Can a few tips improve your portraits?

My favourite portrait photography tips to bridge the gap between beginner and pro. If you want to take better portraits you need to know these tips.
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[@fineartviewfotografie3742]

Great video again. I shoot mainly Black and White portraits/boudoir and also there the color of the clothes can be a issue. I prefer for them not to wear red or orange, because skin tone also contains red and orange and that is not going to work very well in BNW unless the reds are darker than skin tone. For me in BNW there is more attention to the person instead of for the clothes 😉. I fully agree on the planning part. For lenses I prefer my old school vintage ones because the image output is very different from modern ones that can look too clinical and digital.

[@rosskramm206]

Hi Martin. Your content is very good and useful. I just wish you would light yourself better. I love the dark and moody myself but not when I’m watching an instructional video. I keep trying to brighten my screen or wonder if my eyes is getting a lot worse. Just a thought.

[@JjackVideo]

Also, find handsome people that actually wants to be photographed. Got my fair share of reluctant cave trolls ;)

[@MartinCastein]

hahahaha!

[@bulletsie]

Just recently found your channel, Quite like your views on topics so far and enjoying the videos. Liked the way you mentioned de-saturating the greens. I reckon every Noob Photographers when they first get a fancy camera think the default colours are amazing and they start producing these overly saturated images where the viewers eyes get distracted by the colours and brightness and it takes away from the subject. One of the best pieces of advise I heard from a buddy many years ago was to "de-saturate the greens" even by a tiny tiny amount it gets rid of those garish overly yellow green colours than cant detract from the person or main focus of your image. Also always trying to get models to work neutral colours that have no complex patterns where textures work better than overly complicated items, for portraits for me the Person in good lighting should be first priority and everything else is secondary,

[@colingerard7863]

Hi Martin. This is a timely subject. I sold my film cameras many, many moons ago, and after that, photos were done on phones. However, a few months ago, after using a friends camera for a few weeks I got a camera again. I do out and about pictures and table top still life using light from bay windows of my home. I will add portraits in due course and am making plans in advance, as I did with the still life images, and will take what you said on board. I find myself, as you do with your 5D Classic, just sitting and clicking the shutter for 'that' sound fix :-) Have a good start to the week.

[@nickd698]

Hi Martin, love your Videos but would love to have them available as a podcast. Any chance you could upload them and make available for Apple? I think its free!

[@lesath7883]

Thank you for yet another wonderful video, full of things I have yet to learn.

[@Santafefashionweek]

Great interview

[@Mikey1421985]

I would love to see a photographer show up in a yellow chicken suite hahahaha, that would really be funny. Talk about standing out haha

[@MartinCastein]

hahahha yes go on you know you want to!

[@Mikey1421985]

@@MartinCastein well I don't have a chicken suit but it would be realy funny haha

[@REFIGUY69]

@martincastein im shooting my Son's engagement photo shoot next month. I used pintinterest to get a board of ideas .This will be a 3 place outside shoot with fall foliage. Other then sun direction can i use on camera fill light? And how? I can readily use natural light to good effect i was wondering if im missing out on other tools available. I ve only used natural light outside and indoor too as well as constant light like lamps or small desk lamps Thanks

[@MartinCastein]

if you are shooting in the daytime there should be no need for on camera fill light at all. Find areas to shoot where you have good soft light on your subject.

[@andrewcroft2570]

Great video Martin and excellent advice.

[@Twobarpsi]

Another excellent video Martin! You really explained a lot of intricate details here.

[@chriscard6544]

Awesome video, thank you

[@lerrynhawke3375]

Can't wait to give these ideas a go! Not only have I got a d810 on the way, I even bought my 1st camera again (f60) and threw some b&w film in it, spent last weekend getting ye ol d70 covered in rain, sand and the odd wave for hours.. thanks for rekindling my love of photography

[@infinityfabric]

You are going to fall in love with the RAW files produced by the Nikon D810! I promise

[@lerrynhawke3375]

@@infinityfabric thanks man!

[@Mikey1421985]

A while back I watched a few videos on posing (not yours) and thought okay I will try this out and I did and just couldn't get it right. In that case it was a friend who knows nothing of posing and me being photographer just wanting to practice. Eventually I just put my phone away and just used the surroundings and tried to work with that and got some good results. Some very good tips in your video. I think you will agree with me that lots of practice helps with this a lot. For me at least, I will look at a picture and like wow, that is a good picture, but the persons pose or so doesn't stay in my mind haha. So maybe I need to look at the pictures in a different way or find pictures that I can understand.

[@MartinCastein]

for sure, its about practice, i think looking at poses and other shots helps but its probably better to give this to the model than for you to look at. really i want the model to to get into a mood/vibe, i dont pose my models much but i just guide them.

[@MartinCastein]

thats really where the mood board comes in, if you show them the type of thing you want before then they will just do it usually.

[@Mikey1421985]

@@MartinCastein hey that is a very good tip. Once the model understands the feel the photographer is going for and gets in that mood, sometimes the poses come by itself. Or the mood creates the poses I guess. Thanks. I will try to work with this tip for sure

[@MartinCastein]

@@Mikey1421985 yeah its like, if i hire someone to decorate my house if i show them a load of pictures that are all the same style and strongly express what i want, its much easier than me walking around and pointing at stuff and saying i want this white and this be brown etc. A lot of it is always just communication all the time :) all the best

[@Mikey1421985]

@@MartinCastein thanks. Nice illustration. Keep pushing out those videos, I will keep watching and using your tips to learn. I think I found your videos when I was looking up things about the Canon 5D classic. I have that camera and really grew a lot just using that camera and Canon 50mm f1.8 STM lens. I also have a Canon Rebel T5 and beginning of this year I was able to buy a Canon 5D mark iii. And last Saturday I got my Canon 24-70 f2.8 and am playing around with that lens now, getting the feel of it and calibrating that autofocus but I think I have it about right. I have to take pictures Friday and Sunday so I think I will use that lens at least some of the time on both days.

[@Austinite333]

What I enjoy here is the fact you have the quality work to back up your opinions on camera performance. I recently changed up my gear and am now shooting with a D810 and a Z6 version one. I thought the Z6 was going to be a personal, take everywhere back up to the D810 but the image quality of the Z6 is surprisingly holding its own being more compact modernized body. Any thoughts?

[@MartinCastein]

Well, the d810 is 10 years old, I would expect any modern camera hold its own really but one thing we see is that the sensor technology hasnt moved on very much over that time period.

[@photografiq_presents]

I actually had that set up for a while and to be honest, if i wasn't such an impulsive buyer (sucker), they're more than adequate for my needs. I do portraits and landscapes, some astro on the D810. I shoot professionally and nobody has an issue with the quality, the D810 holds its own. The Z6 is fantastic for low light fast moving and I'd use it at dance concerts, indoor sports and mostly at night at the local speedway track. At the speedway, I'd be on the inside of an oval track with all the lighting facing me, so its a real challenge but the Z6 performed really well, arguably better than newer and higher mp cameras.

[@allee2445]

Hope you will offer courses in portrait photography!

[@MartinCastein]

i have 2 editing courses on my website that will become full courses later www.martincastein.com

[@joris1263]

Thanks for all your good advice, not only on this subject but also in general. I appreciate your vision on photography that really teaches you something, without commercial stuff.

[@MartinCastein]

thank you!