Portrait Photography How To

One way to have fun with photography and get the creative juices flowing is to step out of your comfort zone and do things a bit differently. The quick tutorial below will help you do just that by offering a variety of fun tips and tricks for shooting portraits.

In the trifecta of portrait lenses—85mm, 105mm, and 135mm—the 85mm focal length is the gateway. It’s short enough for tight shooting spaces, while producing a real portrait look, yet versatile enough for use in other genres, including photojournalism, where a nifty 50 comes up a bit short. Enter Sigma’s 85mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art lens ($1,199) that’s fast enough for reportage and long enough for portraiture.

We usually turn to Mathieu Stern for insight on adapting bargain vintage lenses for use with modern digital cameras. But in the quick video below, Stern gives a 30-second tutorial on making eyes “pop” with Photoshop.

The Killer is Jerry Lee Lewis—if you want the origin story of his nickname, it’s searchable—and on that night in 1975 he was past his rockabilly and rock-and-roll days and into his country music career. Photographer Henry Horenstein was at the Ramada Inn in East Boston on assignment for Country Music magazine to photograph Lewis between sets.

Randy Duchaine captured this visually detailed environmental portrait of Bread & Puppet Theater founder Peter Schumann in 2006 for a project on people who create unique experiences or things. “It was shot in an old dairy farm in Vermont, which is the group’s museum, and Peter showed up barefoot and gave me five minutes,” Duchaine explains.

Jeff Rojas is a successful New York portrait and fashion photographer with a clear message in all his tutorials: “Keep it simple.” In the quick video below, he shows you three techniques for using a single reflective umbrella that deliver great results.

Disillusioned with the practice of law, Brian Ingram found himself forced to reexamine his professional path in life. So, at a critical juncture, Ingram chose what to him was the road “less traveled by.” And, to further quote Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken,” it “has made all the difference.” Sparked by the gift of a Nikon D40, Ingram chose photography to be his new profession, and this new path revitalized his outlook on life.