Moving from Portrait Poses to Portrait Photojournalism

by Debra Piccolo
(Canada)

Reader Post: I have really enjoyed browsing this section on portrait innovations. One of the best tips on portrait photography that I have to offer is to move away from formal portraits in terms of portrait posing.

More and more often, my clients tell me that they don't want stiff, formally posed studio portraits of themselves. They want to relax in a favorite location of their own choice which will reflect their personalities better.

Once we've created the right set-up in the desired location, I use a few photojournalism skills to draw out emotion through dialogue - or, if I'm working with more than one person, I simply allow them to interact with each other while shooting up a storm.

Rather than focusing on portrait poses, it's important to let go and watch for those unguarded moments where the subjects do something spontaneously - and it just captures the moment in a perfect way. The more natural and relaxed your subjects are, the more stunning the photos.

I believe that once you start playing with portrait photojournalism, you'll never want to go back to doing formal portrait poses again!