Portrait Photography for Beginners

Welcome to the course, get to know your teacher and the curriculum ahead. While knowing a little bit about photography always helps this class is for pros and beginners alike. We want to bring all our knowledge to you, so you can walk away taking better photos!

In this video Will intros the key elements that will make your photos better. While we will dive into each of them later on, its always good to keep these elements in mind before you start shooting: Composition and backgrounds, Lighting, Exposure, depth of field, color, and posing.

An illustrated guide with over 100 poses for photographing couples, women, men, children, and groups.

There are many different cameras out there. In this video we will talk about the differences between the most popular types of cameras and talk about why the best camera is the one you have with you. We also talk about the difference between a smart phone and spending the extra cash on an interchangeable lens camera.

In this lecture will talks about the first steps to setting up your portrait. He covers basic composing the shot and setting up the best background.

Will talks about the different types of light in soft vs. hard light. He also dives into the basics of what a flash will do for your portrait. 

Will talks in depth about how exposure can effect the type of portrait you're making. He screen shots his lightroom catalogue and takes you through several different examples of exposures in portraits he has shot.

In this lecture will explains what depth of field is and how it can dramatically make your photos look more professional. He shows some examples of how to achieve depth of field and how you can do several things to get that look with your own equipment. 

Color can be very important. In this video Will talks about what color can do to effect your photo and what to look out for. He also touches on black and white vs. color.

Using examples and a live model, will talks about how to pose someone for a simple portrait. He also shows you a quick tip to pose your subject quickly and easily in any situation.

Check out these posing guides for ideas on how to pose your subject(s) for portraits.

In this lecture Will takes the cameras outside to check out a local park. He will talk about where the best place to shoot a quick portrait is when faced with a sunny day at a park. You'll see a live demo along with the raw photos.

Will taks his mobile phone out for a shoot and uses the portrait mode in a live example to show you just how good mobile photography can be.

Will talks about what to look for when you're trying to take a portrait in doors. He positions his subject in the best place possible and gives tips on how to create professional looking light that anyone can do.

Our third location, Will shows how to make the best of a random spot next to a street. With a live demo he also shares how multiple shoots in one location can be a great "go to" way to shoot portraits. 

Will shows examples and gives some quick tips on how to shoot senior portraits and corporate headshots. 

In this lecture Will gets to share his favorite photo. He also gives some quick tips on how best to set your self up for a new born photo shoot.

Will talks about the best way to approach shooting engagement photos. Using many examples from his past work, he describes how he took them and what the quickest way to get the best photo is from his subjects.

Will shows some past wedding portraits he has taken and talks through a couple of them, sharing the best tips and ideas for getting that great wedding portrait on a very important day.

In this lesson of the portrait photography course, Phil Ebiner walks through a recent photo shoot he did using the tips and tricks learned in this course.

Will talks quickly about what to expect in this section from editing and on to the next section in sharing.

Using a screencast from our mobile phone Will demos the mobile app Snapseed. Get to watch Will edit a photo from one of the lives demos using one of the most powerful mobile photography editing applications.

In this lecture Will shows you how to use VSCO editing app on your phone. From editing the basics to using specific filters he shows you how to do a quick edit using photos from the live demos.

Will shows you how to import a group of photos into lightroom and then takes you into a basic edit. Using the power of lightroom he demos some quick editing tips in contrast and exposure, along with a quick way to clean up some blemishes. 

Will takes you through some quick tips on how to use photoshop to make your portraits pop. He also shows you two ways to smooth out blemishes and bags under those eyes.

Will gives some quick tips on the differences between Facebook and instagram.

Will goes over why he loves instagram and then give a live screen shot demo of him posting a favorite photo.

In this lecture will talks about some quick tips on printing as well as what to look for in paper quality and and getting the right size frame and matt for your photo.

Thank you so much for taking this course. We hope you enjoyed it, and are now taking better photos than ever before!