Eight creative compositions for portraits
Wedding photographer Minna Kaitajärvi explores how to perfect portraits, revealing her eight favourite compositional techniques
What am I looking for when I capture a portrait? I want to capture a feeling, an emotion, so it’s crucial for the composition to support that. Composition can guide people in a way that helps to emphasise that feeling.
My top three tips for creating portrait compositions:
- Move! Kneel, lie down, find new perspectives, go closer, go further. Never stay in one place on the same level.
- For the most part, the composition should be great in the moment you take it. Having said that, sometimes it is beneficial for creativity to do some cropping in the editing phase. For this, I like to do really tight crops to create a whole new photo.
- To capture emotion, get close! Often I think, “I could have gone even closer.” So move close, and then a little closer.
1. Contrasting characters
This portrait of the couple’s first dance is a great example of a documentary-style photo. I wanted to add an artistic touch and almost graphic depth to one of the most important moments of the wedding day.
How it’s done: I loved the contrast created when the spotlight landed on the couple, highlighting his black suit and her white wedding dress. Bright light and stark shadow is a compelling combination, and in the edit I wanted to highlight that contrast and use it as a composition technique, so I made sure to enhance the contrast significantly. For an image such as this, where we want to focus on the contrast, it’s obvious it should be black and white.
2. Fill the frame
I love this image of the newlywed couple leaving their ceremony. It’s such a key moment and one you cannot miss, and so I wanted to capture the whole moment: the happy couple cheering, the beautiful space, the light around the couple and the guests.
How it’s done: I personally love using wider focal lengths for dramatic portraits, and in situations like this they’re needed to fit everything in. Also, I decided to tilt the camera a bit to make even more space around the couple. Tilting a camera needs to be purposeful. Not all photos with a tilt look good, but for action-inspired photos such as this, it adds interest.
3. Editorial closeups
Here I wanted a classic, editorial style portrait of the bride, something that could be in a magazine. I took this portrait of a bride at Lake Como, during the golden hour, which creates such beautiful soft light, and I loved the veil she was wearing.
How it’s done: To create fashion-inspired portraits that offer a magazine-like feel, opt for a smaller aperture and use a wider focal length instead of a typical portrait lens such as 85mm. We are often advised to photograph with the widest aperture, but smaller aperture can create an expensive look when used wisely. So remember, not all portraits need to be taken with a ‘typical’ portrait lens.
4. The dynamic duo
These two were such a lively couple! I wanted to capture their authentic newlywed energy, and wanted their joy to be the focus of this frame. We sneaked out for some golden-hour photos and I told them to run to create that beautiful, natural joy. I wanted to use a slower shutter speed but not too slow, because it was important to still capture their expressions.
How it’s done: Use slower shutter speed wisely! We see a lot of slow shutter speed with no actual meaning behind it. It needs to be an active choice to emphasise something in the photo. Here, the slow shutter speed makes sense: the couple is running, and that slower shutter speed creates the feeling of motion.
5. Portraits within a place
This portrait tells the story of a very sweet, almost secret moment, showing the wedding couple kissing behind the bouquet in the hotel’s hallway. That moment within this setting just felt so fitting.
How it’s done: Here I decided to use a more classic composition. I photographed the couple in the centre of the frame, but the hallway’s arches add symmetry, which introduces another layer of interest. I used a wider focal length to showcase the architecture.
6. Play with depth of field
I love getting creative, and for this portrait I wanted to spotlight the bride and her beautiful veil creatively so I placed part of it in front of the lens to bring depth to the composition.
How it’s done: Placing something in front of the lens brings depth to the composition, but it’s even better if you can use something unique to the scene, as I did here with the flower detailing on the veil. It makes the photo much more personal and adds layers of interest to the story. To increase that interest, I tilted the camera a bit to add a fashion-inspired twist, all the while holding the veil in place. It took some time to get the composition just right because I wanted the flowers in the exact right place, but I think the result was worth it.
7. Horizontal portraits
Emotional moments are always worth capturing, and this documentary-style photo of the father of the bride embracing his daughter as he lets her go at the altar is exactly that.
How it’s done: Rules are meant to be broken! In wedding photography, you have to make decisions all the time. You cannot miss key moments. I moved right behind the couple and decided to include as much information as possible by framing this image horizontally and choosing a wide focal length to also capture the scenery. With portraiture, it’s important to remember that not all images need to be taken vertically, and in fact horizontal portraits are great for documentary-style photos.
8. Let the situation tell the story
The newlyweds’ faces say it all. But just as it was important to capture the very happy couple embracing after their first dance, I also wanted to have enough information in the background, the people cheering, for example, to tell the whole story.
How it’s done: For this frame I had to kneel down on the floor to capture everything I wanted. I always love to emphasise feelings, so here I opted for a slow shutter speed to capture that lifelike feeling. Be present and feel the moment with your camera. Capturing love is a tender thing and I am always encouraging portrait photographers to not only document, but to interpret.
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