Make them laugh! Taking portraits isn´t an easy task. Most of us love to taking photographs but also most of us don´t like to be photographed. The consequence: Almost all portraitshots show that kind of strange look in the face. Most of the time the "victim" looks like a rat in front of the snake - scared. Will I look good or smart in the final picture? This type of question is responsible that you will look anything but good or smart in the photo. The result: You don´t like to be photographed! How to break the chain?

Make your model feel comfortable is one I heard very often. Well good luck! I prefer to use a simple trick: I suprise them! One thing that really helps is a fast motordrive.

This shot was one out of eight. I set the camera to take 5 frames per second and fired while saying something that was obviously funny. After the first 3 frames Steffen started to laugh. The result is a very natural looking portrait. When you click on the picture you can see the first frame.

Anotherone that works fine is to set up the camera on a tripod and make all adjustments. Now you can talk to your model without looking through the viewfinder and push the knob before she/he is able to put on that terrible "help me - someone is taking a picture of me" - face.

If you have a special trick please let me know.

More portraits can be found HERE.