Jeff Smith's Guide to Head and Shoulders Portrait Photography

Subject Seating. Many head and shoulders poses have the subject in a sitting position, so, like most photographers, I use the ty ...

some motion to an otherwise static portrait. This technique should only be used when your subject has long, thick hair, though; ...

If you don’t have (or can’t afford) an assistant and know you will otherwise be alone with your client, ask a friend or family m ...

M ost photographers have gotten to a point where they coordinate the basic color of a client’s clothing to that of the backgroun ...

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anyone who wears it, provided you use common sense and pair it with a black or very dark background. As mentioned in chapter 1, ...

clothing to make them look their best. Here are some common problems that should be avoided. Poor Fit.Clothing that is too tight ...

T he background is an important portrait-making decision, because it makes up a large portion of the image. Background selection ...

high-key backgrounds without texture. Photographers who use this style ex- clusively tell themselves (and clients) that this is ...

area. To those of you that don’t believe anything that goes against your college textbook, put a black dot on a white piece of p ...

graph her against a lighter or white background. Because there will be little contrast between the background and her dress, the ...

To make my life simpler, I purchase or paint most of my backgrounds as monochromes (whites, blacks, and shades of gray). This al ...

Of course, rules are meant to be broken—and you’ll see examples of such rule-breaking in this very book! It’s fine to do this, a ...

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shoulders portraits: to create depth and realism in the portraits, which pleases me, and to add interest to the portraits, which ...

ground foliage in the distance. Position the subject with foliage in the fore- ground and several points of focus in the backgro ...

L ighting is a subject that could easily fill up several book and take years to completely understand. If you are fortunate, tho ...

stead, I will tell you the relationship of each light to the output of the main light. The output of the main light varies based ...

Hair Light.The second light that I would consider a necessity in a low-key area would be a hair light. This light is mounted abo ...

Additional Accent Hair Lights.Although it’s not necessary, I also use two ac- cent hair lights, placed about seven feet high at ...