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  • HandoutHandout 1: Supply & Shopping List

    Handout 1: Supply & Shopping List ### Portrait Photography Fundamentals — Ashley Newman

    Before you buy anything, hear me out: you do not need much for this class. I mean that. We're going to spend the first few weeks on light and posing, not gear, so please don't run out and drop money on stuff we haven't even talked about yet. Here's what actually matters, sorted by what you need versus what's just nice to have.

    The Essentials (Budget Tier)

    A camera you already own. DSLR, mirrorless, or honestly your phone. If it has a manual mode or a "pro" mode, great, but even auto mode works for the first couple weeks. I started on a used entry-level DSLR I bought off a classifieds listing, so I'm not precious about this.

    One kit lens. If your camera came with a lens, that's your lens for this class. I will die on this hill: you do not need the expensive blurry-background lens yet. Get good with what you've got first. Everybody wants that look before they can nail focus and exposure, and it shows.

    A notebook. Sounds basic, but you'll want to write down settings that worked so you can repeat them. Trust me on this one.

    A plain bedsheet, light-colored, no pattern. This is your backdrop. Clip it to a curtain rod, a shelf, whatever you've got. A sheet you understand beats a rented studio backdrop you're panicking in.

    A friend or family member willing to sit for you. You cannot practice posing on nobody. Bribe a teenager with food if you have to. (Mine wanted to know if we were done yet after four frames. Some subjects need more incentive than others.)

    Nice to Have (If You Want to Spend a Little)

    A reflector, the cheap 5-in-1 kind. Twenty to thirty dollars most places. Bounces light back onto your subject's face. I'll teach you the angle before you touch one — first time I used mine I about blinded my subject, she's squinting in every frame like she's staring down headlights.

    A basic tripod. Doesn't need to be fancy. Helps for anything where you're the one testing poses on yourself, or shooting in lower light.

    Extra memory card. We'll talk about why you want to shoot more frames than you think you need. The keeper is almost never the one you posed on purpose.

    A clip lamp or cheap work light from the hardware section. Not a flash. Just something to help you practice reading light direction indoors when the window light isn't cooperating.

    What You Do Not Need Yet

    Studio flash kits, softboxes, multiple lenses, editing software beyond what came free with your camera or phone. Genuinely, save your money. If you get through this class and decide portrait work is your thing, we can talk about next steps then. For now it's overkill, and honestly studio flash still intimidates me a little too, so we're not covering it in this course anyway.

    Local-ish Shopping Notes

    For the reflector and tripod, check the photography aisle wherever you'd normally do a Costco or general shopping run before ordering online — sometimes it's already there for less than you'd think. For the bedsheet, don't buy new. Use one you have, or check a thrift shop first. Clip-style curtain clips (hardware or home section) work great for hanging it.

    If you're shooting outdoors for practice, remember our light drops fast behind the mountains here, faster than you'd guess. I once chased "golden hour" up the canyon and got there ten minutes too late because I didn't plan for it. Give yourself more buffer than you think you need.

    See you in class. Bring your camera, your sheet, and a willing human.

  • HandoutHandout 2: Cheat Sheet — Core Techniques & Settings

    Handout 2: Cheat Sheet — Core Techniques & Settings

    Print this, stick it in your camera bag, check it before you shoot. This is the stuff I wish someone had handed me back when I was reading manuals line by line at my kitchen table. You don't need to memorize it. You need it nearby.

    ---

    Before You Even Raise the Camera

    • Check your edges first, face second. Scan the whole frame, corner to corner, before you worry about anyone's expression. Backgrounds ruin more portraits than a bad smile ever will. Ask me how I know about the garbage can lid.
    • Plan your light backward from your time, not forward from "whenever." If you're chasing golden hour, figure out sunset and give yourself a real buffer. Here in the valley the light drops behind the mountains faster than you'd think. Ten minutes late up the canyon and you've missed it entirely.
    • Give your subject a job. "Look at your brother." "Walk toward me slowly." A task beats "just act natural," every time. Nobody knows what that means, including me.

