It doesn’t matter whether you’re taking your pictures with an expensive camera or an old phone. In portraits, the same rule of composition will always apply. And your portraits will look a lot better if you stick to them. Rules are made to be broken, of course, but before you break them, you should know them. So let’s take a look at the basic ones. As you’ll see, knowing them can dramatically improve your pictures.

Quality portrait retouching doesn’t have to just mean removing a few pimples. It can be more comprehensive—and there are several different processes involved in achieving a professional portrait. So take a look at how to get ideal faces in portraits by improving not only the skin, but everything else as well.

We all have a favorite photo style or a dream photo. And for many photographers, that’s a window-blind portrait. But there’s one little problem. Sometimes when you’re getting ready to take this kind of photo, the weather suddenly just isn’t cooperating. Got everything ready, but the sun just won’t shine the way you need? We know a way around that. Create a dark-stripes setup in your own home or studio. It’s very easy!

In our last infographic, we described the difference between an umbrella, a softbox, and a beauty dish. So this time around, we’ll focus on where to position your artificial light. Now that you’ve got your equipment, you need to also keep in mind how to use it. Let’s take a look at a few traditional and very useful ways to position your lighting in portrait photography.

Even when you’re shooting portraits outdoors, you can still have your light under control. You just have to take advantage of combined light—that is, artificial plus natural light. It’s generally ideal if you can keep the two light sources in balance. It’s best of all if your audience can’t even tell that you used both types of light.

Artificial light has one large advantage—you have it entirely under your control, and there’s nothing to hold you back from your creative goals. So learn to master flashes and continuous lights, and you’ll take your portrait photographs to the next level.

For many photographers, taking portraits under natural light is the simplest and most common option of all. That way you don’t have to worry about equipment costs. However, you do have to take into account the characteristics of natural light and subordinate your subject’s placement and your exposure settings to these.

Just about every photographer has tried portrait photography at some point. But many of them run into trouble when it comes to portrait lighting. There are several ways to go here. But for all of them, you have to keep in mind basic parameters such as the light’s intensity, quality, and color. Take a look at how to master these.

Most of us connect photos of children with vibrant and cheery colors. But leaving the colors in a picture isn’t always the best approach. Learn these simple guidelines for photographing children, and your pictures will look cleaner and more professional.