Generally focused on the subjects face, although occasionally encompassing more of their body, portrait photography is the art of capturing a person’s mood, character and emotion in a photograph.

Every highly regarded portrait photographer always ensured to imprint their own unique style on their works. Richard Avedon is often celebrated as a pioneer of portrait photography; his capacity for capturing real human emotion and aspects of people’s characters was something that many others had not previously achieved on such an emotional level. Whereas Avedon stayed particularly in the latter stages of his career in a studio, photographers such as Dianne Arbus preferred to capture people in their natural environments. Both evoke different perceptions and it is purely a case of personal preference with regards to what people believe capture the subject more intensely.

Portrait photography will always remain a fantastic theme for the stock image market. Clients will always require at some point to highlight the human emotion one perceives through their product and there is no better way than with a portrait photo.

Key components of portrait photography are good lighting, using interesting subjects, and evoking emotion. Additional lighting and props that can be added to conjure up more intrigue or enhance a subject’s depicted character are also good to have in mind.

Remember that clients want an all-rounded choice of models. A reoccurring comment from some of our best-selling Contributors on Fotolia state that in their portrait photos it is more important to chose models that they have a connection with, that really display their personality through their features rather than just tick all the correct boxes of what makes a person attractive.

Remember also to include a variety of different ages and ethnicities when choosing models.

We’ve put together a dedicated gallery here of some recent great examples.