    Settings, Roughly in Order of How Much I Actually Think About Them

    Aperture (f-stop) Lower number = more blur behind your subject, less in focus overall. For one person, standing still, I like somewhere around f/2.8 to f/4 if your lens goes that low. For a family group, go higher, f/5.6 or so, or you'll have Grandma in focus and everyone else soft. You do not need the expensive lens to learn this. Your kit lens can teach you the whole concept.

    Shutter speed This is what freezes or blurs motion. For a cooperative adult standing there, 1/125 is plenty. For a kid who will not hold still, go faster, 1/250 or up, and honestly still cross your fingers. I am not great with fast-moving kids. Luck and shutter speed, that's the system.

    ISO Keep it as low as your light allows. Bumping it up is your escape hatch in dim rooms, but it costs you image quality. Indoor window light on a gray day, you'll probably need to raise it some. Bright outdoor light, keep it low.

    Focus Focus on the eyes. Not the nose, not the shirt button, the eyes. If the eyes are sharp, a lot of small sins elsewhere get forgiven. At the end of the day the camera can't focus on someone who's moving, so keep your subject still if you can, or your shutter fast if you can't.

    Light, My Favorite Subject

    • Window light is your best free tool. Face your subject toward a window, not away from it. Watch what one turn of their body does to the shadows on their face before you touch a single setting.
    • A reflector helps bounce light back into shadows — but check your angle before you hand it to anyone. I once blinded a subject with one. She looked like she was staring into headlights. Angle it low and slow, watch her face, not the reflector.
    • A plain backdrop you understand beats a fancy one you don't. A bedsheet clipped to a shelf and some window light will out-shoot a rented studio you're panicking in. For sure for sure.

    Posing, Which Is Really Just People Management

    • Tell them exactly where to put their hands. Nobody knows what to do with hands.
    • Tell them exactly where to look. "At me," "at the window," "at your sister."
    • Keep talking. The posed shot is rarely the keeper. The one right after, when they laugh at something dumb, usually is.
    • Shoot more frames than feels necessary. Always more than you think.

    Things I'm Still Not Great At (So You Know You're Not Alone)

    • Heavy editing and retouching. I can crop and fix exposure. Past that, it's a separate skill I haven't sat down and learned.
    • Studio flash and multi-light setups. I'm a window-light person, plain and simple.
    • Toddlers. See above, re: luck.

    Bring this sheet to every session. We'll build on it.

  • WorksheetHandout 3: Portrait Session Prep & Shoot Checklist

    Handout 3: Portrait Session Prep & Shoot Checklist

    Print this one out. Bring it with you to our practice session — I want you actually checking boxes, not just nodding along in your head. This is the same checklist I run through in my own driveway, so.

    ---

    Before You Even Pick Up the Camera

    • [ ] Where's my light coming from? Point at it. If you can't point at it, find better light before you find a better pose.
    • [ ] What time does the light actually drop here? Remember, up against these mountains the sun disappears behind them well before actual sunset. Plan backward from that, with a real buffer. Ten minutes' cushion, minimum. I learned this one the hard way up the canyon.
    • [ ] Do I know my background yet? Not "have I glanced at it" — do I actually know what's behind my subject's head, shoulder to shoulder.
    • [ ] Is my subject going to be comfortable, or just standing there? Cold, squinting into sun, nowhere to put their hands — deal with it now, not in editing.

    ---

    The Edge Check (Do This Before You Check Their Face)

    Walk your eyes around all four edges of the frame. Slowly. Out loud if it helps.

    • [ ] Top edge — anything growing out of a head? Branch, pole, doorframe?
    • [ ] Bottom edge — feet cut off weird, or something distracting at ground level?
    • [ ] Left edge
    • [ ] Right edge
    • [ ] Anything bright, white, or moving in the background that's going to pull the eye off your subject?

    I still check this on every single frame. Every one. My first ever "real" portrait had a garbage can lid in it because I skipped this step. Don't skip this step.

