Three Ideas To Improve Your Portrait Composition

Composition is a skill that portrait photographers need to learn. But many struggle to move beyond the rule of thirds when it comes to placing the model in the frame.

There’s no doubt that portrait composition is complex. It’s easy to get lost amongst all the different ideas you come across.

So let’s keep it simple. Here are three key composition related decisions to make when you make a portrait:

1. What to include in the photo

2. Where to place the model

3. Mood and light

Now we can look at some portraits and see how these ideas work in practice.

Portrait composition example #1 – What to include in the photo

I made this portrait of a friend standing in the doorway of a concrete bunker, lit by natural light.

I knew what I wanted to include in the composition: the model plus a hint of the background. It isn’t an environmental portrait and there was no need to include anything else.

I achieved this by using a short telephoto lens (85mm on a full-frame camera). Telephotos are lenses of exclusion – their narrow field-of-view includes much less background than wide-angle lenses.

I used an aperture of f1.8 and focused on the model’s eyes to blur the background. This is another form of exclusion. The background doesn’t pull the eye as much as it would if it were in sharp focus. This helps direct attention to the model.

I placed her face centrally in the frame horizontally. The distance to the edge of the frame on either side of her head is equal. Central compositions work well with portraits like this where the background is of secondary importance.

I framed the portrait to include some of her body. There was no need to get in closer. With your own portraits, feel free to experiment with the crop. You can also crop afterwards in Lightroom Classic if that improves the composition. There are a couple of alternative crops below so you can see the difference it makes.

Portrait composition example #2 – What to include in the photo

I made this portrait in the same place as the previous one, but I composed it differently. I stood further back because I wanted to include the model’s hoop and costume in the frame. A tighter crop would remove these props.

I experimented with the composition and moved in close to make some tighter portraits like the one below. The emphasis has changed – the portrait below is more about the model’s hair, whereas the first example is about her hair and costume.

Portrait composition example #3 – What to include in the photo

Here’s a portrait I made of a dancer.

I included far more background in the composition. I made this decision because the environment is so beautiful. The dark sand on the beach, the gray cliffs, the concrete block in the background are important parts of the composition. It’s the kind of portrait where the viewer’s eye moves between the dancer and the background, taking in the detail along the way.

I used a short telephoto lens (56mm, APS-C) for this portrait too, but stood further back and set the aperture to f5.6 for a sharper background.

With your portraits you can experiment with the aperture. Does the portrait look better with a wide aperture and a blurred background, or a smaller aperture and a sharper background? Sometimes the decision is forced on you. If you’re shooting in low light, for example, you may need to use a wide aperture because otherwise the ISO would be too high. But experiment when you can and see which result you prefer.

In all these portraits the decision is a balancing act between including enough background to add interest, but not so much that it becomes a distraction.

Decision #2 – Where to place the model

In the previous portrait examples the question of where to place the model was influenced by the decision of how much of the environment to include.

Asking whether the model should be on a third is often the wrong question.

A better question is how close should I get to the model? In the first portrait, for example, I moved in close to make a head and shoulders portrait. In the second and third, I stepped back to include more of the background. In those portraits, there was more freedom to place the model off-center.

Another good question is how does the background affect the composition?

For example in the second portrait I placed the model centrally as the background isn’t an important part of the composition. If I’d moved her off-center there would be too much empty space. But in third portrait I used the concrete block in the background to frame the dancer, which pushed him off-center.

Portrait composition example #4 – Where to place the model

Let’s look at the question of placement in relation to two more portraits. In this one I placed the model in the lower half of the frame in order to include the buildings and lights in the background.

We were shooting at dusk, and the light was moody and evocative. The street light and the lights in the windows of the buildings in the background added to that mood. I wanted to include them in the composition, so I needed to position the model in the bottom half of the frame. There was no consideration of the rule of thirds at all. The only thing that mattered was how the model fitted into the background.

Portrait composition example #5 – Where to place the model

In the next portrait I placed the model off-center, toward the left of the frame.

I did this for two reasons. The first is that the wall on the left needed a large amount of empty space on the right of the frame to balance it out.

The second is that the model was looking to the right, so it was a good idea to include some space to for her to look into.

Decision #3 – Mood and light

The final decision to make is regarding the mood and light. Mood is set by a combination of environment and light. You get moody light in the evening and on overcast days. So the key decisions to make here are where to make the portraits, and when will you get moody light?

It’s a good idea to make a mental list of places in your neighborhood that are potentially good locations for portraits. Go take a walk and explore. You’ll be amazed by what you find. Sometimes all you need for a great background is a beautiful wall, a shady corner, a lonely piece of beach.

I made all the portraits in this article in the evening, and the mood is strongest in the last two. The warm light of the setting sun lights up the background, creating mood.

In the third portrait I created mood by converting the photo to black and white in Lightroom Classic. You can also experiment with techniques like color grading to create mood at the post-processing stage.

Conclusion

It is a good habit to analyze the composition of your own portraits and the portraits of other photographers. It’s a great way to learn, and it’s always easier to analyze your own portraits after a shoot because you have time to think and reflect.

The best thing about this process is that it internalizes these ideas about composition. You’ll find yourself applying them instinctively in future portrait shoots, and in your other photos too.

The Natural Portrait

If you’d like to learn more about these ideas then check out my ebook The Natural Portrait. It shows you how to make beautiful portraits in natural light, and is filled with practical advice and gorgeous photos. Click here for the details.