A Woman's Portrait

Portrait photography can turn out great and beautiful photographs. The photographer has the ability of turning a simple image of a human face into a work of art with the addition of some small details, attention to light, creativity and ingenuity.

A woman's portrait offers you a great and easy to do shoot and you need to take advantage of how to best bring out the best in the models.

In other words, with a camera and some imagination a photo of a face can be made into something truly worthy of appreciation and there are very few subjects that can be turned in to beautiful works of art as images of a woman's face.

Portrait photography subjects can be many, however some of the most striking samples are women. There is something about seeing a beautiful face of a beautiful woman that truly brings the power of photography to the forefront.

This project is not as simple as lining up women and taking a photograph of their face. It involves more than that. The images have to feature some aspects that make them images to be remembered and stared at.

You must use creativity and seek unusual poses , angles and perspectives. You must also apply light techniques that are more commonly used with other themes such as using a ring flash like when doing macro or adding color gels to a light source to create colored light effects.

You also have to be creative with the makeup. Seek contrast and use bold colors. Seek alternatives to common hair styles. The bolder the better and this includes the hair color of the model.

However, do not try to go over board with your creativity and use more props than you need to. Simplicity if often your friend. The goal is to showcase the face, the colors upon it and the beauty of it. Adding too much can serve as a distraction to the viewer.

One good technique is to add a richly colored prop that surround the model's face like a ring of feathers. Make the model's makeup match the color of the prop and now you have created a scene that ties in together and in which each part complements the other.

Capture images that focus mainly on the face and especially the eyes after all, they say that a woman's eyes are the most sensual features, so then why not showcase them?

Keep in mind that you're not doing simple protracts so your best bet is to approach the shoot as if doing a high end fashion shoot, except that your focus is a lady's face. A regular lens will do but a zoom lens lets you zoom in and out without having to physically move and also lets you crop on the spot if you should need to.

If possible pose your model against a black backdrop to reduce the possibility of adding distractions that may shift an audience's gaze from the main subject. This is not a deal breaker but I have found that it works better than other backdrops.

Other useful tools are a digital editing program to soften the image and remove any possible imperfections or a softening filter that pretty much does the same as you take the photograph since it diffuses the general image.

For skin tones if you want to add a bit more glow use a photo light aimed at 45 degrees to the model and a gold tone reflector; gold imparts subtle golden hues and silver reflector impart more light and it's stronger than the gold colored one. For this project a gold tone one works better.

Finally, keep in mind that most if not all of the preceding images were retouched in Photoshop or another digital editing program.

Filters are popular as they can give an image a feeling of softness, remove small imperfections and make the image achieve a look that is sometimes not possible by simply taking a photograph.

Do not be afraid to use tools at your disposal to enhance the images if you feel that this needs to be done.

No matter how clean, smooth and perfect your model's face is, pores will show and smaller imperfections will also be visible,

A professional photographer does such a good job and has mastered the technique to a point where the original image needs only some small adjustments in post editing and this becomes only a small part of the entire process.

Aim to do the best that you can so that post production does not alter the photographs too much.