Photographing People: Photography Friday, Week 3

Woo hoo!

I'm so excited!

Today I'm lucky enough to have one of my readers, and professional photographer, Shay Voorhees, from Photography By Shay here to host Photography Friday.  I've visited, and oohed, and ahhed over Shay's photos for quite some time.  

I hope you will join me in giving Shay a warm welcome.  

I'm so honored to have her here today!

Howdy 24 readers,

I’m super excited to be guest posting for 24’s Photography Friday!  Suzanne asked me to talk a little about photographing people.  Since we have a wide range of photography levels I thought I would start with some basics first.  So, if you’re an advanced user you may want to just go ahead and ignore this post my ramblings.

If y’all were around for the last Photography Friday you’ll know Suzanne talked about composition and specifically, the Rule of Thirds when photographing landscapes.  Guess what? Surprise, surprise, that rule applies to photographing people too!

What that means is, generally speaking, your goal is to put the important item (the thing that’s drawing the viewer in) at intersections of the Rule of Thirds grid.  So, when photographing people, this typically means putting the eyes of the subject at those intersecting points (or at the very least in the upper third of the frame — just as Suzanne showed us with the horizon shots).

For a quick example, take this image of my daughter who I bribed volunteered to model for me. 

Cute right?  an>

In this shot we see that although she is the most adorable girl on the planet the photo’s composition is pretty boring.

See how she’s smack in the middle of the frame?  Boooooring.

However, if we move her eyes into the top third of the frame, the shot instantly becomes more pleasing.

Here you can see how the Rule of Thirds grid is applied to the picture.

But wait, did you see what happened?  Applying the composition rule resulted in something else that’s important when photographing people – getting in close!

Check out the before and after side by side:

This brings me to the next tip for the day: don’t be afraid to get in close to your subject and really make them the focus (no pun intended) of the photo.

Think you’re close enough?  Get closer still.  Even closer. 

Ok, so now that y’all understand the rule, don’t be afraid to break it if the situation calls for rule breaking.  Don’t ever miss a shot because you feel like you must follow the rules.  After you understand and execute the rules effectively and consistently, you can successfully break them too.  Every shot can’t be a masterpiece, but that doesn’t mean we should stop striving for it.   

Happy shooting!

~Shay

Shay’s work can be found at photographybyshay.com and utahboudoirphotography.com.

Wow – thank you Shay for doing such a fantastic job!  I hope all of you shutterbugs out there will click over to Shay's sites and check out her beautiful photos.  They're stunning.  If you're located in Shay's vicinity?  For goodness sake, hire her!  I'd give anything to have someone as talented as Shay clicking away at my family.

In addition, I'd love to see your photos too!  You can share them with me, and with other 24 readers, on Flickr by clicking here.

Thank you Shay!  xo

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