Portrait tip: Let your model look away
Thursday 12 December 2019, 15:51 by Elja Trum | 5,125 views | 0 commentsThis article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.
With a portrait photo, you may be inclined to have your model look straight into the camera. This gives the viewer eye contact with the model. However, it can also look very good to have your model look away in a photo.
This often adds a sense of feeling to a photo. As you look at the photo, you start to wonder what the person in the photo is looking at, especially if the model is looking at something outside the photo. What is going through their mind?
Having your model look away is a simple technique that helps you bring a story into your photo.
If your model is looking at something that is still in your frame, anyone viewing the photo will follow your model's gaze and also look at the subject in the frame.
You can therefore also use this technique to deliberately direct the person's attention to, for example, a product. Something that is often used in advertising.
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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Elja Trum
Photofacts; everything to do with photography!
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 PhotofactsPhotofacts is made possible in part by
