Portrait photography is about much more than simply capturing someone's likeness. Great portraits reveal character, emotion, and story through thoughtful composition, lighting, and connection with your subject. Whether you're photographing family members, professional clients, or strangers on the street, these ten tips will help you create portraits that go beyond mere documentation to become compelling works of art.

1. Connect Before You Click

The most important element in portrait photography happens before you even raise your camera: establishing a genuine connection with your subject.

Take time to talk with your subject, learn about them, and help them feel comfortable. When people feel at ease, their authentic expressions emerge naturally. This connection also helps you discover aspects of their personality that you can aim to capture.

For professional shoots, consider meeting beforehand or having a pre-shoot phone call. For street portraits, even a brief conversation can create rapport. Remember that your energy affects your subject's—if you're relaxed and confident, they will likely mirror that state.

2. Master the Art of Eye Focus

Eyes are the focal point of most portraits, often described as "windows to the soul." Ensuring sharp focus on the eyes, particularly the eye closest to the camera, is essential for creating engaging portraits.

Use single-point autofocus and position it directly over the subject's eye. When shooting with a shallow depth of field (wide apertures like f/1.8 or f/2.8), be especially careful with focus as even slight movements can shift the focal plane.

Pay attention to catchlights—the reflections of light sources in the eyes. These small highlights add life and dimension to portraits. Position your subject to ensure pleasing catchlights, whether from natural light, studio lights, or reflectors.

3. Find the Right Light

Lighting makes or breaks a portrait. Understanding how different light affects your subject's features allows you to choose the most flattering conditions.

Soft, diffused light is generally most flattering for portraits. This can come from:

• Window light with sheer curtains
• Open shade on sunny days
• Overcast conditions outdoors
• Softboxes or umbrellas in studio settings

Directional light adds dimension. Consider these classic lighting patterns:

• Split lighting: Light illuminates one half of the face, creating drama
• Rembrandt lighting: Creates a triangular highlight on the cheek opposite to the light source
• Butterfly lighting: Light positioned above and directly in front of the subject, creating a shadow under the nose
• Loop lighting: Creates a small shadow of the nose on the cheek

For natural light portraits, the golden hour (shortly after sunrise or before sunset) provides warm, flattering illumination that's hard to replicate artificially.

4. Choose the Right Lens

Lens selection dramatically affects the look of your portraits through perspective distortion and depth of field control.

For most portraits, lenses in the 85-135mm range (on full-frame cameras) are ideal because they:

• Create pleasing compression that flatters facial features
• Allow comfortable working distance between photographer and subject
• Provide excellent subject isolation when used with wide apertures

Wider lenses (35-50mm) can work for environmental portraits where including context is important, but be cautious about distortion when shooting closer headshots with these focal lengths.

Prime lenses with wide apertures (f/1.8 or wider) create beautiful background blur (bokeh) that helps isolate your subject, though zoom lenses offer more compositional flexibility.

5. Guide Through Thoughtful Posing

Most people feel uncomfortable in front of a camera and don't know how to pose naturally. As the photographer, gentle guidance is essential.

Start with these fundamental posing principles:

• Create angles by having subjects turn slightly rather than facing the camera directly
• Avoid having limbs pressed against the body—create space between arms and torso
• Use the "C" and "S" curves to create more dynamic body positions
• Position the chin slightly down and forward to define the jawline
• Pay attention to hand placement—hands should appear relaxed, not tense

Rather than micromanaging every body part, give actionable directions that create natural movements: "Walk toward me slowly," "Look over your shoulder," or "Take a deep breath and release it slowly."

Remember that authentic expression trumps perfect posing. Capture the moments between poses when subjects relax into more natural expressions.

6. Perfect Your Composition

Thoughtful composition elevates portraits from snapshots to art. While rules are made to be broken, these compositional guidelines provide a strong foundation:

• Rule of Thirds: Position key elements like eyes along the gridlines or at their intersections
• Leading Lines: Use natural lines to draw attention to your subject
• Framing: Use environmental elements to create natural frames around your subject
• Negative Space: Sometimes what you leave out is as important as what you include

Consider the orientation that best suits your subject—vertical frames typically work better for individual portraits, while horizontal frames may be better for environmental or group portraits.

