Portrait photography tip: Get creative with powder

Thursday 30 September 2021, 23:32 by Elja Trum | 4,095 views | 2 comments

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

For truly special portrait photos, it's fun to get creative. One great way to create special photos is to work with powder.

Eva Maria - f/9, 1/160s, 1,000 ISO @ 47mm
To capture powder properly, you want to freeze it in the air. So work with fast flashes, such as speedlights or on-camera flashes, at low flash power to get a short flash duration.

For this photo I used flour, but you can also buy powders that are coloured. For example, Holi powders, which are also used for certain festivities.

For this kind of photo session, a dark background works very well to make the powder itself clearly visible. Use a black background or work in a dark room, making sure that no light falls on the background by lighting from the side.

Be careful: working with powder is not without danger. If the concentration in the air becomes too high, there is a risk of a dust explosion. The dust is also unhealthy for your lungs, and those of your model. So always work in a well-ventilated room.

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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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2 comments

Donald Willemsen wrote on Tuesday 5 October 2021 at 15:39 | reply
Elja, it is a nice idea and it is also good that you point out the dangers. But before I start: will you come and clean up the mess afterwards? 😃😉
Translated from Dutch.

info@trigona.nl wrote on Wednesday 6 October 2021 at 09:32 | reply
It produces beautiful photos, but rightly so to pay attention to the dangers. I attended a workshop myself so you don't have the mess either. Especially in post-processing, there's a lot to get out of it. It's a shame that you see it more and more often, at the beginning it had a bigger wow factor.
Translated from Dutch.

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