Picture-Minded Portraits in Depth

I recently updated the portraits section on my websites - (www.picturemindedweddings.com) & (www.pictureminded.com), and I was reminded of the differences between types of portraiture. Aside from my wedding/couple portraits, Family, Fashion, and Professional are my three most popular portrait categories. The one main constant throughout most of my portraiture is the use of natural light. This lighting keeps my portraits feeling a bit free and natural which are characteristics I aim to have in my portraits. The differences between my family, fashion, and professional portraiture lie in posing, and the overall nature of each shoot. Below I have highlighted these differences for each category.

Family Portraits:

Coming off this past holiday season families are definitely looking for that one great natural photo where all family members are looking at the camera smiling in their best new outfit. With every family shoot I try and bring lots of light & happy energy and kick things off with that first great, everyone looking at the camera smiling photo, especially because you don’t know how long that three year old is gonna last;). Usually there is height imbalance so creating poses where all faces are close to one another is important. Whether one parent is holding a child or they are all seated making sure everyone’s faces are nice and tight is always something I am looking out for. Once I get that golden photo we can then move into more loose poses and play around with different elements (for as long as the kids will let me/ the parents:)!

Fashion Portraits:

Candidness is welcomed, smiles aren’t always necessary, and irregular poses can work well. Fashion portraiture invites creativity. I usually like to let the model pose on their own to start, then I start to pick up on different elements that could be enhanced in relation to their body, outfit, and environment. With fashion portraiture many times I find I am playing off the model.

Professional Portraits:

Since many the subjects for my professional portraits are not necessarily comfortable in front of the camera I like to kick things off with a good amount of instruction. Then much like my fashion photography I start to pick up on elements about the subject that are working well and give further instruction accordingly. A strong difference between fashion and professional photography is that I want more naturalness to come through - overall less drama is allowed and I instead aim to capture the honest essence of each subject.