6 Ways To Take Better Portraits

A traditional healer in Nquthu, South Africa - 2016

You walk into the room and your heart sinks. The sweat starts to form on your brow. Why does it feel so hot in here? 

The room is smaller and more cluttered than you had hoped, and nothing looks like how you imagined, but you have eventually managed to schedule some time with the busy CEO of this major company, so you have to do something.

You want to look like you know what you are doing but time is not on your side and, on top of everything, you have to keep the conversation going while you try to figure it out.

Sound familiar? 

I experienced this over and over again as I built up my skills and portfolio as a portrait photographer. In fact, I still feel it now, it’s a fundamental part of taking environmental portraits. You usually don’t know what you are going to find and it can really throw you off your stride if there isn’t an obvious shot to be taken.

I hate wasting people’s time and I hate looking unprofessional so I put together a few steps to make the process a little easier. Using these six steps will give you a foundation to make the best out of any given situation. 

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Environmental portraiture is any form of formal portraiture outside the studio, where you are showing more than just the person you are photographing. If you are purposefully placing your subject in an environment then this will add to the story you are telling and everything about that environment needs to be considered. 

But first a word about me and how I work. 

It’s important to note that I see myself as a documentary portrait photographer, not a photojournalist or a documentary photographer. To me, this means that I take photographs of real people (not models) in an environment that tells a story about them. I do not create a false world, bring props along, or add elements in post-production; but I do not claim to be a fly on the wall. My images are clearly constructed with the collaboration of the subject. 

If you work under the title of photojournalist then I don’t believe that you should work in this way but all of this is up for debate. Whatever you do, be honest about it. 

So let’s start at the beginning, you know who you are photographing, you have scheduled the shoot but before you turn up at their house/workplace, you need to consider a few things.

1. Know The Why. 

For every portrait, there is a reason for it to be taken and you really need to know what that is. Just being aware of the intention behind the making of the image will give you so much information to guide you through the process. If you don’t know why you are there you are going to be overwhelmed from the get-go. A little bonus is that if you know the reason for taking the portrait it will probably make it a lot easier to get the subject involved. Or, conversely, if you don’t know why you are taking it, how are you going to ask someone to give up their time for you?. 

Before you get there, ask yourself these questions …

1. Why am I taking a portrait of this person?
   Is it to promote their work, tell a story about them, be part of a larger series or to stand alone as a piece of art?

2. What is the purpose of the shoot? And where will it be published? 

   Is it news, public interest, promotion, art, a human rights campaign? Is it going in a newspaper, online, in a magazine, a social media feed, or a billboard?

3. What do you want your audience to feel?

   We want the audience to be engaged but what do we want them to feel? Should they feel excited, angry, sad intrigued?

   Then use your answers to guide you on the following questions …

4. What do I want the mood to be?

   Perhaps we are telling a story about injustice or loss, we probably don’t want it to look too light and happy. We may decide to make it low key and dark in order to tell the story. Knowing the mood is going to help to answer a lot of questions about lighting, posing, and framing.

5. What needs to be included in the photograph for it to make sense?

   Usually, there is a reason for an environmental portrait. Situating someone in an environment tells a story about them. But are there specific elements that need to be seen in order to give context and meaning to the shot? Do they need to be in a certain place that adds to the story?

6. Is it an action or a static portrait? 

   Are we shooting a classic portrait or are we trying to do something clever? Is there a movement or action that we need to capture to tell the story? Is the place that we are meeting the right place to catch that activity? Are we meeting the athlete at home or at the track?

This portrait of fashion designer David Tlale was taken at his studio for the German magazine ADAC. The aim was to photograph David with one of his designs and to leave space for the magazine gutter so that the image could be used as a center spread. I knew that I needed to include at least one of his designs to give the portrait context and that I would need for the focus of the image to be on him and his achievements.

Next time you are on your way to taking an environmental portrait, try answering the questions above to see if it gives you a more solid idea of your basic goals. Take a note of the answers and see if they can inform some of the following considerations. Having a good idea of what you want to achieve will put you in a really great position to approach any situation with confidence.

2. Find The Space.

As soon as you walk into the space where you are expected to perform your photographic miracles your brain is going to start analysing, looking around for familiar territory, working through a vast library of images in your head to see if you can make any logical sense of the surroundings.

You might see a floor-to-ceiling window with heavy golden drapes and your brain will remind of you Annie Leibovitz’s dramatic portrait of the Queen. That’s a safe bet, you could always copy Annie! 

