Picture Perfect Portraits

The iPhone has made photography accessible to a new generation of creative people. Photographer Annabel Williams gives us her top 9 tips on getting the best headshot.

When shooting With hipstamatic, there are three main things to consider: lens, film and flash. Once you’re happy with a setting, use the following tips for picture perfect portraits:

1. For flattering shots of people’s faces, you need to find good light. Try the soft daylight under a tree, or in a doorway. If you are not sure what “good light” is, try facing the person and taking a shot, then turn them around and move to the other side and take it there - shoot in the better direction.

2. Tilt your camera on a slight angle for a more dynamic picture.

3. Try and keep the face away from the edges to avoid patchy color bleeding on the face (sometimes it works though, so experiment!).

4. Choose brightly coloured clothes or backgrounds. Hipstamatic work brilliantly with bright colours.

5. Think about the shapes in your pictures. Move your subject around until their “shape” looks good!

6. Stand up and shoot from above. This makes people’s eyes look bigger and therefore more flattering.

7. Don’t try and pose people, they will look staged. Ask them to sit down on the floor, or lean against a wall —AW