10 things cameras love and hate (in portraits)
Estimated Reading Time: 5 mins
Cameras are weird, right? They look at the world just… differently from how our eyes see it. We’ve spent a lot of our time looking at the world through our viewfinder, so we thought we’d share our experience and tell you what we found worked really damn well on camera and what just didn’t. As always, we’ll take things a step further and actually explain the logic of how this works.
Cameras Love
1) The right time of day
Photography, at its most basic principle, is the capture of light. When you book a photoshoot outdoors, you rely on light sources that we don’t control — normally that’s the sun! At least the sun is pretty predictable, so it’s easy to schedule your photoshoot success. If you’re going for pure flattery, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better time of day than ‘Golden Hour’, just before the sun dips below the line of the horizon. The soft, one-directional light, is easy for experienced photographers to manipulate and can replicate a studio look. Check this out:
We placed the sun behind our subject to give a rich hair-light AND evenly lighting to the face. No harsh shadows here.
Turning our subject around, towards the light, we ended up with this striking look!
But hey, this isn’t the point where you start panicking like “ohmygod my shoot is scheduled for midday” because there are a few scenarios where midday literally shines:
- Built-up areas
- Dramatic looks
- Shooting in every direction
2) Keeping it moving
For some, it’s a natural reaction to just freeze in front of the camera. Honestly, though, the best advice we can give is to forget the camera is even there. As photographers, our job is to make you relax and feel like you’re just hanging out with your mates. We’ll get you set up into position, give you a prompt and then we’ll just be having a chat and a laugh.
We love it when our subjects just can’t stay still, please feel free to:
- play with your hair
- shift your weight between your hips
- walk around in little circles
- switch your side
- grab something to keep your hands busy
The camera works to freeze a moment and you’ll be surprised to see how beautiful you’re looking when you’re just doing your thing!
3) Logical makeup
Makeup is a personal choice and we emphasise in Photo Route 101 that we don’t recommend drastically doing something that you haven’t done before. If you really want ‘that’ look you saw on YouTube, then please practise it a week or two prior and make sure it fits your personality and suits your look.
If you’re not someone who wears much makeup, keep it light. A bit of eyeliner, mascara, lip gloss and filled-in brows will make a world of difference.
But if you’re someone who’s a total makeup enthusiast then here’s what the camera loves:
- Mattifying makeup base
- Translucent powder to remove unintentional shine
- Contouring with bronzer, highlighter and blush
- Filled in brows
- Lighter shades of eyeshadows
- Cut crease on the eyelids
- Strong eyeliner
- Mascara/false lashes
- Lip gloss or lighter lipstick hues
Again — please don’t use this as a checklist and try to do them all if it’s not who you are. Our photoshoots are about celebrating your individuality.
4) Tilting towards the camera
Define your jaw structure by lifting your jaw away from your neck and towards the camera. One of the photographers I hung out with at uni used to tell his subjects to “imagine a string is lifting your chin towards the camera”. It really does work. Pair this with raising your tongue to the roof of your mouth and there won’t be any double chins on your photoshoot!
5) A subject that’s enjoying themselves
Photoshoots are so exciting! They’re a celebration of you and they should always be looked forward to. We’ll do everything we can to keep you having fun and we hope you do too. Honestly, treat your shoot like an enjoyable activity and your photos will turn out even better for that.
Cameras Hate
1) Tinted glasses
Eyes are the most important part of a portrait. So, you can imagine tinted glasses getting in the way of that. If you wear transitional lenses, consider switching to clear lenses or even contacts just for your photoshoot and you’ll end up with a stronger connection to the viewer.
That being said, sunglasses can still be a fun prop that looks good, especially if they’re styled well!
2) Moiré patterns
Moiré patterns are a camera’s nightmare. Have you ever seen an optical illusion when a still image appears to be dancing around in-frame? Imagine if that was on your portrait, it would be so distracting.
How does it happen? Well, human eyes are apparently 576 megapixels (according to Dr Roger Clark) and most professional cameras are around 24-50 megapixels — the images you see on IG and Facebook get compressed down to just 1-2 megapixels!
That’s important because if your outfit included a really fine pattern (like a micro-checked shirt), due to megapixel constraints, most professional cameras could struggle to capture the full detail and you end up with the moiré effect. Ew.
If in doubt about your pattern, talk to your photographer for some advice!
3) Stray hairs
Stray hairs are more obvious on camera than in real life, because of the shallow depth of field of the background. Do yourself a favour and try using a product to keep your strays behaving — here are some of my personal favourites:
4) Objects in pockets
We know, our phones are addictive. But you don’t want them bulging in your trouser pockets. It’s distracting and you’ll be annoyed that you didn’t put it away. You might be able to fit it into your jacket pocket, but an accessible bag pocket (or a plus one) can be hella beneficial.
5) Fake Smiles
Don’t say “cheese”. Saying cheese will force your mouth to stretch in an unflattering and unnatural way. Fake smiling is hard work! It’s much more fun (and better looking) to loosen up and have some top-tier banter with your photographer. That’s one of the reasons we’re always saying that great photos are less about the talent of the photographer and more about the relationship between the subject and the photographer. We welcome any prospective clients to schedule a call or meeting, so we can vibe before making any bookings!
Now you have you a better idea of what works on the camera (and what doesn’t). We like to give honest advice so that, come the day of your booking, you can have the most successful shoot ever!
Whether you’re thinking of booking a shoot with us or not, we love chatting all things photography with people. Don’t be shy to hit us up if you’re not sure the camera will love your next big idea :)