But most of the time you will be met with something completely unfamiliar and unexpected. I always have a very solid picture in my head of what I will see when I arrive, and I am always wrong (and always surprised at myself for being wrong). 

It’s overwhelming but there is a way through. Don’t worry about light, for now, just think about space and the story. Try a few of these methods to see if they help. 

1. Ask if you can have a look around and see what is available to you.

   While you chat you can wander around the space and ask questions, all the time considering the rooms and analysing their potential. Remember your answer to question 1.5 - Is what needs to be shown in a specific room? If so you may have to use that. 

2. Aim for simplicity.

   Unless you are photographing a hoarder or collector, you probably want to try and keep it relatively simple. Remember our answers for part 1 - what do you need to include for it to make sense? You would be amazed at what you can leave out and still create a compelling portrait. You don’t have to cram everything in. 

3. Look for wall space. 

   One of the first things I look for is bare walls. Where can I find some space to position my subject so that they are not battling for attention behind their head. Are there walls with space to place the subject, framing them in between some pictures, are there curtains you can close or a window that you can use to frame your subject, backlit by the sun? 

4. Look for colour, shapes, patterns, and space. 

   Let's go back to part one and think about mood. Do we want a bright, cheerful space or a dark and moody space? Is the right space available to us? Are there a couple of good photographic spots but only one of them fits the mood? Is there a really colourful wall that just pops, or a spiral staircase that you could use?

5. Keep looking around the corner. 

   Not finding what you need? Keep looking. Maybe you need to consider outside? The reality is that most of the time you are not going to find a perfect space and you are going to have to ‘make do’. Photography is all about compromise but if you keep looking you might just find something better. 

6. Remember that you can move the furniture.

   Arnold Newman once said, “Photography is 1% talent and 99% moving furniture”. And that’s what you have to do, see the potential in a space. You can move the furniture, set up lights, and position your subject. Look for the possibilities. 

 At least now you have explored your options or, more realistically, your lack of options; and you have come to the realisation that it isn’t going to look like the earth-shatteringly gorgeous portrait you had in your head. 

That’s good. That’s where you need to be. 

It didn’t take long for me to identify the space that I wanted to use for this portrait, the blue wall was right in front of me as I walked in. You may imagine that I set the whole thing up, with the primary colours and the balance of objects and subject on either side of the crack. You would be wrong though, sometimes you just get lucky. Everything was in it’s place when I arrived and I just moved the chair over a touch and removed a black jacket that was hanging in-front of the yellow bag. Sekhobe Letsie - Matsieng, Lesotho from “The Price of Gold” - 2015.

So, find the best spot that tells the story and conveys the mood. Move the furniture around so it fits the subject naturally and gives you enough room to contort yourself into position. And then think about light! 

3. Build the Light 

Lighting gives me a superpower. It allows me to work in almost any space at any time of day. I don’t have to wait for good light, I can create it. And for me this is particularly important because I usually don’t have much time. 

Lighting can be a lot to think about but if you approach it in a simple way, you can get great results. I think about it in 3 ways. This is a huge simplification of the lighting process, I will write more about it in future posts. But remember, lighting isn’t as complicated as it seems.

Balancing the ambient light and the flash was essential for my ‘Horsemen of Semonkong’ project. I used a Profoto B1 with a magnum reflector to give us as much power as possible. Nikon D800, Nikon 85mm 1.8 lens. Thabo Lekhotsa - Ha Lesala, Lesotho 2016

1. Available light - use it or lose it. 

   Perhaps the room you are in is dusty and moody, it has huge north-facing windows with soft light pouring in onto a patch of unvarnished wooden floor that perfectly frames your subject in front of a deep, rich-coloured wall. Use it.

   You probably won’t be so lucky, but see what is available and if you want to use it or not. If there are some lamps in the scene, turn them on, use a window as a backlight, whatever works for you but don’t depend on it. Use it if it is useful, ignore it if it is not. 

2. Light the scene. 

   If you have a lot of light coming into the room (or you are shooting outside) you might want to use that as your fill light. Expose it for one or two stops under a proper exposure and you are ready to go. 

   I often ignore the available light altogether and create a big fill light behind me using a large umbrella or bounce light into a large reflector or off a white wall. I can then set this fill light to the right level for my shadows and I have the room ambiance set. 

