 Many photographers find the idea of portrait photography as a genre. Oh, I can't be doing it. There's something about this idea of photographing an actual person, who is going to see the results that fill so many photographers with dread. If you want to ruin your first experience as a portrait photographer, then you absolutely need to do these four things. There was a portrait photographer once upon a time who was so nervous about taking photographs of celebrities that he had to construct a special way of taking these photographs. And because of that nervousness, because of all that anxiety, he ended up with some of the most iconic portraits of the 20th century. How's it, how's it? If you are considering or wanting to take some pictures of people, some portrait photography, then there are a couple of things that if you put in place, you will make sure that the photo session is just going to be a nightmare, and you can then safely say that portrait photography is not for you. Now the first thing to do that is really going to ruin the session is going in with no idea. Yep, that's right. Nobody who creates great photographs has any plan whatsoever, right? The great photographers, they just walk into the studio, they're handed their camera and pixie dust dribbles from the sky and blesses them with inspiration and creativity. Of course, this is a nonsense, right? It is absolutely, you should at least have a goal, a plan. What do you want to get from this session that you are going to do, right? Don't think that you can make stuff up on the hoof, because if you are beginning as a portrait photographer, you can't do that, okay? You need to concentrate on doing one thing, one idea, set a goal about this is what you want to achieve from the session and stick to it. That leads neatly on to the second part of this, which is that you want to spend all your time fussing with all the gear and stuff again, because that makes you look like you know what you're doing, right? If you're always fiddling with all the settings on the camera and adjusting the lights, then the model is going to think, wow, this guy really knows his stuff. And of course, while you're doing all of that, you are not taking pictures. So set up all of your gear before the sitter arrives. It doesn't matter if you're in the studio or on location. Actually, especially matters if you're on location, because there's so much more that you need to be aware of going on, right? If you've scheduled the session for 10 o'clock, be there at hoppers nine. Make sure everything is working, make sure everything is ready to go. So the second that the person who you're photographing turns up, you can get go, you can start taking photographs. And of course, what should you do when these people turn up? You should ignore them. You shouldn't talk to them. Don't engage with them because they're here to be photographed by the great you, right? So you really need to talk to them. Even if you're kind of one of these people who's not socially outward going, oh, hi, hi, hi, you're something like that. Say, hi, how are you doing? Did you find it? Okay, that's fantastic. Well done. It's nice to meet you. It isn't a great day today. It was very British of me bringing up the weather straight away. But that's the thing. Just talk to them. They are probably as equally as nervy as you are. And just talking to the person will help break the ice between you. You're not trying to develop a great friendship or whatever. You're just being polite to somebody who has agreed to give up some of their precious time to you. The fourth part of how to ruin a photo session is you must absolutely photograph somebody who you know, especially if you are new to photography or super nervous. Then having somebody who you know is the quickest way to make a situation that is already tense and an anxiety laden for you and ramp up that anxiety to like 11, right? Because it's that person who you know. They are not going to see the photographs and smile politely and go, oh, okay, yeah, thank you very much. And then drift out of your life and probably never to be seen again. Now, they are going to be with you around all the time, right? And there's always going to be this weird thing in the air between you if they don't like their photographs. Did they kind of go, oh, is that how you see me and something like that? And until you are more experienced or more confident with taking portrait photographs, then I would strongly suggest that you steer clear of photographing people whom you like. Now that, of course, leads into the question like, oh, well, do I get models and stuff like that? There are easy places to find models. If you are part of a local photography group, you could probably find models there. There are places that model mayhem and purpleport where you can find models who will volunteer their time for you to photograph. I must drink like a ton of coffee a day and especially when I'm researching the videos. And I can only research videos when I have a coffee to drink. If you'd like help me to research more videos, I put a link to buy me a coffee in the description box below. Any coffee is greatly appreciated. Now, I have to, at this point, throw out my hands and say, look, I'm terribly sorry. I have brought you here under false pretence, right? Because I've said to you, these are the things you must not do. These are the things that ruin your photography, your portrait photography experiences. And this whole channel, the idea in TP is about the celebration, is about positivity in photography. And I enjoy portrait photography immensely because it is the genre that I make my living from. And it is the most rewarding for me because I get to meet new people every day. I see different things all the time. And that's fantastic. And I want you to enjoy portrait photography. And I want you to think of it as something that is scary because it certainly isn't scary. The people whom you're going to be photographing are nervous all the time, just like you are. All the photographers whom I know, all the photographers who are good at portrait photography, have an element of nerves within them every time they go and do a session. I