Photographing People

Lighting, posing, perspective are all important; however, in my opinion, the most important item is capturing not only your subjects best expression, but his/her personality.  Years ago, I was visiting a photographer friend.  He was going to have another friend do a guest shoot, but one of the two models didn't show.  So I was volunteered, LOL.  I'm usually not on that end of the camera.  They posed me with a beautiful young lady, and the guest photographer was there with the camera aimed at us, but kept waiting and waiting without pressing the shutter release.  Nobody knew why, and he no doubt missed some great opportunities and photos.  By worrying about missing a great shot (if that was the reason), he missed some great shots.

The lesson is that as soon as you see that perfect expression/image in the viewfinder, you have to be ready to press the shutter release and capture the image.  As that old saying goes, "he who hesitates, is lost."  I suppose the opposite is true, too, "he who is lost, hesitates."  So whether you are shooting a portrait, a wedding, street photography, or whatever, when you see that magic moment, capture it immediately.  And always be ready for the opportunity to appear.  How can you do this?  Practice, practice, practice.  Now, with digital, it's pretty much free to do that.

Below is a photo that happened because all the elements came together, and the timing of the shutter release captured what I feel was the best possible of this group.  It was completely unplanned.

On the other hand, the following photo was planned, but the timing still needed to be just right to capture her expression:

There is much more to getting perfect photos.