3. Light the subject.

   Lastly, I get my key (or main) light in to correctly light the subject. It’s all going to depend on the mood I want, the size of the room, and the composition of the shot as to which light shaper I am going to use (and outside the scope of this post) but the main thing to remember is that I am going to set it to expose the subject properly. 

So with my main light set for correct exposure, I can adjust my fill and my incidental lights to create the mood that fits the final image I want. 

I will write more about lighting in future posts but just know that there are endless resources online to get going with lighting your photographs. Take a read of the Strobist blog if you are new to off-camera flash, it’s a great place to start.

4. Pose the Subject

I often find that if you know why you are taking the shot and you communicate that well to the subject, they don’t usually need a lot of instructions about posing. Most people are aware enough to know that in a dark and moody portrait that is being used as part of a human rights campaign, they probably aren't going to be asked to smile and throw up a peace sign. 

Once I have found the space I will usually know if I want the subject to sit or stand, I can then ask them to occupy the space and make themselves comfortable. It’s always useful to have something to lean on, hold, or put a foot on; but it all depends on what is available. Refer to the questions from part 1 as to why you are taking the shot and if anything needs to be shown for the image to make sense. 

The pose is what makes this image. It gives a movement that would be lost if she was stood with the bucket at her side. Fakazile Joyce Ndovela from “Postcards from Xolobeni” - 2017.

Take stock of what your subject is wearing and whether it a) works in the scene, and b) translates to the camera well. Some material will look awful on camera and often stripes, patterns or bright colours can be very distracting. I usually treat what my subject is wearing as part of the scene and ask them to change if it is going to be distracting or outside the mood we are trying to create. Remember, you are not giving them something to wear, you are asking if they have an alternative item of clothing. We are still trying to keep within the realms of documentary.

How you pose the subject will make a big difference to the mood of your image and will also dictate your composition of the shot. You need their pose to work with the angles and lens choices that you are using. 

I almost always shoot my environmental portraits with a 35mm lens (full frame) and I know that if the subject sits facing me with their legs out in front of them, they will look like their legs are too long for their body. It’s considerations like this that can make or break a portrait. 

Try angling the body away from the camera, facing to the side and then asking the subject to turn their shoulders back towards you, most images look better when there is a certain dynamic to the pose. 

5. Create a Consistent Starting Point

You are taking up someone else's precious time, you are thinking about space, light, composition and posing at the same time as trying to sweet talk the CEO of a fortune 500 company into posing in a bathtub full of dollar bills. Now you have to figure out what gear and settings you are going to use as well. Having full control of your shoot can be daunting, but you can make it easier with a few simple steps. 

1. Limit your lens choices. 

   These days I use a single lens, a Nikon f2.8 24-70mm. I never shoot environmental portraits wider than 35mm, I don’t like the way that 24mm bends the lines. For the last 10 years I have only had 3 lenses and they were all fixed (35mm, 50mm, 85mm). I changed to a single lens to simplify things even further but I shoot as if I have 3 lenses (35mm, 50mm and 70mm). For me it keeps it simple. Here is my thought process…

   Is it a wide shot? - Use 35mm

   Is it a head shot? - Use 70mm

   Is it in-between? - Use 50mm 

   These are just my starting points and it will also depend on how much room I have to move and how much depth of field I want, but this simplifies the possibilities and the thought process. 

2. Start at the same place. 

   I shoot with Profoto lights on a Nikon D850 which has a sync speed of 1/250 (the fastest the shutter can be to work with strobe lights). So I always start at the same place, unless I am doing something clever with a slow shutter. I always start at ISO 100, shutter speed 1/250 and aperture f.2.8 (shooting in manual mode).

   I usually want a shallow depth of field so I want my aperture wide open, I want my shutter as fast as possible to eliminate any movement and I want my ISO as low as possible so the image is as clean as can be. Pretty simple. 

   Now if I am using flashes to create all of the light, I will set my lights to work for these settings (see below) or if I am using the ambient light as the fill I can open up my shutter speed if I want more light or if I want less I can close down my aperture (begrudgingly because then I start losing my shallow depth of field - but photography is all about compromise). If I am closing down the aperture, I will need to raise the level of my key light accordingly. 

3. Control all the lights

   One thing I have started doing recently is using a Cokin 5 stop ND filter. This basically means that I can use the above starting settings (ISO 100, shutter speed 1/250 and f.2.8) and I will almost always block out all ambient light. This then means that I can use my lights to control the scene completely. It means I can almost always shoot with my ideal settings but I do have to have significant power from those lights and a single speed-light won’t be enough. 

