Earlier this month we did a one to one portrait photography training session with wedding photographer, Tania Jonas. Tania runs a successful wedding photography business with her partner Steve, they regularly shoot weddings throughout the year.

Being a perfectionist though, Tania wanted to improve her bridal portrait photography skills and had been given one of our One to One Portrait Photography Training Sessions as a gift.

We also run a regular Portrait Photography Workshop which covers the same skills.

One of Tania’s images.

On the day of the training session we had a bright sunny day which presented both challenges and opportunities for portrait photography. We had a variety of portrait lighting conditions to work with.

We visited 3 different locations with our model Liza and covered a whole range of portrait photography techniques, here are just a few of Tania’s images from the day, which are remarkable because she managed to achieve some lovely photos in each location and was often working with quite difficult lighting conditions.

The fist image is a very simple headshot, achieved by placing Liza in the shade on a sunny. The key skill taught here is about observing the light on Liza’s face and making sure the light and shadow fall in the right way to give a flattering portrait. We also worked on getting natural expression and on how to position a person for a headshot, rather than just having then straight on to the camera.

Next using natural light again, but working on ways to get the hand into the shot to show a ring (if this was a bride on her wedding day!)

Working on natural expression and posing, plus using good light.

This shot shows how easy it can be to use a bench to enable your subject to sit in a natural way which helps with posing. Also working on framing and composition.

Shooting along a wall draws you into the shot and gives depth to the image.

For this portrait, we used the frame of the gateway to assist with the composition and to give us shade from the direct sun. Exposing Liza correctly gives us a slightly overexposed background which works well

Directional light is great for portraits, so we used the light from one end of a tunnel to create this image.

As a test, we attempted to create a good portrait in direct, overhead sunlight. This was achieved by facing Liza away from the sun and using a reflector to bounce the light back onto her face.

And finally, a little bit of off camera flash.

Considering we had just 3 hours for this session, Tania created a fantastic set of images. You can see more here.