Quality Portrait Style Shots
Several people have asked me recently how to shoot quality portrait style shots. Since I am not a professional studio photographer, most of the time for me, it is a matter of pure luck and a lot of trial and error.
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The odds of ending up with a great picture greatly increase in direct correlation with the number of pictures I take, so I take a ton of them!
My best photographs are usually the result of taking hundreds of pictures in a short period of time and not being afraid to experiment with several different camera settings for the same scene until I find exactly what I am looking for.
For these types of shots, like the one in this article, I adjust my camera settings for a shallow depth of field, blurring the background, while keeping the subject in focus, and I move in pretty close.
Later in the image editor, I used a basic filter (adding a few tweaks) because I personally preferred it in a soft black and white.
I usually take my photos outside, with natural lighting. This also allows me the freedom to enjoy outside activities and end up with much more candid shots instead of heavily posed scenes.