Portraiture Photography and Location

This is among my favorite picture taken during Mesilau Photography Workshop held in Mesilau Kundasang Sabah. I like the way she “pose”. Actually she is not pose just yet, just take position, while she compose herself, I took this shot and I like the result of her “getting ready”.

Talking about portrait photography, I like to emphasize here the importance of location, I mean if you plan your shot, do plan your location ahead before the photo shoot, maybe a week ahead, scout few location first, watch where the sun goes down, where the lighting coming from, the weather there and everything that will complement your photo shoot.

Good portrait photography require planning, if you shoot for photojournalism or news, that’s a different story, you just shoot whatever available there, you can’t change a things but you can change your angle to get a better shot but when it comes to shoot for fun like this or shooting portrait for your client, it is good to have few great location on your list.

Trust me, great location does play an important role to make or break your photograph, don’t underestimate great location, unless you shoot in the studio, then it’s a different story. Have you watch any good movie lately, have you watch the backdrop of the film, even though nowadays people can generate great location on the computer but film maker still prefer to do their photo shoot in the actual environment, have you ever watch a Transformer film where they use Pyramid of Giza in Egypt as one of their props? Have you watch Lord of The Ring Movie, and why do they choose New Zealand as their location? It is because great location does play an important role to make or break the scene in the movie, they have all the technology to do it in the computer but they choose to make it in the actual location.

Another important thing that we must take note when shooting portrait is to watch the cloth or the attire that your subject wear, it is also important to make your subject stand out from the background, to make your subject become the center of  attraction even though your background is beautiful. This young girl with a checked shirt is a perfect example about great clothing. The cloth really blend well with the laid-back environment, usually we can see this kind of checked shirt in the cowboy movie or people who sing a country song love to wear this checked shirt. The colors is not too bright, just nice. Good enough to blend with the environment, this is a dairy farm and this kind of clothing perfectly fit the environment.

There you go, when everything comes together, you will have a great picture, choose your location carefully and not to forget about the right clothing. Sometimes we take picture and there was a time where we make a picture, we create the perfect environment to make a great picture.

Get The Secret HERE