have nerves within me every time I do a session. If you don't have at least a touch of tenseness about you, then there's something wrong. You're being far too casual, being delayed back. You're being, oh, I'm just going to go and do some photo shoots and stuff like that. And when you are casual, that's when mistakes happen. That's when things don't go quite right. So you need just a little bit of edge just to get you going. Use the anxiousness that you have to be a bit positive thing. One of the great benefits of portrait photography is that you are in control of so much in the actual photograph. If you're working in a studio, of course, then you control pretty much everything. If you're out in location, you have a lot more control over lighting and stuff because it's a small thing than if you were a landscape photographer who is at the mercy of the entire sky. Gear manufacturers, no doubt, especially flash manufacturers, bamboozling you with all of these things. Slow spink, slow spink, slow spink, high speed spink. All these things, you know, Fresnel lenses and honeycombs and grits and stuff like that. And kickers and rim lights and yada yada yada. They are doing that because they want to sell you gear. And you get into your head that doing photographs or in a studio, you need all this kit. You don't need all this stuff. You are just one person. You can do portrait photography wherever you want. This is a room here, you know, has north facing light today. It's a bit dark in here, but it's great as a portrait studio. I could certainly use it and create great portraits there. And so can you wherever you are, look at, you know, the possibility for portrait photography. Some of the greatest portrait photography in the world has been created out without artificial light. You certainly don't need them. You know, earlier I was talking about having an idea, right? So you have an idea for a session, why have you? And things don't quite go to plan. As everybody knows, you know, plans don't survive the first meeting with an enemy. And if something does go awry, if things are not working out the way that you intended or what have you, then change it up. You know, just move on to the next thing. It doesn't matter. The model isn't going to get antsy with you, right? They're not going to start having a hissy fit and being hysterical and walking out. If you say, oh, you know, actually, I need to just change things up because this isn't quite working, right? You're being professional about things. You're saying, okay, I'm just, you know, it's not working, right? So we're going to change it. And you discuss it with the model and you discuss it with them and you involve them and then they are part of that process. I really wish that more people would spend time talking about this. I'm going to just go slightly off topic here because it really, I think it's a thing that is worth noting. When you photograph people, the most important thing is not the lighting, it's not the camera, whatever. It's the interaction between you and the subject without this interaction between us, right? Without the way that you talk to the model and you make them feel like they're part of the session. Then everything else is pointless because you're not going to get any soul. You're not going to get any oomph to the photographs. Don't be nervous about people, right? They are just like us, you know? This whole thing about, oh my God, you know, I am nervous about taking photographs and stuff like that. People who volunteer themselves as models are not nervous about being photographed. I think that's the long and the short of it. So don't be nervous. I can't stress this enough. I want to be like this little angels and devils thing on your shoulders and stuff. You're probably like this guy who sits on your shoulder and says, you know, you got this man, right? Just photograph these people, right? You are blessed, blessed with an ability to see the world uniquely, to see things within people that only you can see. And it sounds like it's a weird thing. It sounds like a spooky thing to say. Oh, it's just the things that I can see in somebody. As you start tapping into how you see people, you're going to be surprised at the results. The best piece of praise that I ever had about my photography. And if you're watching, you know who said it to me, and thank you for saying it. But this person said to me, you have the ability to see the best in people and to show it back to them. Tap into that. Tap into these feelings with people. If you are interested in people in any way, shape or form, then you can be a fantastic portrait photographer. The photographer I mentioned earlier worked for a major magazine, and he was in charge of still lives and basically things that didn't talk back. And he was asked or told that he would be now photographing celebrity portraits for an upcoming series of images. And he was quite nervous about this. He was like, I don't know. I don't know if I can do this. And he went, well, what do I need to do to make sure that these celebrities and they were high powered celebrities aren't going to come in here and walk roughshod all over me and basically tell me how to do my job. So Irvin Penn, because this is who we're talking about, built the very famous now and very iconic corner portrait studio. The idea behind this was to take away any feeling of control from the subjects who he was photographing and put all of the control with him. It was his way of dealing with that nervousness of that anxiety about doing something that was very far out of his comfort zone. And of course, the results are these iconic portraits that I feel are some of the strongest body of portraiture work, certainly that I've ever seen. It would be great if you went on to create some iconic portraits like this, but irrespective of whether or not you do become the next Irvin Penn. I would highly encourage you to dip your toe into portrait photography. Don't be scared of it. There is nothing scary about it. If you'd like to find out more about Irvin Penn, I'm going to link to this video here. Fascinating story and I know you're going to love it. Thanks ever so much for watching.