Tajreen Hedayet of Tajreen&Co is back with a great holiday portrait tutorial that won’t waste your time. In just two minutes (actually less) Hedayet covers four creative Christmas portrait ideas for anyone who wants to create some photos with a “commercial and catalog feel” this holiday season.
Lighting for all of these ideas was pretty straight-forward. Hedayet set up a 7-foot reflective umbrella as her key light, with a large reflector on the ground providing fill from below, and all of the portraits were taken in front of a seamless green paper backdrop.
She covers four ideas in all:
- Let it Snow – Using white circle confetti and white balloons to represent snow, compositing multiple shots to ensure the confetti fills the whole frame.
- Tinsel Town – Tinsel isn’t just for Christmas trees. Tape tinsel curtains onto your backdrop in a “cascading” fashion to break up the background with some festive flair.
- Ribbon Aura – Use various colored holiday ribbon to create concentric circles on the backdrop, framing your subject.
- Presents of Mind – Wrap some boxes and shoot these presents “floating” against your backdrop. Then composite the floating presents into portraits of your subject holding even more boxes. The result puts your subject “in a field of floating presents.”
All four ideas are very simple, but the results would be right at home in a magazine spread about footie pajamas on sale at GAP (assuming your subject is wearing footie pajamas). What they aren’t is your typical “twinkle light bokeh” holiday shots we’ve so used to seeing.
So if you want to turn your holiday card game up a notch, or are just looking for some creative holiday-themed portrait ideas, check out the full tutorial up top. And if you like this no-nonsense tutorial style, visit the Tajreen&Co YouTube channel for lots more like it.
(via Reddit)