How to Capture Personality in Authentic Portraits

Last Updated: February 14th, 2020

Despite what you may have heard, the hardest part about taking really amazing portraits is not posing, lighting, or dialing in the right camera settings. These are all things beginner portrait photographers struggle with, but with effective education and practice – all are relatively easy to overcome.

The most difficult part about taking a good portrait is to authentically represent a person and showcase their personality in a still image. That is no small feat!

In this post, we’re going to teach you how to effectively bring out your portrait subjects personality for more memorable shots!!

Authentic vs Staged Portraits

Before we begin, we want to highlight the difference between what we call “authentic portraits” and “staged portraits.” They both serve different purposes. Let us explain…

Staged portraits are those images crafted for a specific purpose, using well defined techniques to replicate the same look-and-feel again and again for different subjects. Corporate headshots are a prime example of this. So to are a lot of family portraits taken in studios.

Let us be clear – there is nothing wrong about staged portraits! As we said, they serve a specific purpose, but that purpose isn’t really to authentically showcase the people in the shot. It’s to take a nice photo to hang on a wall or include with a resume by a job seeker. In a sense, they feel very transactional and sterile – not the best words to associate with photography as an artform, but an honest look at the purpose behind these sorts of images.

Authentic portraits, on the other hand, are approached in a different manner.

While some camera and lighting techniques may share similarities, the approach to posing, subject attire, and even environment can vary wildly. One of the staples of authenticity in portrait photography is capturing people in their element. If where they are or what they are doing is natural for them, the resulting images will reflect this.

With these simple differences defined, we can talk more about how to capture authenticity and an individual’s personality in your portrait work!

5 Key Elements of Capturing Authentic Portraits

The Right Posing Technique

We look back at old family photos we took when we were kids. You know, the kind where you rolled into a JC Penny or Wal-Mart, stood in a stuffy studio, and stared into a camera all dressed up, probably with a fake smile. This was all a very formal and staged experience. We even remember it feeling a little awkward. While it worked for the type of photo being taken, posing for authenticity is different.

When we think of the words “posing” or “posed” in the context of portrait photography, we immediately envision situations like this. We associate it with words like:

• Stiff
• Boring
• Old
• Formal

We’re sure you could think of others…

We consider the “right” posing technique to be one that allows our portrait subject to feel differently. Like we’re not even posing them (but we are!). In authentic posing, we want people to think and feel things like:

• This is natural
• This is fun
• I’m not being posed at all
• My photographer is taking pictures of me candidly

After photographing many solo portraits, family portraits, and couples portraits (both for fun and for pay!) over the years, we can sum up our effective approach to posing in just a few simple words:

We capture authentic portraits that begin with posing prompts to elicit specific emotions, feeling, and interactions between the portrait subject(s) and our camera, and refine the look of our portraits subject(s) at time through gentle guided posing.

Helping us get the exact look we want from our posing is Signature Edit’s Candid Posing Guide. It provides many excellent prompts for eliciting powerful emotions from our clients in interesting and unique ways. The response from our clients in how we approach posing in this sort of way has consistently been positive!!

The Right Portrait Environment

Selecting the right space to take portraits in is very important.

The resulting images will showcase this space as both a background and foreground element. More important than this, though, is how the environment impacts the person’s reaction to being photographed.

Our best portrait shoots have taken place in people’s homes or at locations they had some personal connection with. These personal elements immediately add authenticity to their portraits. More than that, though, is how these types of environments make people feel comfortable.

Speaking for ourselves, we feel most comfortable at home or around things we know. If a photographer was to pluck us from these spaces and try to take pictures of us on a bustling NYC street, it just wouldn’t work all that well.

Broadly speaking, some people are comfortable just about anywhere, while others are much more reserved and can only feel comfortable in select locations (we are the latter!).

An approach to finding a good location may also involve talking with the person to be photographed and getting to know more about places they like and things they enjoy.

We work with a lot of people who are into hiking, and feel at home really anywhere in the woods – so this may even include hiking trails and parks they haven’t been too – all connected by an activity they enjoy.

How do you go about picking a space to photograph portraits in?

The Right Light Matters

It’s no secret – lighting plays a very crucial role in taking great portraits (no matter the type).

We’ve seen photos of ourselves that have ranged from excellent to downright frightening (even reminiscent of the scary creatures in Stranger Things or the ghosts in The Haunting of Hill House…).

The real trick as a portrait photographer is learning to use whatever light is available. Or, learning how to augment natural light with artificial light through the use of flash and other external light sources.

If photographing portraits outside, it’s normally standard advice to suggest shooting during Golden Hour (around sunset and sunrise) – since the light is soft and flattering. Of course, this isn’t always possible due to scheduling – so finding areas that are shaded or backlighting the subject can produce great looking portraits even at 1PM. Using a reflector like this can also be a simple way to control the light to your advantage.

It’s worth mentioning – some photographers buck what’s common in exchange for preferring other lighting situations. The use of harsh lighting has become a lot more popular in just the past few years. This is a great entry level tutorial to get this right.

For us – since our specialty is couples, engagement, and wedding portrait photography – we always aim to find the soft and evenly distributed light. It just jives with our style, it’s more romantic – which is why we go out of way to shoot during Golden Hour.

