4 Tips for Selecting the Perfect Portrait Photography Location
Every portrait photography session relies heavily on the chosen location, as it sets the backdrop, foreground, and other crucial compositional elements. To find the ideal portrait photography location that complements and enhances your subjects, consider the following four tips, applicable to various types of photoshoots, from couples and families to high-school seniors and street portraits.
Seek Meaningful Locations: Start your search by looking for places that hold personal significance for your subjects. While standard portrait settings can look nice, capturing images at meaningful locations elevates the story and adds emotional depth. For example, engagement photoshoots could take place at the spot of the original proposal, or family portraits could be shot in a location special to the family.
2. Capture beautiful lighting: For stunning backgrounds with beautiful bokeh, search for thickets of leaves and position your subjects with the leaves backlit by the sun. When the sunlight filters through the leaves, it creates pinpricks of light that turn into sparkling green bokeh when rendered out of focus.
3. Utilize Beautiful Textures & Shapes: Incorporate rough textures, like barn doors, rocks, tree bark, or peeling paint, to add interest and make your subject's skin stand out. Seek out locations with eye-catching geometric shapes like triangles, circles, rectangles, or squares. Compose your images to make these shapes fit together harmoniously, adding a sense of order and visual appeal to your portraits.
4. Create Layers for Depth: To enhance the three-dimensionality of your portraits, look for locations with strong foregrounds, midgrounds, and backgrounds. By incorporating these layers, you draw the viewer into the frame and add depth to your composition.
By following these tips, you'll be well-equipped to scout and choose the perfect portrait photography locations that result in stunning and meaningful images. Remember to create a location list for future reference and most importantly, have fun capturing unforgettable portraits.