Great tricks for beauty shots

It’s one of the most common photos we take, and while it seems easy enough, adding your own spin to a portrait photo is deceptively difficult. We spoke to renowned portrait photographer and Canon Explorer, Jörg Kyas, about his work with portraiture and how he juggles his personal and professional photographic pursuits.

The Early Years

There are a lot of different paths people take to become photographers. Some can remember the exact moment they knew they wanted to pursue it as a career, but for Jörg Kyas, his obsession came in waves.

Portrait photography

This finite way of working with film made Jörg start to pay more attention to things like image selection and composition. “I started to regard things more exactly and this trained my view and got me more interested in photography as a profession. So when I was deciding on a career, I asked myself what makes me happy? What am I good at?”Jörg laughs, “I had to be true to myself that I maybe would not be able to earn my money with football…so it became clear to go the photographic way.”

Every layout comes with the latest social features built in. Readers will be able to easily share posts on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, view how many people have liked a post, made comments and more. With the Wix, building your online community has never been easier.

Communication is key

When asked to dive into the intricacies of portrait photography, Jörg expands on the importance of communication. “For a good picture you need to be close to your subject. For portraiture that means being informed about the person you take pictures of. Before shooting, try to get as much information about your model and, if you have the time, speak with the person before you shoot or during the preparation of the shooting.”

Jörg is also a firm believer that you should evolve with the times, but to always be true to yourself. “You can´t avoid being influenced by the styles of the time. It’ll always find its way into your work. But what I’ve learned through all these years in the photo business is that every style and each new trend will pass, so, in my view, it’s a good thing to try to find your own style and not to be too trendy.”

Professional or Personal?

Shooting personally and professionally obviously presents different challenges for Jörg, though he says the main difference is the time.

“It’s rare that when you’re shooting professionally you have complete freedom with what you’re shooting”, he begins. “Even if you do, you still have to plan ahead. In the end, you have to make sure, you have some usable results and that you’re not wasting time. If you get all the prepared and planned shots, then you can start opening it up to more freestyling, which people love.”

When he’s creating personal projects Jörg relished the leeway you get. “You have more time and space and that dynamic between planned and freestyle shots is changed. In personal projects I plan more time for freestyle pics, just to have more fun on the set.”