Hundreds Of Articles, Videos & Resources Dedicated To Portrait Photography!

Portrait photography is a wondrous thing: a heady mix of creativity, technical skill, technique and personality. This website is completely dedicated to the craft, the artistry and the business of creating beautiful portraits.  There are hundreds of articles and diagrams, dozens of videos and, of course, it is simply full of beautiful portrait photography and the stories behind each image. Sometimes those tales are funny, sometimes they are poignant, but they are all there to help you master portrait photography!

Oh, and it’s also the home of the ever popular Mastering Portrait Photography Podcast, featuring interviews and insights into the world of one of the UK’s top portrait photographers.

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Business

Possibly the greatest joy I have is that I get to earn my living from what was my hobby. But making a living from photography requires an additiona...

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Foundations

Foundations Your technical knowledge and skills empower you to take creative control. Understanding the nature of light enables you to manipulate i...

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Lighting

Striking photographs – the kind that makes you stop you in your tracks – usually owe their impact to the use of lighting. It could be the mood ...

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Locations

Your subject may claim they have nothing good enough to wear, but after browsing this section, you can never again say that you have nowhere good e...

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MPPTV

Join us behind-the-scenes as Paul creates stunning portraits on a wide range of themes. If you’d like to see a topic or type of shoot that we haven...

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Posing

As soon as people are in front of the camera, they can become self-conscious and awkward. How can you pose them in an authentic, natural way, witho...

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Post-Production

There are purists who believe that no post-production editing should be necessary for a great shot. For the majority of portrait photographers,...

Store

Here you’ll find all sorts of resources for portrait photographers – from background textures to salesroom room-sets. Looking for some texture to a...

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The Podcast

Paul chats about life, the universe and anything portrait photography.  You can listen to the podcasts here or you can subscribe on your favorite...

What Is “Mastering Portrait Photography”?

We created Mastering Portrait Photography after the global success of the book of the same name. Although the book was (and still is!) a bestseller, being limited to a fixed number of pages meant there was so much we couldn’t include: the stories of the people, behind the scenes images, myriad tips, technical diagrams and, of course, we couldn’t include any videos!  This website includes all of these elements missing in the book.

If you’re just starting out, why not kick off with our structured foundations, giving you some of the fundamentals of portrait photography?  Then, browse through the hundreds of videos, podcasts, diagrams and articles to improve your skills and get inspired. Our content breaks down how each image was created so that you can replicate the results yourself. Ask questions about any of the content, anytime. Then put your new skills into practice and submit your images for critique by international, multi-award-winning portrait photographer and competition judge Paul Wilkinson.

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How Much Does It Cost?

It’s completely free!  Well, OK,  nearly all of it is free: we do have to charge a small fee for the Foundations and, of course, there the store full of juicy goodies you can puchase (and even there, many of the downloads are free!) We wanted to create something that would help portrait photographers, whether beginners, enthusiastic amateurs or hardened pros – and we wanted it to be available to all.

And we will continue to try and do just that.

Paul Wilkinson FBIPP FMPA FSWPP

Paul is one of the UK’s top portrait photographers – not just for his eye for an image but for the manner in which they are created (mostly laughing, always relaxed!) His images have adorned numerous publications from the BBC to the Times and have won countless awards as well as giving him the accolade of Fellowship of the Master Photographers Association and the MPA Presidential Award in 2017. He is the co-author of Mastering Portrait Photography, the best-selling reference book that’s been re-printed, translated into German and Italian and licensed by National Geographic. He and his team are based near Oxford in the UK though often you’ll find him clutching his passport and his cameras as he creates images for people across the globe!

While Paul is the familiar face of Mastering Portrait Photography, it is Sarah Wilkinson who has masterminded Paul’s hugely successful and respected photography business from a one-man band to the global name that it now is.

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