The Basics Archives

A classic “head and shoulders” portrait. It’s easy to knock this, but it’s a very useful skill to have, and trickier than you might think! Shooting a lot of these pays off, in more than one way!

Being prolific helps you in many ways.

- Shooting all the time is a sure-fire way to help improve and learn.
- When you take a lot of images on a shoot, you can often help make sure you get something good.
- Posting a lot of your images online is a great way to generate feedback, and to learn things you might never learn without sharing. Even if something is weaker than you’d like, it can still serve an educational purpose.
- As you improve, you’ll probably wind up taking more time for each image. This means you’ll want to post fewer, and will need to become a better editor to get the best of the best online. (And you’ll have a better sense of this if you get all that input from posting!)

Since this is my 200th post, it only seemed fitting to talk about doing something a lot. So here it is, and happy shooting!

I love full-frame sensors, check out that wide angle distortion on the right side!

It’s good to have your camera on you and ready to use , and it’s fun to do that with friends who are comfortable with you having a camera in hand all the time. How do you do this? Well, break out your camera and get started! Time will lead to comfort, and you’ll learn how to be subtle with your snapping.

Your pictures may not be profound artistic statements, but that’s not entirely true, either! People like Elliot Erwitt take those unplanned and candid moments and make truly amazing art with them.

So go out, and get snapping!

It is easy to pay attention only to the family and statue, but it’s equally important to remember the trees and sky in the background. I don’t mind making the statue less visible here because the focus is the family. But without them, I wouldn’t like the separation from the trees. Clutter is a pain you might not notice until you see an image on a larger screen. Step 3 helps you avoid this!

Edit: Dang it, I’ve just one-upped on the speedy portrait end by Strobist and Robert Seal. ha ha. Totally not planned by me!

While you take a break from reading tweets about Kanye’s Swift downfall (I used to write headlines for a living … ), feel free to check out a few shots I took for a family at The Children’s Park in Tyler, Texas. It was a fun shoot, which had to be quick to hold the children’s attention. Knowing a few things can definitely help!
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If you want to be a working photographer, there are few things smarter than getting your own Web site. Though I once disagreed and thought sites like Flickr were enough, you can consider this a profound admission that I was very wrong.

I realized exactly how useful a site could be after a photographer friend had so much success with hers. It was around then that another friend helped me out by supplying me with this awesome piece of the Web. (Funny that they are both named Jessica.)
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Older Lalagray shot I still dig. Circa 2007.

I’ve actually gotten to the point where I’m not sure if I’ve talked about this much, but for me, the most important thing you can hope for in portraiture is to care about your subjects.

Talk to them, get to know them, and don’t just treat them like something to bounce light off of.

What are their stories? What do they like? Hobbies, passions, jobs, schools, pets, relatives, favorite bands and sports. No matter how mundane it seems, even the way they convey this information to you is important. Disarm them. You can do all of this when you are handling details such as lighting levels, angles and such. It’s a great way to keep from boring everyone while fiddling with settings.

You don’t have to be best friends with, or even like, your subjects, but showing a little interest can get the most expression out of those fractions of seconds you capture. Give it a try!

*With apologies to The Shins.