Most Creative Ads of All Time

http://my.mmoabc.com/article/Nik88/2292/Most-Creative-Ads-of-All-Time.html?login=no

16 Inspirational Portrait Photography Techniques

I’m learning that portrait photography can be tough in more than one way thanks to my participation in the December Challenge. I’m already getting bored with taking the standard cookie-cutter portrait, so I started digging around Flickr for some inspiration. Here’s what I turned up:

And yes, I realize that the accompanying text is much shorter than I would usually supply, but the idea of this post isn’t to teach these techniques — it’s to introduce you to them and hopefully give you some inspiration with your own photography. I feel that these photos are strong enough to stand on their own without lengthy descriptions.

1. PHOTOSHOP

If you’re good with post-processing and manipulations, use it to your advantage.

2. TEXTURE

If texture is a big part of your subject, make it stand out and make it obvious.

3. OVEREXPOSE

Blowing out the highlights makes a nice soft portrait with kind of a light airy feeling.

4. UNDEREXPOSE

A dominantly dark image will naturally draw your eyes to the lighter parts.

5. BACK-LIGHT

Hair lights up like crazy when it’s back-lit.

6. POSING

Get crazy with the pose and positioning — extra points if it looks uncomfortable.

7. CULTURE

Capture the local culture — what’s mundane to you is exotic to us.

8. REFLECTIONS

Make use of different surfaces to add that extra dimension.

9. SHADOWS

Make the shadow an important part of the image.

10. GET CLOSE

There’s no rule against cropping out most of the subject’s face.

11. (UN)FOCUS

Out-of-focus subjects can be more interesting than the in-focus subjects.

12. MOVEMENT

Use movement to show action, even if it blurs out the subject entirely.

13. CAPTURE THE MOMENT

Catch somebody doing something they love, even if it’s not staged.

14. COLORS

Use vibrant and contrasting colors to draw attention to parts of your subject.

15. GET SERIOUS

Not all portraits need to have a smile, capture the serious emotions too.

16. PROPS

Use the props and tools around you to make the setting more interesting.

http://blog.epicedits.com/2007/12/10/16-inspirational-portrait-photography-techniques/