I Shot 100,000 Portraits: Here's What I Learned...

over the years of shooting creative portraits I've probably shot around 100 000 images give or take comprising of many different styles locations and lighting conditions while I'm still learning new things every single day this is what I've learned so far [Music] different is better than good and what I mean by good is that the photo adheres for the most part to all of those hard and fast rules of Photography things like rule of thirds having even lighting using the correct portrait focal length not shooting at too high or too low of an angle to create perspective Distortion things like that to give you a demonstration here's one of the first portraits that I ever shot it follows all of those technical rules definitely and it is a good image but it doesn't mean that it's going to stand out in a sea of other photos that look exactly the same and that's what I mean when I say different is better than good even something as small as using an element in the background of your image to frame your subject can add something just a little bit more interesting to your frame when I began experimenting with shooting from completely different angles creating focus and shape with lighting and framing in a way that's a little bit more unconventional my photos became way more interesting to look at a photo that breaks a pattern can cause people to linger just a few seconds longer examining the photo and its meaning but those few seconds are actually what differentiates a photo that is kind of forgettable from a photo that is truly memorable emotion comes first so many of my photos when I was starting out in portrait photography lacked any kind of direction or goal and being a little bit frustrated by this it forced me to really examine my favorite portrait photographers to sort of figure out why their images really struck a chord with me and what it eventually boiled down to was that each and every photo carried an emotion they made me feel something and over time I realized that what separates an average photographer from a really great photographer is not just their ability to create visual impact but their ability to create emotional impact through their images I think a really great exercise when you're planning a shoot is to think in terms of the viewer and what kind of emotion you want them to feel when they're looking at your photos and it's something that you really don't have to overthink at all just start very simple you can start by looking at Portrait photos by photographers that you really love and just writing down the emotions that you think the image is conveying what do you feeling when you see this photo and then separate those individual elements of the photo what is it about the pose the lighting the background the location is it the overall darkness of an image that gives it a brooding Vibe is it the pose of the subject that makes you feel a little bit uneasy or is it the energy and the movement in the photo that makes it feel fun and liberating and then you can take these lessons into your own photography work think about lighting and posing as one idea and not two separate things the reality is that they always work together one of the most important things to remember is that the viewers eye will always be drawn to the brightest or the most contrasty part of the image one big mistake that I see some portrait photographers making and definitely a mistake that I have made in the past is having bright and detailed elements in the background or in some part of the frame that completely distracts from the person that they're photographing the goal here is that the light and the way it falls on your subject and that comes down to posing as well which whichever way your subject is facing will cause the light to fall differently that lighting should not draw attention to parts of the frame that aren't important or don't contribute to the story I could probably take my own advice right here there's some sunlight coming in from the window if you can see it Falling on My Shoulder here this is kind of distracting it's very bright and it takes away from the main focus which should be my face here but I'm filming in a hotel room so there's not much I can really do about it right now think about your photograph as a dance between the light and the pose as a side note soft lighting will give you much more freedom when it comes to posing as there's less contrast overall so difference between light and shade Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication you might think that a quick fix for a boring photograph is to just add more complexity whether it's adding a prop putting some fairy lights in the background or changing to a more colorful or eye-catching outfit but if these things don't add to the overall impact and emotion of the photo then they are just clutter I think it's nice just to strip it back to complete Basics what do we actually need to create a portrait photograph you need light a subject and a background and that's it one exercise I've used to really simplify the planning for a photo shoot is to just list out a whole bunch of lighting ideas it could even be something as simple as shooting in blue hour or using the light from a Street Lamp and then I will go ahead and brainstorm a whole bunch of locations or backgrounds and then I'll go through and simply link them together I'll find potential combinations that could create a certain emotion and once you've got this really simplistic idea really stripped it back to just lighting and location then all of your decisions from here on should be pretty easy who's going to be the model or subject in the photo what kind of outfit should they wear what expression is going to be on their face what kind of pose will they be doing all of these decisions should line up with the mood that you created through that lighting location combo remember to start with a very basic idea and you can add some complexity to it but only if it adds to the overall meaning of the photo trust your gut and keep it simple if you need to add things you can add things but my suggestion is subtract subtract subtract always take things out of the photo and make it as simple as possible alright that's it some of the most important things that I have learned after shooting a hundred thousand portrait images I really hope you guys enjoyed this video leave a like down below if you did and subscribe to see more videos like this remember to make a story worth telling and I'll see you guys in the next video foreign [Music]

Channel: Mitch Lally

Views: 580,128

Keywords: mitch lally, mitch, lally

Id: qZUWdu2PnXg

Length: 6min 13sec (373 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 26 2023