Portraits are an incredible way to capture the essence of a person. They can tell a story, convey emotions, and immortalize memories. It’s no surprise that portrait photography has been around for over a century, and it’s still as popular as ever. In this blog post, I’ll explain how I make a great portrait.

Understand your subject

Whether you’re photographing a child or an adult, it’s important to know what makes them unique. Spend some time talking with them, asking questions, and getting to know their personality. This will help you capture their true essence in the photograph.

Lighting

The right lighting can make all the difference in creating a beautiful, memorable portrait. Natural light is great for outdoor portraits, but it can be difficult to control. Studio lighting provides more control, allowing you to create the perfect atmosphere for your subject. I often combine these two types of lighting to create the best of both worlds.

Posing

While it’s important to photograph your subject in a natural way, posing can help create a more polished look. You can experiment with different poses to find the right one that complements your subject. I try to shoot many different poses as the subject is comfortable with, while trying to capture that perfect expression.

Composition

I pay attention to the background, as it can make or break a photograph. A cluttered or distracting background can take away from the subject, while a simple, unobtrusive background can help draw attention to the subject. A large aperture helps blur the background, while keeping the subject in focus, and adding emphasis.

Equipment

A good camera and lens are essential for portrait photography. A full frame camera is ideal, as the sensor is large and it allows greater flexibility in a variety of lighting conditions. A lens with a 2.8 aperture is also helpful, as it allows you to create a shallow depth of field, isolating the subject from the background. The key is the distance of the subject from the background. More distance provides more blur.

Relaxed atmosphere

This can be achieved by creating a positive, open and confident tone. Act happy. Tell jokes. Give positive feedback even if you may feel frustrated. The key to avoid being frustrated is to prepare ahead of time. If you are relaxed, the subject will be relaxed. A relaxed subject is more likely to feel natural in front of the camera, resulting in better portraits.

Below is a collection of some of my best portraits. Lot’s of family, neighbors, babies, and teens, but most of all… smiles.

Holy Hill is a Roman Catholic basilica that sits on top of a kame in the town of Erin, Wisconsin. It can be seen for miles around and has been a landmark since it’s completion in 1931. It was pointed out to me when we were looking for a new home in the area. Turns out I can see Holy Hill every morning when I look out my new bedroom window.

I’ve tried to photograph the cathedral at different times of the year and in different weather. It’s still an ongoing project for me to catch this beautiful church in different conditions.

Here is a video of some of my best bird photos. While some photos were taken in various locations in the eastern part of the country, most were captured in my backyard. I’ve found that attracting birds is much easier than chasing them with a big lens. My set up is a nice bird feeder, close to a window or a door. I like to take photos from an open door because sometimes you can get reflections through a window. I have a patio table with a hole in the middle for an umbrella. I placed a somewhat attractive, leafless tree branch into the hole, and keep the table close to the feeder. The longer you leave this set-up, the better. The birds become confident with a perch that is close to the feeder, and you may get more birds as a result.

This morning I woke up in time to photograph the lunar eclipse. This lunar eclipse was special because it was simultaneous with the sunrise. The event, called a selenelion, is incredibly rare as the sun and moon have to be exactly 180 degrees apart. I caught the eclipse about 15 minutes after it started and watched it until the sun came up, which was as close to perfectly eclipsed as was possible. However, the sun was brightening the sky and the moon fell below the horizon before the eclipse was absolutely perfect.

These exposures are exactly as my camera captured them, except for a few images that were slightly tweaked. My camera is a Nikon D7000 with a Sigma 150-500mm zoom lens. The exposure changed dramatically as the dark side of the moon became red. I really had to crank up the ISO to capture the very faint image. That is why the red images look so grainy. Click on the image above to see a larger image.

As you might be able to tell, I love animals and the outdoors. The gardens in my yard are filled with flowers that attract all kinds of birds. One of my favorite birds that visit my flowers are Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. When I first moved to my house, I caught a glimpse of one and that next day I hung a feeder next to my kitchen back window. The hummers didn’t take long to discover it and have been entertaining my family every since.

This summer I bought a SB-700 speedlight for my Nikon camera and decided to put it through it’s paces. Photographing hummingbirds is a great way to teach yourself the finer nuances of flash photography. The challenge I posed to myself was to capture images with the little hummer’s wings frozen in mid flight. It’s a challenge just to catch a photo of these quick little birds. But it takes many tries to get just one good photo.

I tried lots of different techniques and camera settings to get the wings and feathers just right. I finally found a good mix of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO to give me a pleasant mix of stopped action and depth of field. The next step for me will be to get a couple more flashes and better reflectors.

For now, I just wanted to share what I’ve been able to capture. I have my favorites but think the collection really shows the personality of these very fast flyers.

A beautiful electric storm blows across Cayuga Lake in Upstate New York.

I love a good summer storm… from a distance. Here is a series of photos that I placed in an animation. I was trying to capture a lightning strikes, but when I viewed the photos in succession, it made for a compelling movie.