another issue with dead head on pictures is that it makes the person look broader. Of course if you want to show off a masculine picture like an athlete, showing off the athlete size and mass, this dead on style would be acceptable. Let&#8217;s see if we can make a better head and shoulder photo.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"media\/portrait_photo_girl2.jpg\" alt=\"Candid portrait photography taken during a wedding reception photo session.\" title=\"Candid portrait photography taken during a wedding reception photo session.\" width=\"400\" class=\"size-full wp-image-210\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Candid portrait photography taken during a wedding reception photo session<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>To improve a shoulder photograph, have your subject&#8217;s shoulders turned at an angle to the camera. That way you sort of slim down the person portrait. Everybody wants to look slim and I&#8217;m sure the ladies would want to look slim as well, so have them turn at an angle or if you are going candid, perhaps have yourself move to a one side to get a shot off in an angled shoulder position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are many things to take note when learning to take portrait photography. You can&#8217;t just ask the person to stand somewhere, take your camera and just shoot and hope for the best. A vacation family photo can be taken just like that. But to achieve more some additional understanding about basic portrait photography will &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/posing-portrait-photography-tips.html\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Posing for portrait photography<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[189],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1bS5F-15g","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":200,"url":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/portrait-photography-tips.html","url_meta":{"origin":4170,"position":0},"title":"Portrait Photography Tips","author":"Jan","date":"9 March 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Taking a proper people portrait is very different from taking pictures of say a picture of family and you in a holiday travel destination. For one, you are not taking a picture of \"I was here\" in this so-and-so vacation place. Sure those photos are memorable and show a happy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;People Portrait Photography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"People Portrait Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/category\/people-portrait-photography"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"media\/portrait-photography-tips.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":192,"url":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/people-portrait-photography-tips.html","url_meta":{"origin":4170,"position":1},"title":"People and Portrait Photography Basics","author":"Jan","date":"5 March 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Taking photography of people whether it is family members, friends or even strangers requires a certain amount of awareness, a quick and steady hand to capture a candid moment. And of course you may need to stand up to some amount of embarrassment as you pick up your DSLR camera\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;People Portrait Photography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"People Portrait Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/category\/people-portrait-photography"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"media\/street_photography_corn_seller.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4162,"url":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/digital-photography-basics-mode-zone.html","url_meta":{"origin":4170,"position":2},"title":"Digital Photography Basics Mode Zone","author":"Jan","date":"22 October 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The mode dial basic zone is a quick way for taking photography basics pictures. There is no need to fiddle with the ISO, white balance, focus points, shutter speed and aperture f-stop settings. See a scene, select the appropriate basic zone mode, and snap away! Basic mode zone is available\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Photography Basics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Photography Basics","link":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/category\/photography-basics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":249,"url":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/canon-picture-style-extended-functions.html","url_meta":{"origin":4170,"position":3},"title":"Canon Picture Style &#8211; Extended Functions","author":"Jan","date":"3 December 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"If you find the photography basics picture style format is less than what you want, you could do more than just tweak the basic photography style settings by uploading additional Canon Picture Styles. For more choice of Canon Picture Styles you can download additional extended picture styles from Canon website\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Photography Basics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Photography Basics","link":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/category\/photography-basics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4158,"url":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/digital-slr-photography-basics.html","url_meta":{"origin":4170,"position":4},"title":"Digital SLR Photography Basics","author":"Jan","date":"14 October 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Learning to use a digital SLR for photography is a lot more complicated than using a point-and-shoot compact camera. It is not something you can just pick up from the shop or borrow from a friend and off you go for a quick snap. Do get yourself familiarised with the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Photography Basics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Photography Basics","link":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/category\/photography-basics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":".\/media\/dslr_lcd_monitor.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":239,"url":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/canon-picture-style.html","url_meta":{"origin":4170,"position":5},"title":"Canon Picture Style","author":"Jan","date":"31 October 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Most of the modern photography equipment provides a simple way for how a basic photography will be processed. In the Canon DSLR they call it picture style setting which provide a certain amount of control over how the photo is processed. While most compacts will provide three simple settings called\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Photography Basics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Photography Basics","link":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/category\/photography-basics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4170"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}