Using Nature To Enhance Portrait Photography

Many photographers, when first starting out, lack the resources to buy proper studio lighting and backdrops for taking portraits. But that shouldn't prevent them from taking beautiful portrait photos.

And even when a photographer has all of the necessary equipment, the lighting and the beauty that nature provides sometimes just simply outdoes anything that can be provided by studio lighting and painted backdrops.



Right now, it is Autumn. One of the most wonderful backdrops that can be found in nature during Autumn are the colorful leaves that fall from trees, spreading a carpet of reds, yellows and oranges along the ground.

Children love to sit or lay in the piles of leaves.







They also love to play in the leaves, making some wonderful opportunities for beautiful portrait photography.





Autumn leaves even make a great backdrop for pet portraits.



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Motion

There are different ways to capture motion in photos. Some photographers like to capture the subject in complete focus with the background showing the blur of motion to show movement as in the below photo.



Sometimes, I capture motion in a photo differently. In the below photo, the girl's face is in focus while her arms, legs and dress are blurred with movement. I like this as it helps show the delight and freedom in her movement and captures the sense of joyful abandon that I discovered in her movements.



There is another way of capturing movement in photos, and that is to keep everything in crisp, sharp focus and let the swing of hair or position of the subject capture the motion inherent in the picture, as in the photograph below.

Red Sunflower

Sometimes having the main subject of a photo off-center can give a photo an added beauty.