Portrait Photography How To

Serendipity played a major role in this striking portrait taken by Shutterbug reader Samir Zahirovic. According to Zahirovic, he had only met the model, Izeta Mahmutovic (nicknamed Izzy), a few days before the shoot. 

Most of us are familiar with the use of out-of-focus, seamless backgrounds by studio photographers, especially those who shoot portraits. Often, these backgrounds are a single color, such as white, black, or gray. In other cases, the backgrounds are a muslin material, adding texture to the background. The sole purpose of these backgrounds is to create a cleaner overall composition, giving the viewer no choice but to look at the man, woman, or child.

When the creative juices stop flowing, it’s time to try something different. And the five fun photo hacks in the video below will definitely give you a boost.

Those of you who follow our website know that Manny Ortiz is both an adept photo instructor and a very fine portrait photographer. Yet, according to Ortiz, knowledge, skill and practice is far more important that talent if you want to become a great photographer. 

If you’re a bit envious of the beautiful portraits made by pros with well-equipped studios, this tutorial is a must-see. That’s because in just six minutes you’ll learn how to make stunning portraits of your own, in a home studio with just one flash and a simple background.

This may be the first time we’ve invoked the laws of physics in a phography tutorial. But fear not, because the "Inverse Square Law" is a simple concept, at least as it pertains to photography, and it can have a big impact on your images.

When we post time-lapse videos, they typically involve thousands of landscape or nature images, like the spectacular project we shared last spring that used 8TB of photos to capture the beauty of blooming flowers over a period of three years.