How does light play into authentically representing a person?

Having good light = more potential to create a good photo.

The right light allows for a nice and even exposure – meaning no excessive shadows (ie: faces totally dark) or highlights (ie: blown out skies).

The light itself doesn’t really lend to authenticity (or a lack of it), but rather using it effectively (and knowing how to!) enables us to focus more on other things that contribute to capturing authenticity.

In the beginning of our portrait photography career, when we were still learning how to effectively use the light, it was a big crutch. We would always be thinking about it actively and working through the struggles of deciding on the wrong locations and so on. Now, we find the light basically on auto-pilot. Our thoughts are less consumed by this basic element of photography, and more taken up by getting other things right.

Need help with the photography basics? Check out our comprehensive post of 101 digital photography tips to help you get the fundamentals down for FREE!

The Right Clothing Choice

Talking about clothing in the context of authentic portraits almost feels wrong. Why? Because we hate to suggest that what someone might regularly wear won’t work for creating the best possible portrait, but it is actually the case at times.

The main thing we look at when working with portrait clients when it comes to their attire is making sure the colors will work effectively with the environment we plan to shoot in.

For solo portraits, this tends to be a lot easier – but couples and families often struggle by selecting clothes that match or are too similar in color. This can result in everyone just kind of blending together – something that doesn’t really reflect authenticity all that much.

As an example of this, if we are going to be shooting in a really wooded area (filled with a lot of greens + browns), we tend to suggest staying away from or minimizing these colors. In our images, we want contrast, so selecting a color that will make a person pop in their environment is a great way to get them to stand out in a photograph.

In our opinion, there is a middle ground between “wear whatever you want” and “only wear what the photographer suggests.”

We are also not advising to only get dressed up to the britches or going and splurging a hundred bucks on some new clothes just for a photo shoot.

Most clothing choices boil down into two categories: casual and dressy.

Some common suggestions we have to make both of these vibes work…

• For casual: wear jeans or khakis, not yoga pants or jhorts (jean shorts). Wear a t-shirt if you want, but maybe not one you just dug out of an old and mildew covered pile of clothing.
• For dressy: wear a skirt, dress, or dress pants – it’s all good. In this area, the most important part is that you feel comfortable in what you are wearing (something a lot of people get wrong!).

Taking some of these simple points into consideration will allow for photos to still be authentic without feeling like the clothing choice was last minute, spur of the moment, or done out of laziness. In the pursuit of authenticity, we also want to capture people as their best self.

Unless you are a total minimalist like Matt D’Avella with a single pair of clothing to your name, this shouldn’t be too much of a struggle. 🙂

One bonus note…by editing photos after you’ve taken them, as a photographer you can have even more control over the color balance in your images. We often manipulate colors and hues of colors in our images to produce the beautiful style seen our images. Using Lightroom presets like these is a simple solution to getting the look you want quickly.

The Search for Everyone’s Beauty

All of the elements of taking a great, authentic portrait have focused on the physical things involved.

Posing, environment choice, lighting, and clothing are all physical things – but one could argue that, at the end of the day, these things are only outward reflections of who a person is and how they look. While we try to avoid being materialists, portrait photography is about capturing the person in front of us as we see them – so it makes sense they get so much priority.

BUT!

Authentic portrait photography by it’s nature is about capturing more than just the physical.

Our absolute favorite portrait images elicit strong emotions and can showcase people experiencing emotions in front of our cameras.

By using effective posing, we are able to drive people to showcase these types of things naturally in front of our camera. At times, certain situations will bring out emotions even more organically, too.

The things we tend to look for most in authentic portraits…

• Big smiles and laughter that come from actually feeling happy and actually laughing about something
• A look of sadness, even tears, in light of thinking about or experiencing strong emotions in this realm
• Movement – could be a person walking, wind blowing hair, interacting with others/the environment, etc.

These types of things are very simple on the surface, but learning how to get them out of people takes some work, practice and patience!

Ultimately – what happens in some of these little moments, maybe during a simple prompt, is often a quick glimpse at people behaving naturally (like the camera isn’t even there).

Having been photographed before, we know it is often difficult to disconnect the feeling of having a camera in the face.

The best photographers can make people feel comfortable and set them up into situations that make them feel willing to express themselves in front of the camera. As people express themselves naturally, their personality shines through in their photos!

By capturing portraits that showcase a person’s personality effectively, you help to bring out and put on physical display their inner beauty through the medium of photography. It’s a truly amazing thing!

Conclusion

We hope this little guide to taking authentic portraits that can put a person’s personality on full display is helpful to you. On the surface, portrait photography is so simple (take picture of a person, call it a day!) – but really great and master class portraits go a step further.

By showcasing people in their element and interacting naturally, you can produce stunning photos that they will treasure for a long time. You will create photos that have more energy and raw emotion that just a simple staged portrait that feels uninspired and bleh!

Have any portrait photography tips of your own or questions you want to ask? Drop us a line or leave a comment below to start the conversation!

All of the images showcased in this post were taken by us. You can read more about us here and see our larger portfolio over on Hand and Arrow Photography.