Adding Personality to Your Portraits
My best pictures are not the ones where everyone is looking and smiling. My favorite shot is one that is full of personality. When I say a picture has personality, I mean that you feel something when you look at it. You feel an emotion. It makes you remember the feeling you had at that time the picture was taken. It captures specific traits about the subject.
#photographyisaloveaffairwithlife #photographybestoftheday #photographyforever
I have pictures of my oldest son, Luca, on his first day of kindergarten where he is smiling and standing alone. Sure it’s cute…but when I see this one I feel something.
Follow these three tips to add personality or emotion to your pictures!
1) Get on Down
Go ahead, get on down. I imagine I look like a crazy person when I am taking pictures of kids. I take every picture on the level of my subjects (usually my kids)- even if that means laying on the ground in he middle of a park. Kids see the world totally different than how you see it. Check it out. Get on their level when you take pictures of kids, animals, or anyone!Here are some examples:
2) Don’t Stress over Smiles
“If you smile for this picture you can have candy…” Do you ever find yourself saying that? Don’t be ashamed. That was me too. Until I realized that sometimes the best pictures are kids showing ALL emotions, deep in play, or interacting with other people.If your kid is always happy, GOOD FOR YOU- consider yourself lucky. You are the minority. It is better to capture other honest emotions, than fake and forced smiles. Or sometimes the best pictures is when your subjects aren’t even looking at all. I love the ones when they are interacting with each other.
3) Capture those Personalities and Moments
I am not going to pretend like my 5 year old daughter is a calm, happy-go-lucky sweetheart. She is a strong, powerful force who knows what she wants and she gets it. And I love her for that- maybe not 10 minutes before the bus gets here and she is demanding to wear shorts when it is 40 degrees out, but I still respect her for it. I love capturing her sometimes terrifying, dictator-like personality in pictures.And this moment. No one is looking. No one is smiling. But I crack up with when I see it. I forgot how tiny baby Nico was. Forgot how much the kids were a little confused by a new baby in the house, but also didn’t want to leave his side (they are IN his crib here).
You will start to develop your own photography styles, but following these three tips will guarantee that your personality and the subjects personality will shine through in your pictures. THOSE are the photographs that you will remember for a lifetime.
Courtesy of :Simply Snapping Mom
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