Portrait Photography Tips

I've been reading some really great articles on portrait photography lately, and I thought I'd share them here.

First up, Atlanta based editorial music photographer, Zack Arias has published a superb series of articles on using seamless white backgrounds for studio based portrait shots. Zack goes into great detail not only describing what materials to use and how to set them up, but he also goes into the minutiae of lighting and a whole host of difference scenarios and set ups. A really well written series of articles, and if like me you're thinking of getting into portrait photography and you want a perfect white background a la Richard Avedon, then this is where to go.

Secondly, Philip Greenspun, who is the Editor in Chief over at photo.net has written a very informative article on how to get the best out of your portraits. Like Zack's article, it is quite long and goes into quite a bit of detail on lenses and depth of field. Read it here.

Finally here's a well written article on "Upselling for Portrait Photographers". If like me, you're not really sure what this is all about, its quite simple. The theory is charge your clients a small or reduced fee, and then offer them additional, related products that the client hadn't considered when he or she made the booking. This can be anything from Photoshopping out wrinkles and spots to providing CDs containing high resolution from the shoot to providing large glossy framed prints.