Keep the Scene Simple

When it comes to portraits, for the most part, “less is more” and simplifying the scene is one of the easiest things you can do to have more powerful portraits. I know I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: your background is more likely to ruin your shot than your subject, so do your best to either put the background way out of focus, or compose your shot to avoid anything that would pull the viewer’s eye from your subject. This simplification is one of the reasons we shoot at those wide-open f-stops, like f/2.8 or f/1.8 or lower, because when we put the background out of focus, we remove distractions and simplify the scene. It’s not what you add to the portrait that will make it stronger; it’s what you take away. Note: You can see in the behind-the-scenes shot (in the inset above) that this was taken in a very busy area with cars and buildings and signs and so on. That’s why I chose to shoot at f/2.8 with a long lens to put the background out of focus—all that stuff gets blurred away (you can see how we made the light soft and beautiful on page 63 where we talk about scrims).