Portrait photography is one of the most common forms of photography and arguably one that everyone is familiar with. This is because when you see awesome images on social media featuring friends, and families they are portraits.

Portraits are our everyday image.

Food, sports, events, commercial, business, pet and all the other genres of photography while plentiful are still dominated by the sheer number of portraits that are taken and shared daily in the world.

While there are no real wrongs ways to take a portrait there are things that can take your portrait images to the next level. Below is 5 little tips I have picked up over the years that I think can help anyone take better portraits.

Have your subjects look away from the camera.

Most portraits the subject is making eye contact with the camera or looking at it dead on. That is just a standard and expected. Portrait photography is known for showing the subjects face and usually having crisp clear eyes to draw in the viewer… but portrait photography can be so much more.

Portraits should tell the tale of who the subject in your image is and that doesn’t always mean direct eye contact or crisp and clear, visible eyes. Portraits can get so much more dynamic and compelling when the subject isn’t making eye contact with the camera. They can tell a story that sometimes fails to come across with direct contact.

Don’t be afraid to crop.

One of the amazing things about photography is that it can become more powerful with something as simple as a crop. Getting closer to your subjects can make for super powerful images, cropping in close can change the entire tone and feel of the images.

Play with different focal lengths.

Focal length is important in terms of how far away the light is from the sensor in your camera. This plays a role in the look and feel of your image far more than cropping. Cropping will give a new look but closer focal lengths can widen the face of the subject where as more distance focal lengths can slim the face and body.

Playing with focal lengths can give your portraits a different look and tone. What’s important to remember is there is no one right focal length for portraits. Though many photographers will say it is 85mm it really can be anything to make the compelling image you are after.

Shoot wide open.

Ok, so arguably this is my favorite way to shoot everything. With a small aperture which opens my lens up wide to all the light available. This became my favorite style when I was photographing nighttime rodeos but it undeniably powerful in portraits as well.

Shooting wide open portraits really allows you as a photographer to make the subjects eyes pop. You can also shoot fairly dark settings or create so fun dark back drops naturally as well. There is a lot you can can dynamically with a wide open lens that you can not do with a stardard f/5.6 aperture.

Shoot in continuous low.

Continuous low is a fancy term for taking high speed frames of images instead of single frames. This allows you to capture a low of expressions as well as action and movements. Most photographers when they start out take single frames and work up to continuous.

I have always shot continuous as I started in action photography but it has come in handy for portraits because I let my subjects move, run, and shift around. Their continued movement gives my images much more flow and dynamism.