Mastering Portrait Photography

This website is dedicated to just one thing: developing your portrait photography. It’s full of resources from videos walking through shoots, articles on different images and techniques, downloads from backgrounds to room sets, technical diagrams, image critiques and the regular podcast.

All from the perspective of a full-time working portrait pro.

Hundreds Of Articles, Videos and Resources!

We already have a ton of content and it’s constantly growing!  Articles, videos, forums, walkthroughs, podcasts and critiques.  Come on in and have a look!

COMPOSITION
12
The positioning of your subject amid the clutter of the everyday can make or break a portrait.  Even the aspect ratio of the frame can make art of a headshot.
FOUNDATIONS
38
Build your knowledge here in the Foundations section, then go get inspired by the tips, techniques and ideas across the rest of the site.
LIGHTING
37
Light, of course, is what photography is all about (the clue is in the definition!) Shed light on lighting in these articles about this most wonderful of creative tools.
LOCATIONS
24
Every image needs a location.  But what type and how to use them? These articles deal with everything from bland backgrounds to complex corridors to create images with a twist.
MPPTV
82
Some things are better demonstrated than typed.  Enjoy these videos from various shoots, showing how I approach the creative process.
PODCASTS
132
POSING
30
POST-PRODUCTION

Paul Wilkinson 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 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 a team here: Sarah Plater, the co-author and instigator of the book is also an experienced photographer, writer and videographer, ands 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.