    ---

    Managing Your Subject (a.k.a. the Actual Skill)

    • [ ] Give them something to do with their hands (pocket, prop, arm around someone).
    • [ ] Give them somewhere to look that isn't the lens (unless you want lens-look, which is fine sometimes, just choose it on purpose).
    • [ ] Keep talking. Silence makes people stiffen up. Doesn't have to be smart talk. Just talk.
    • [ ] If they're posing hard — chin up, big frozen smile — give them a task instead. "Look at your brother." "Laugh at something dumb." The good frame is almost never the one you told them to make.
    • [ ] Watch for boredom. A bored subject photographs bored. No exceptions I've ever found.

    ---

    Exposure & Focus, Quick Gut-Check

    • [ ] Is my subject holding still enough for my shutter speed? (At the end of the day the camera can't focus on someone who's moving, so — check this before you blame the lens.)
    • [ ] Am I trying to fix a light problem with a fancy lens instead of just moving to better light? (Be honest.)
    • [ ] Have I taken more than one frame? Take more than you think you need. The keeper is almost never the one you carefully posed — it's usually the one right after, when everybody relaxes.

    ---

    After the Shoot, Before You Walk Away

    • [ ] Scroll back through a few frames right there. Zoom in on the eyes, zoom in on the edges again.
    • [ ] Ask yourself: did I get one where they look like themselves? Not "polished," just themselves.
    • [ ] Note what you'd change next time. Write it here, seriously, in the margin. That's how you actually get better at this, not by buying something new.

    ---

    My honest note: this checklist won't help you with a moving toddler. Nobody's checklist does. That one's fast shutter and prayer, for sure for sure.

  • HandoutHandout 4: Troubleshooting Guide — Common Beginner Problems and Fixes

    Handout 4: Troubleshooting Guide — Common Beginner Problems and Fixes

    Every one of these has happened to me. Some more than once. Print this out and keep it in your camera bag, honestly.

    ---

    1. The background has something growing out of someone's head. A pole, a branch, a lamp — you were so focused on the face you didn't check the edges. Check corners before you check expressions, every time. I learned this the hard way with a garbage can lid in nearly every frame of my first real portrait attempt. Look around the whole frame, not just the middle.

    2. The photo is soft/blurry and you don't know why. Usually one of two things: your subject moved and your shutter speed was too slow to catch it, or your focus point landed on the wrong thing (the shoulder instead of the eye, say). At the end of the day the camera can't focus on someone who's moving faster than your shutter, so. For a standing adult, 1/125 of a second is a reasonable floor. For anyone fidgety, go faster.

    3. Everyone's squinting. Either the sun's in their eyes or you just bounced a reflector straight into their face. Both have happened to me — the reflector one gave me a photo of a poor woman squinting like she was staring down headlights. Turn your subject so the light comes from the side or slightly behind, not straight on. If you're using a reflector, angle it, don't aim it.

    4. The photo looks flat and gray. This is almost always midday sun straight overhead, or you shot toward a plain white sky. Move to open shade, or shoot earlier or later in the day. Up the canyon especially, the light drops behind the mountains faster than you'd think, so if you're chasing golden hour, plan backward from sunset with a real buffer. I've learned that one the slow way.

    5. Your subject looks stiff and posed. You told them exactly where to put every limb and now they look like a mannequin. Give them a task instead of a pose. "Look at your brother." "Walk toward me and stop." A job for their hands and eyes reads as natural. A held pose never does.

    6. Your subject won't stop performing for the camera. Some people, especially the photogenic ones, know exactly how to arrange their face and it stops looking real. Take the camera's attention off them directly — have them talk to someone else, look at something, laugh at a bad joke. The good frame is almost never the one where they're looking dead at you on command.

    7. Everyone looks bored, including you. A bored subject photographs as bored. No exceptions. Keep things moving, keep talking, don't go silent and clinical behind the camera. If your subject is checking whether you're done yet, so is the camera.

    8. Skin tones look orange or too warm. Usually your white balance is set wrong for the light you're in, or you're shooting under indoor bulbs without adjusting for them. If you're not comfortable with manual white balance yet, use your camera's presets for daylight vs. tungsten and match it to where you actually are.

    9. You only got one usable shot out of fifty. Honestly, that's about normal starting out, and it'll get better. But also — shoot more than you think you need. The keeper is almost never the posed one. It's the one a half-second after, when they relaxed.

