Video: Headshots with whatever you’ve got (studio flash / speedlights / windowlight)

Want to create corporate headshots but not sure how? Scared of studio or location lighting? Wondering how to work with windowlight? This video shows how you can create striking, flattering and professional-looking headshots no matter what your lighting set-up is. First, Paul talks about the importance of eye contact in corporate headshots. He explains what to consider when planning what orientation to use (upright or landscape format), and talks about how the confidence of both photographer and subject develops over …

Video: Outdoor portrait of Alice using direct sunlight

How to build texture and shape into your portraits using light and location. For this portrait, I needed to make a choice about whether or not the positives of the location outweighed its limitations. However, I loved the dappled sunlight, and wanted to use it like a spotlight on my subject, so couldn’t pass up the opportunity to stop and shoot. Watch the video to find out why you shouldn’t trust your camera’s meter to expose correctly in a lighting situation …

Video: Tutu Tutorial With A Beautiful Ballerina

It’s not every day we have a ballerina in the studio or, in this case, just outside the studio, so when we do we make the most of it. This tutorial shows how we created some interesting portraits focussing on dance posing and beautiful light – both available and artificial. It was a particularly cold evening when we created these images – especially for Emily who was wearing a tutu and pointe shoes! JOIN NOW to view this and hundreds …

Placing The MD In The Middle

Positioning your subject in the middle of the frame can appear unimaginative. Here, I’ve made sure it’s a bold choice, by using elements of the environment to create a composition that’s both graphic and visually striking. Maurizio Brusadelli was the UK MD for Cadbury when I first met him. I was working with the confectionery giant to capture their part in the 2012 London Olympics. It was a lot of fun but also a full-on year, when I spent more …

Environmental Chef Portrait

Sometimes you’ve got loads of light sources, stuff everywhere and very little time: this is the world of environmental portraits, & here’s my approach to them. Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons (known locally as just ‘Le Manoir’) is a hotel and restaurant in Oxford that’s owned by French chef Raymond Blanc. It’s a stunning venue, and I photograph a lot of weddings there. During one shoot, the bride and groom asked for a shot of the Executive Sous Chef, a …

Horror-Inspired Fashion Portrait

Stylised portraits can be the most fun to create, especially if you enjoy overcoming technical challenges. For this shot, I needed to make a bright sky look like night-time, and match the model’s pose to the mood of the set-up. This is one of the trickiest images from our book, Mastering Portrait Photography. It was shot for an old friend of the studio who wanted to create some ‘horror-novel-inspired-images’ for a project for her fashion degree. I knew the location …

Lighting The Snow For A Night-Time Kiss In Winter

This is one of my most popular portraits: the drama of the red dress and wintry weather mixed with the anticipation of The Kiss makes for an eye-catching combination. Ah, best laid plans. It was winter. We had everything arranged: Lily and Sam would come over for some beautiful couple’s portraits under the full moon. It would be delicate, romantic and, well, dry. Then the sleet started falling – a sudden downpour of icy rain and slushy snow. I had …

Video: Backlit snow portrait using location flash

One of my best ever images was the result of a best laid plan gone horribly wrong (thanks, weather forecast). Instead of a romantic Valentine’s portrait in the moonlight, we were faced with the coldest, slushiest, iciest rain/snow instead. But I still needed my Valentine’s shot, and I thought perhaps I could get something decent despite the challenges. Find out how we went from a disastrous shoot to a soggy but successful one, JOIN NOW to view this and hundreds …