Composition for Portraiture: Creating Compelling Headshots, Group Shots, and Senior Pictures

Environment

You might think that including the environment or using texture in your portraits is not important, but in fact these are crucial pieces of the pie! Backgrounds can enhance your image or they can distract the viewer’s eye. The background in Figure 22 is unexpected for a hockey player—he’s not on ice or in a locker room—but it works because the gritty urban area makes the player look even tougher.

Figure 22 The juxtaposition of the hockey player in full gear on an old subway platform is interesting yet it still attracts the viewer to the player’s face.

Foreground

A portrait’s foreground can strengthen the image if shot correctly. At ...