5 Photo Tips for Professional Portraits Outside In The Dead Of Winter

Shoot:  A portrait/headshot for a doctor specializing in alternative medicine.

Style:  My client Ruba is a doctor who is starting her own practice. She wants something semi-soft nothing too buttoned up/ traditional, and to be outside/ include nature.

Location: Central Park on a cold cold January day.  

1.  Work in intervals.  Have your client keep on their coat, then have them jog in place a bit, and then shoot!  Stop - warm up - jog - repeat.

2. Have your specific outdoor locations picked out prior to your shoot.  If you don’t it is just extra time for everyone and that is not ideal on a really cold day.

3.  Find those evergreens!  A naked tree in the background screams Winter - find those few bits of winter green to have in the background.

4. Work with the architecture around you.  My client wanted to try and incorporate the outdoors but we came across an archway that served as a lovely background and diminishes the bland Winter trees and bushes behind her.

5. Make the photo a black and white.  When it’s only blacks and whites there's no telling how naked those trees are in the background.  Double bonus if they are blurred.