    10. You feel like you need better gear before you can fix any of this. For sure for sure I understand the impulse, but most of these problems are about light, timing, and attention, not equipment. I'll die on this hill: learn to read a window and nail focus with what you've got before you spend money assuming a lens will fix it. It won't. Not yet, anyway.

  • podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 1

    Audio coming soon — show notes below.

    JESS: —no, wait, say the garbage can lid thing again, because I don't think people are going to believe you.

    ASHLEY: It's true. Every single frame. My son William standing in the backyard, good light, good afternoon, and I get home and every photo has this silver garbage can lid just sitting in the corner of the shot. I wasn't watching my edges. I was so locked on his face that I didn't see what else the camera was seeing.

    JESS: And that was your first real portrait attempt.

    ASHLEY: That was it. That was the whole origin story. Very glamorous.

    JESS: Okay, welcome back, everybody, this is the podcast for Portrait Photography Fundamentals, I'm Jess, I produce these for Utah Community Learning, and this is Ashley, who teaches the class and apparently has a garbage can lid in her past that she's still processing.

    ASHLEY: I've made my peace with it. Mostly. I still check corners obsessively now, though, and I make my students do it too, so at the end of the day it worked out.

    JESS: For anybody listening who isn't in the class yet, or isn't sure they want to sign up, walk me through why you even started doing this.

    ASHLEY: So it's not a very artistic story. I was pricing out a one-hour family session and prints, and the quote made me physically wince. Like, out loud, in front of the person quoting it. And I thought, I bet I can get most of the way there myself if I actually learn how this thing works. So I bought a used camera off a classifieds listing and started reading the manual line by line, the way I'd read a service contract. Nothing skipped.

    JESS: And you just... liked it.

    ASHLEY: I liked the people part more than I expected to. The camera stuff is fine, it's a tool, but figuring out how to get three teenagers to stand still and not do the same squinty forced smile — that's a logistics problem. And I love a logistics problem. Give me a group of nervous people and something to organize and I'm happy.

    JESS: Okay, so give me one thing. Somebody's listening in the car, they're not signed up for the class, maybe they never will be. What's one thing they can use today.

    ASHLEY: Check your background before you check your subject's face. That's it. That's the whole tip. Most people fuss over whether somebody's smiling right and never look at what's happening six inches behind their head. Telephone pole, a branch that looks like it's growing out of someone's ear, my personal favorite, a garbage can lid. Backgrounds ruin more portraits than bad expressions do. So before you press the shutter, just take one second and scan the edges of the frame. Corners first, face second.

    JESS: That's genuinely doable with a phone camera.

    ASHLEY: Totally doable with a phone camera. You don't need anything fancy for that one. It's just a habit.

    JESS: Okay so besides the garbage can lid, what are we actually doing in week one.

    ASHLEY: Week one is mostly about light. Natural light specifically, because I'm a big believer that beginners get further learning to read a window than they get buying a bag of gear. Everybody wants to skip ahead to equipment, and honestly I think people buy equipment to avoid learning the thing the equipment's supposed to teach them.

    JESS: You'll die on that hill.

    ASHLEY: I will die on that hill. You do not need the expensive lens yet. Get comfortable with focus and exposure on whatever you've got first.

    JESS: So what's coming up in session two, for people trying to decide if they want to come.

    ASHLEY: Session two we're doing posing, which honestly is my favorite part to teach, because it's not really an art skill, it's a people skill. If you can manage a nervous person's hands and figure out where to point their chin, you can pose somebody. I always tell people, if you can run a carpool pickup line, you can run a portrait session. Same energy.

    JESS: I love that as a pitch.

    ASHLEY: I mean it. We'll pair people off, everybody gets a turn being the model and a turn behind the camera, nobody just sits there watching. We'll figure out what to do with somebody's hands so they stop looking like they don't know they have hands. It's a whole thing.

    JESS: Alright. Ashley, thanks for doing this.

    ASHLEY: Thanks for having me. And for the record, I do check corners now. Every time. So.

  • podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 2

    Audio coming soon — show notes below.

    JESS: —and I said no, that's not a thing you can return to Costco, that's just your life now.

    ASHLEY: It genuinely is not their problem that I bought the wrong size.

    JESS: Okay, but we're recording. Say hi.

    ASHLEY: Hi, sorry. I'm Ashley, I teach the Tuesday night portrait class, and Jess ambushed me in the parking lot.

    JESS: I did not ambush you, I asked you nicely if you had ten minutes.

    ASHLEY: You said five.

    JESS: I lied. Okay, so, week two happened last night. What did you cover?

    ASHLEY: We did posing. Which sounds like the fun, artsy part, and everybody comes in thinking it's about arms and angles and where to put your chin, and I let them think that for about the first ten minutes.

    JESS: And then?

    ASHLEY: And then I tell them posing is mostly people management. It's not that different from getting three teenagers to stand still for a family photo without all of them doing the same forced squinty face. Your job is to figure out what's making the person nervous and give them somewhere to put that energy.

    JESS: Give them a task instead of just saying "smile."

    ASHLEY: Right, "smile" is the least useful direction you can give somebody. I tell people to have their subject look at something else in the room, or talk to somebody off-camera, anything besides staring down the lens and trying to perform happiness on command. If you can run a carpool, honestly, you can pose a person. Same skill. You're just managing where somebody's attention goes.

    JESS: Okay, I want the story. You've got one for this, I can tell.

    ASHLEY: I do. So I was doing a school project shoot for my daughter Kaylee, years back, and she would not smile, because braces. Point blank refused. I tried everything, I tried the thing where you say "say something weird" and she just stared at me like I'd lost it.

    JESS: Kids see right through that.

    ASHLEY: Completely see through it. So I gave up trying to direct the shot and just kept talking to her, and my son William said something dumb off to the side, I don't even remember what, and she just laughed. Real laugh. That's the frame we used for her project. Braces and all, didn't matter, because it was her.

    JESS: That's the whole lesson, isn't it.

    ASHLEY: That's the whole lesson. The good frame almost never happens on "one, two, three, smile." It happens right after you've stopped trying so hard. So I tell my class, keep shooting past the posed moment. Don't put the camera down the second you think you got it.

    JESS: Okay, give me something a listener can use tonight. Somebody who's not even in the class.

    ASHLEY: Check your background before you check the face. I say this every single session and I will keep saying it. People are so focused on whether Grandma's eyes are open that they don't notice there's a garbage can lid sitting right behind her head, or a pole coming straight up out of somebody's skull.

    JESS: The pole thing happens constantly.

    ASHLEY: Constantly, and it's an easy fix, you just move three feet. But you have to actually look at the edges of your frame, all four corners, before you take the shot, not after. I learned this the hard way, my very first real portrait attempt was my son William in the backyard and every single frame had a garbage can lid in it because I wasn't watching my edges at all. I was so proud of the exposure and the whole time there's a trash can lid over his shoulder.

    JESS: I love that you still remember the trash can lid specifically.

    ASHLEY: I will remember that trash can lid until I die. So, corners first. That's free advice, doesn't cost you a class or a lens.

    JESS: Speaking of lenses, are people already asking you about the blurry background thing?

    ASHLEY: Every session, without fail. And I tell them the same thing, you don't need the expensive lens yet. Get comfortable with focus and exposure on what you've got first. That background blur isn't going to save a photo where the face is soft or the exposure's blown out.

    JESS: You'll die on that hill.

    ASHLEY: I will absolutely die on that hill, for sure for sure. Anyway, next week we're getting into light, specifically window light, which honestly is my favorite thing to teach because you don't need to buy anything. You just need to know which window in your house does what at which time of day.

    JESS: No fancy equipment required.

    ASHLEY: None. Bring your camera and if you've got a willing family member, bring them too, we'll be doing some hands-on stuff by a window. That's next Tuesday, same time.

    JESS: Perfect. Go finish your Costco fight.

    ASHLEY: There's no fight, there's just acceptance.

  • podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 3

    Audio coming soon — show notes below.

