Digital Portrait Photography and Lighting: Take Memorable Shots Every Time

Chapter 9. Studio Portraiture

While it's fun and often interesting to go to location shoots, making portraits in the studio is where you can really shine and put all of your technical and creative talent to work. Chapter 3 covered many of the basics of composition, including backgrounds, for many typical portrait situations, and this chapter will help you go beyond the traditional head shots and other "bread and butter" portrait types.

More and more often people ask me to create nontraditional portraits of them for their own or their loved ones' enjoyment. Among other things, I have found myself dressing a girl in a sundress, placing her in a field of tall grass, putting an antique frame around her upper body and taking a photograph. There is a requirement for creativity and inspired solutions for the successful portrait photographer. Digital cameras have made this more and more possible — you can try a hundred things without the substantial cost of film and processing. And in your studio you are King or Queen; this is your space, you're in control, and you can make whatever you want to make.

It sounds corny, but it happens to be true: in photography you have all the elements of magic at your disposal, and you can not only pull rabbits out of your hat, you can also pull them out in seven colors, if you want. And I am not talking about so-called trick photography or fancy effects using ...