4. Use a light meter

   These days I love nothing more than walking into a room, setting up some lights, taking a couple of light readings and then knowing I have the light I want. It takes some practice but it is great to know that you can get the perfect light without having to take a single photograph. It saves time and gives you confidence. You may need to move the lights around to get the desired shape in the shadows but you won’t need to keep checking and adjusting to get the right exposure. 

This is my light meter and cheat sheet. Why remember all these numbers when you can barely remember what day it is?

You can use the answers to part 1 about mood to guide you on your lighting ratios (keeping in mind the skin tone of your subject - that’s a whole other post). If I want something light and playful I usually start with a ratio of 1:2 (key:fill) if I want something more moody I will start with 1:3. 

For me this means that if I want to keep my camera on the settings that I like (see above) I want my key light to read f2.8 on the light meter and my fill light (whether it be ambient or flash) to either read f2 (1:2) or f1.4 (1:3). 

This sounds complicated but it’s really not. What it really means is that all I need to remember are my basic settings and my lighting ratios (which I have printed on a card on my light meter anyway, so I don’t actually have to remember anything!). 

Try finding a starting point that suits you. Look back at the images that you like that you have taken and check out the metadata. Is there a certain group of settings that you use a lot? Could they be your starting point? If you always started at the same point, could you imagine what the ambient light would look like in any room you walked in to? 

6. Try Another Space

Ever left a shoot feeling like you didn’t quite nail it? Your heart sinking a little as you resolve yourself to the fact that you could have done better. I do that all the time but I have one final tip that has often served me well. It’s not rocket science and It’s not always ideal because you have to be prepared to frustrate your subject a little. But give it a try. 

If it’s really not working, I will often concede defeat and say “This isn’t working, can we try something else?”. I ask if there are any spaces that I haven’t seen and then, if not, take a punt on something completely different. Simplify it even further, close the curtains, go outside, go to the kitchen, go to the bedroom. Anything. But just do one more thing. Try it. You ask them to sit at the kitchen table, step back and take the shot. You have nothing to lose and will without a doubt learn something. Maybe you got a better shot, maybe you didn’t, but it didn’t hurt to try. 

It may sound arrogant but I always know when I have got the shot. I see it in the camera and as long as they aren't blinking, it is usually the one I will end up using. If I feel like I got it, I check eyes, check focus and then either try something different to fill the time or I stop. If I know that I got what I wanted then I don’t need to carry on. 

Conversely I always know when I haven’t got it and that is when I keep on searching. I cannot tell you how many times I have been about to leave, demoralised, with my gear in the car and I turn around and say “Do you mind If we try one more thing?” - because at that point I have usually seen something else that I am subconsciously kicking myself for not using. And as I am getting in the car it comes in to my head and it takes all of my effort to force myself to turn back and set up again. Here’s an example of just that…

As I got in to the car and prepared to leave I felt a little dispondent. I had taken a portrait of Mr and Mrs Dlisani in their living room but it didn’t really fill me with confidence that I had done the best that I could. As I started the car and lowered the window to say goodbye, Mrs Dlisani said to me “Would you like me to show you our bedroom that collapsed last month?”. As soon as I saw it I knew it was the shot I should have taken.

Mncedisi Dlisani with his wife Nokwakha and their daughter Sisipho - Teko Springs, Eastern Cape - part of “The Price of Gold” series - 2015.

Conclusion

Photography can often feel frustrating when you put all your effort in, but it just doesn’t pay off. I know that you have got this far with a fair amount of willpower, self-motivation, and learning from your mistakes. Taking consistently powerful environmental portraits is well within your reach. 

If you can keep some of these ideas in mind and commit them to habit then you will have some tools to up your game and make a more considered photograph, even in a stressful situation. 

This certainly isn’t an exhaustive list of techniques but I believe that by implementing a few of the ideas above, you can take your portraits to the next level. You have it in you, you just have to give yourself the headspace to think straight when the pressure is on. That’s why you need a plan. 

If you walk into the room knowing what you want to achieve, knowing that you are looking for space and simplicity, and knowing that you can control everything else, you are going to have confidence in what you can accomplish. When you know how to make the most out of any situation you are giving yourself permission to make great portraits. 

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