    JESS: —so you're saying the reflector actually blinded someone.

    ASHLEY: Fully blinded her. Poor woman. I angled it wrong and it was like she was staring into oncoming headlights. You can see it in the photo, she's just squinting, eyes practically shut. I felt terrible.

    JESS: Did you keep the photo?

    ASHLEY: I did not keep the photo. But I kept the lesson, which is that a reflector is not a toy, it's a tool, and you have to think about angle before you hand it to anybody. That's actually how I teach it now. Angle first, bounce second, subject's actual face somewhere down the list of my concerns until I've got it figured out.

    JESS: This is episode three, by the way, in case anyone's just joining us mid-conversation about eye injuries.

    ASHLEY: Nobody was injured. Just very squinty for a minute.

    JESS: Fair. So what did week three actually cover?

    ASHLEY: This week was posing. Which people think is going to be about, I don't know, artistic direction, and it's really not. Posing is people management. If you've ever run a carpool or organized a potluck signup you already have the skill, you just haven't pointed it at a camera yet.

    JESS: Say more.

    ASHLEY: So most people, when you put a camera in front of them, get nervous. Even people who are otherwise totally normal humans. They don't know what to do with their hands, they don't know where to look, and if you just say "okay, act natural," that's the worst possible instruction you can give someone. Nobody acts natural on command.

    JESS: I believe that. I freeze up every time.

    ASHLEY: Right, so my job as the photographer is basically to give people a task. Something small. Look at your brother. Walk toward me and stop when I say stop. Anything that gets them out of their own head about being photographed.

    JESS: Do you have an example?

    ASHLEY: I do, actually. My daughter Kaylee, this was years ago, I was shooting her for a school project and she would not smile. Braces, self-conscious about it, completely shut down every time I lifted the camera. So I just kept talking. Not even about anything, just chatting, and at some point my son William said something dumb off to the side and she laughed for real. That's the shot we used. Not one of the fifty posed ones.

    JESS: The unposed one won.

    ASHLEY: The unposed one almost always wins. That's actually one of my whole opinions about this, the keeper is rarely the one you carefully set up. It's the one right after, when everybody relaxes because they think you're done.

    JESS: Okay, that's a genuinely useful tip for someone not even taking the class. Keep shooting after you think you got it.

    ASHLEY: For sure for sure. Shoot more frames than feels reasonable. Digital, it costs you nothing but a little card space. And specifically, don't stop the second you get the "good" one, because the real good one is usually thirty seconds later when your subject thinks the pressure's off.

    JESS: I love that as a free tip. No camera required to understand it, just patience.

    ASHLEY: Right, and patience is honestly ninety percent of this. At the end of the day the camera can't do the relaxing for you, so.

    JESS: What's the room like when you're teaching this part? Because posing feels like it could be awkward to practice.

    ASHLEY: It is awkward, and I tell people that up front. I pair everybody off fast so nobody's just standing there feeling weird, and I rotate who's modeling and who's shooting so it's fair, nobody's stuck being the subject the whole time. And I demo first, usually with a volunteer from the group, and I narrate the whole thing out loud. Why I'm having them turn their shoulder, why I'm not having them look straight at the lens necessarily.

    JESS: Do people resist that at first?

    ASHLEY: A little. Everyone wants to just point and shoot and hope for the best. But once they see one small adjustment, turn the shoulder ten degrees, suddenly the photo looks intentional instead of like a hostage situation, they get it fast. It's a small win, but it's a real one, and I like giving people those early so they don't get discouraged.

    JESS: Before we wrap, what's coming next session?

    ASHLEY: Next time we're doing light. Specifically window light, because that's genuinely where I think beginners should spend their time before they buy a single piece of gear. We'll do a whole session on reading a window, figuring out where the good light actually falls in a room at different times of day. No flash, no reflectors yet, just you and a window and a subject.

    JESS: Low stakes.

    ASHLEY: Very low stakes. Bring a willing family member if you've got one. Or a very patient houseplant, honestly, plants don't complain about standing still.

    JESS: Noted. Thanks, Ashley.

    ASHLEY: Thanks Jess.

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