This Is What You Need to Know About Portrait Photography
Portrait Photograhy Is What You Need to Know
When it comes to photography, every shot falls under one of these two umbrellas: portrait photography or landscape photography. To make this clearer, let us briefly explain the difference between the two.
Portrait photography: It is commonly referred to as portraiture. This type of photography captures the subject, emphasizing less on the background. In this form of photography, the entire focus is on the subject. Professionals ensure that the entire frame points towards the subject, enabling you to focus on it directly and entirely. Pictures in portrait mode are vertical.
Landscape photography: With a wider frame at play, landscape pictures are more about capturing the essence of the complete environment than focusing on a single subject. To add more to the frame, images in this type of photography are widescreen. It is quite a popular form to shoot nature and wildlife. In landscape, photos are horizontal.
The Core Differences
Portraiture is often a primary choice of architectural photographers. It may not be the most common form opted for, but it surely isn’t as popular as horizontal or landscape photography. Apart from being vertical and horizontal, the two forms of photography also differ in the way they expose content. Portrait images are subject centric where the surrounding space only helps to identify the core part of the image. In landscape, each aspect of the widescreen image holds the same amount of importance. In other words, portraits limit the vision while landscapes allow you to take in more of the content.
Shooting Portraits
Professional portrait photographers don’t just randomly choose a spot and decide to shoot. They weigh in everything from what they actually want to capture to what the surroundings will offer. Following are some of the factors that help them decide if they want to shoot the image in vertical or not.
The Subject’s Orientation
One of the very first things that can help you determine if the subject is perfect for a portrait or not is its orientation. For instance, if you want to capture a standing person, a tall building from up close, or anything that is tall but not as wide, you can capture a portrait image of it. The photo is supposed to complement the subject. By cutting out the unnecessary bit of information on the sides, you allow the subject to truly stand out.
Placement of Subjects
Another thing that can help you pick portrait photography is the number of subjects that need attention inside a potential frame. Usually, when there is only a single subject with not much detail to capture from its surroundings, experts prefer opting for a portrait. Furthermore, if there is more than one object that needs to be captured, it depends upon their position. A set of buildings tightly knit together will be perfect to be captured in portrait form.
Similarly, a family of four to five people standing close to each other can make a great portrait shot. It all depends on the fact whether the objects you want to gather in a frame can pull attention towards themselves in a vertical shot.
Vertical Movement
To take exceptionally great portrait pictures, you can see if they are making a vertical movement or not. A person jumping in the air or gazing at the sky is the perfect example here. You can capture more of the person’s height by capturing a vertical image. Taking a portrait of someone jumping, accents the movement within a picture. For a car moving horizontally on a road, a landscape shot will be the right choice, but for a rocket leaving its station, a portrait will offer a lot more to the photo.
Shooting Landscape
Landscape is another exquisite form of photography. It allows photographers to capture far more content that portraiture does. It is normally perfect for situations where the subject doesn’t require all the attention in a photo. The following pointers will shed more light on when exactly it is best to go for landscape photography.
Sense of Size and Space
With photography, you can do great wonders. If you want to showcase an image conveying a sense of great space, landscape mode is the perfect alternative. With wider angles, you can also feature more inside a frame. Landscape also allows you to portray sizes relative to something. For instance, you can shoot a skyscraper in widescreen from a fair distance so you can feature the rest of the buildings around it. This will allow you to show the relative size of that skyscraper against other buildings.
Rule of Thirds
In landscape photography, the rule of thirds plays a major role. If you are shooting something that is moving in the horizontal direction, you can rest assured that you should be using the landscape mode. Photographers use the rule of third to identify and capture images in order to amplify such a motion. This also applies to objects with horizontal orientations—think of capturing a limousine!
Dive into The Minds of Professionals
Deciding whether to shoot in landscape or portrait is a little complex. When an expert sights a shot worth taking, he or she will picture the dimensions, work out the final image in their minds, opt for the content that needs to feature in the frame, and then make a decision whether to go for a descriptive landscape or a focused portrait.
A professional photographer will even move locations, alter angles, and change frames of the same subject matter to capture a luring piece of art. This involves theutmost precision and an eye for photography that takes years of experience to develop.
Want to meet the best and one of the most experienced photographers in the industry? Meet Dino Mosley Photography. We are experts in all types and forms of landscape and portrait photography. You can hire us for a fitness photoshoot, fashion photography, capturing a perfect headshot, and much more. We also offer free consultancy for people interested in the profound art of photography. To get in touch with us, dial 323-332-1197, or email us at info@dinomosleyphotography.com.