Be intentional about your crop—traditional headshots, half-body, or full-body portraits each convey different feelings and serve different purposes.

7. Control Your Depth of Field

Aperture choice dramatically affects the feel of your portraits by controlling depth of field:

• Wide apertures (f/1.4 - f/2.8): Create shallow depth of field that blurs backgrounds and isolates subjects. Ideal for eliminating distractions in busy environments.
• Middle apertures (f/4 - f/5.6): Provide a balance of subject sharpness and background separation. Good for ensuring all facial features are in focus while still creating some background blur.
• Narrow apertures (f/8 - f/11): Increase depth of field to include more context and environment. Useful for environmental portraits where the location is an important part of the story.

When shooting groups, use a narrower aperture to ensure everyone is in focus. A good rule of thumb is to set your aperture to at least the number of people in the row (e.g., f/4 for four people standing side by side).

8. Consider Background and Context

The environment surrounding your subject contributes significantly to the portrait's story and mood. Before shooting, evaluate the background for:

• Distractions: Look for elements that draw attention away from your subject (bright spots, sharp lines, busy patterns)
• Complementary colors: Choose backgrounds with colors that enhance or contrast with your subject's skin tones and clothing
• Contextual relevance: Select backgrounds that reinforce the portrait's purpose or the subject's personality

For environmental portraits, include elements that tell a story about the subject—their workplace, home, or a location significant to them.

Position your subject with enough distance from the background to create separation through depth of field. Even with a shallow depth of field, a cluttered background can still be distracting when blurred.

9. Direct Your Subject's Gaze

The direction of your subject's gaze creates different feelings in a portrait:

• Direct eye contact with the camera creates connection and engagement with the viewer
• Looking off-camera can convey contemplation, candid moments, or create a sense of mystery
• Looking at something within the frame draws the viewer's attention to that element and creates a narrative

Try different gaze directions during your session to create variety. For off-camera gazes, give your subject something specific to look at rather than just saying "look away"—this creates more intentional and natural expressions.

When photographing people with glasses, be aware of reflections and adjust your lighting or have them tilt their glasses slightly downward to minimize glare.

10. Capture Authentic Expressions

The most technically perfect portrait falls flat without genuine expression. Eliciting authentic emotions requires skill and sensitivity:

• Create a relaxed atmosphere with music, conversation, or humor
• Give subjects something to do with their hands or body to reduce self-consciousness
• Ask engaging questions that prompt real reactions rather than saying "smile"
• Shoot continuously to capture the moments between posed expressions
• For children, turn the session into a game rather than a formal photoshoot

Be observant and ready to capture fleeting micro-expressions that reveal character. Sometimes the most compelling portraits come from quiet moments of introspection rather than broad smiles.

Remember that not every meaningful portrait requires the subject to look happy—contemplative, serious, or even melancholy expressions can create powerful, evocative images.

Bonus Tip: Post-Processing for Portraits

While capturing a great portrait in-camera should always be the goal, thoughtful post-processing enhances your final image:

• Use selective adjustments to draw attention to your subject's eyes and face
• Apply skin retouching judiciously—aim to preserve character while removing temporary distractions
• Consider color grading that complements your subject's skin tones and the overall mood
• Use dodging and burning techniques to enhance dimension and facial structure

Develop a consistent editing style that becomes part of your signature look, but remain flexible enough to adapt your approach to suit different subjects and purposes.

Conclusion

Portrait photography is a beautiful blend of technical skill and interpersonal connection. The most powerful portraits result from the photographer's ability to make subjects feel comfortable enough to reveal something genuine about themselves.

As you practice these techniques, remember that rules provide foundation but should never constrain creativity. Develop your own style by understanding why these principles work, then adapt and sometimes break them to create your unique visual voice.

Above all, approach each portrait session with empathy and curiosity about your subject. The technical aspects of photography can be learned, but the ability to connect with people and see their essence is what truly distinguishes exceptional portrait photographers.