Black-and-white photography tip: Create emotional portraits

Saturday 11 May 2024, 12:24 by Elja Trum | 2,450 views | 0 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Without the distraction of colour, your subject's facial expressions and emotions can come to the fore. Sadness, joy and contemplation can all become more powerful in black and white.

Rianne - f/10, 1/160s, 100 ISO @ 30mm
Such a portrait does not need much more than your subject's face. Extra props or a complicated background can only make the image busier and distract from the real goal: capturing the emotion.

For an emotional portrait, you usually need no more than an even background and the person themselves, shown close up.

Also remember that the right lighting is essential when highlighting emotions. Soft shadows can help create a serene or thoughtful atmosphere, for example, while hard shadows can produce a more dramatic effect. Experiment with different light sources and positions.

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About the author

Elja Trum is the founder of Photofacts and online photography course website Photofacts Academy. He has been writing about photography since 2006. Elja is also the author of (Dutch) books on composition, black-and-white photography, flash photography and portrait photography.

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Would you like to take better photos and keep up with what is happening in photography? Photofacts publishes articles that teach you something about photography — from a product announcement to a practical shooting tip or a look at a website. Photofacts covers photography every day and is a hobby project of Elja Trum's that got out of hand. The articles are written by a team of volunteer authors. If you would enjoy writing one or more articles for Photofacts, do get in touch.More about Photofacts

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