Second instalment in the Improve Your Photography with Steven Hawker Photography series ….
We all take loads of portraits these days … even if we don’t think of them that way. Some are with camera phones on nights out, or of children or other relatives.
These are moments that will never be repeated and for some people the casual pictures they take of their children growing up, for example, may be their only memories of that stage in their childs development.
Framing/positioning of people in pictures can be a little complicated with lots of “rules” but as a start here’s just 3 things to think about.
- Try in general not to cut people’s legs off at their knee or ankle joints. If you have to cut people into pieces try to cut them 1/2 way up their shins or thighs rather than at their ankles or at their knees
- Try to fill the picture with the person or people. Try to avoid having the people at the bottom of the picture and a huge amount of sky at the top, or the other way around. Zoom in or move closer until the people clearly become the subject of the picture. Of course if you’re trying to give an idea of where they were at the time include some background but make sure its not cluttered.
- Avoid messy backgrounds with shop signs, cars, lamp posts, street signs etc. Also avoid other people in the background as much as possible. Other items in the picture compete with the subject for attention when you look at the picture later.
Most importantly … remember to back up your pictures. Mobile phones can be lost or develop faults as can your computers hard disk. Cloud storage is available through sites like Dropbox and Microsoft One Drive plus many others. Most cloud storage providers offer levels of free storage and of course come with their own Apps.
Avoid this –
Aim for this –
