Portrait photo can anyone: Tips for beginners

Why portrait photography is no magic and how you can make great portraits without expensive equipment.

Wuaha. Portrait photo. For me the portrait photography had a long time to do with sorcery.

For some reason, I felt that I could not simply take a look at the portrait photography, just for the sake of respect for art.

Maybe it's the same with you? So if you think things like, "Portrait photography is just something for professionals" or "I can not do it" or "I do not have the right equipment for that", I can only say to you: This is absolute nonsense!

Two reasons why you should photograph portraits in any case:

1. It is a lot of fun and fun
2. You do not have to be a professional and you do not need expensive equipment to photograph cool portraits.

And now times just from woman to woman: Which of your girlfriends would not like beautiful photos of themselves? I bet this is also for many men out there who would be secretly looking forward to a great portrait.

I hope that every hobby photographer, who has not dared to participate in portrait photography or has not yet thought about it, would like to go out with a friend or a girlfriend and make portrait photos.

Our complete photographic equipment, we put before you the way here before: Our photographic equipment .

But let's get started right now.

# 1 WHY YOUR CITY IS YOUR STUDIO

I think there is no one here who has not yet had to sit on such a stupid chair in a room without a window with canvas in the background.

We have probably already done the typical application photos. Please sit on the chair, bend body forward, head to right - no, continue to the left. Phew. This is no fun.

The good news at the beginning: You do not need a studio. Your city, your neighborhood or even your street can offer you everything you need as a background for a portrait.

Do you already know our collection of the most beautiful places and photospots in the world? There you can find great places in your area or even in the distance. Our collection can help you find a cool place near you that you can use for your portrait shoot.

# 2 WHAT EQUIPMENT YOU NEED OR DO NOT NEED

Since you will probably give each other a different answer and many photographers trolley kofferweise equipment to a shoot.

Of course you can make great and impressive pictures with expensive equipment and 3 assistants. Without it, however, it is also possible. So if you only have your camera with a kit lens. Excellent! Enough.

I'll tell you now with what equipment I always go.

My equipment for portrait shootings

Model

Actually, there is always someone who likes. The incentive to have great pictures of yourself helps of course.

camera

Nikon D7000 . Any other SLR or mirrorless camera is just as good.

lens

35er prime lens  from Tamron - a very good, that is perfectly suited because of its intensity for Portaitaufnahmen.

There are, of course, also cheaper versions, which are not quite in line with the quality of the fire range of Tamron and not quite as bright. But if you have a small budget, we recommend this lens: 35x fixed focal length of Nikon .

Basti wrote a nice article about our love for our fixed focal length lens and show you  6 reasons why you really need a fixed focal length .

Folding reflector

I always have a folding reflector in my shoots. This will allow you to make the best use of the given light and illuminate your face as you wish.

Folding reflectorThe great thing is that your model looks so fresher in the pictures (also without follow-up) because you simply "eye-lighten" eg eye-rings.

We have a 5in1 Reflector which will cost only a few euros. Here you have everything you need. A golden, silver, black and white side and a diffuser.

Do not let the various possibilities confuse you now. I'll tell you later how you can use the folding reflector quite simply.

A helper

If possible, I always try to pull out with two other people. Because it is helpful if your model does not have the reflector itself.

You can simply ask two friends / friends if they want and then the first one is photographed and the second is the helper and then you just turn the tables.

# 3 WHY YOU SHOULD TAKE A LOT OF TIME FOR YOUR SHOOT

A shooting with friends is especially fun, if it does not necessarily feel like one. I try to always make a kind of day trip. We meet z. B. Saturdays at 11am, go together breakfast in provisions in Friedrichshain  and then it goes toward RAW terrain .

There we take pictures for a while and then have a lunch break with lunch and refreshment in the beer garden.

Then we take another picture. The advantage of this is that you have a different light at 6 pm than at 6 pm. This means that the same spot may contain quite different photos.

In addition, many people really need, even if they have long known you a little time to feel comfortable in front of the camera. I also always find it nice not to photograph continuously, but in between, just to entertain.

In the meantime, much more intense pictures are often created by chance, because your counterpart feels much more comfortable in your skin when talking.