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Portraits! Big topic. But let’s assume you already are familiar with doing up-close, shallow depth-of-field portraits, or even in-studio work with a backdrop and a two or three light set-up. Great — that’s 80% of portraiture right there and you can make a fine living with that skill set, as it is. But as they say, your strength is your weakness. Meaning, if you rely too much on the things that got you to where you are, you risk losing the momentum you need to get even better. You relax into your comfort zone and things can get stale, repetitive and even unfulfilling.
So for this article, I want to focus on some things that can quickly take portraiture to a new level. And in particular, I want to focus on things that actually go against the common approaches to shooting portraits. By unlearning some things and heading in the other direction from what you’re used to, you can develop more of an unorthodox approach to portraiture, which can result in work that looks original and unique.
