Jeff Smith's Guide to Head and Shoulders Portrait Photography

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ou’ll encounter two major differences when creating a head and shoulders

portrait outdoors or on location (rather than in the studio). The first is

that you’ll need to know how to deal with outdoor or natural lighting. The sec-

ond concern is placing the subject in such a way that at least a portion of the

environment around the subject shows with some detail. After all, it doesn’t

make since to leave the studio and go to the park if the background for the

portraits will be a wash of green texture that could have been duplicated in the

studio.

Coordinating the Clothing and the Location.

Many of the processes that you must go through in the studio must be done on

location, as well. This coordination of every element that will appear in the por-

trait is what ensures that it will visually make sense.

For example, park scenes are typically darker in tone and more relaxed in

their overall feel. As a result, this wouldn’t be my first choice for a formal por-

trait of a bride in a white wedding dress or young lady in an elegant gown.

Other locations such as, some architectural locations, can provide an elegant

surrounding for more formal clothing (and also higher-key areas that are more

suited for a white bridal dress). While you can control your outdoor lighting and

let backgrounds step-up to lighter tones, backgrounds typically look best and

most natural when they record in the image as they looked to your eye.

We suggest our clients bring medium to darker clothing for park-type loca-

tions and medium to lighter clothing for most architectural settings, since most

of the time they are lighter in tone. Casual clothing is suggested for standard

park locations—and this should reflect the time of year (shorts and dresses for

summer; sweaters and jackets for fall). We suggest nicer clothing for most ar-

chitectural locations—unless it will be a street-scene location, in which case

more trendy or harder-looking clothing will be suggested.

98 JEFF SMITH’S GUIDE TO HEAD AND SHOULDERS PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY

7. Working on Location..

Park scenes are

typically darker in tone

and more relaxed in

their overall feel.