Successful portraits on a shoestring

As with any genre of photography, it’s easy to get distracted by the gear and forget about the subject. Portrait photography is no different. You can spend thousands of pounds on lighting and light modifiers or shapers, but without knowledge and practice the results can be disappointing.

For this article I used a Canon full-frame DSLR, a 50mm prime lens and inexpensive Speedlites. The 50mm lens I used is very popular and available from around £130 new but it’s worth seeking out used bargains. A 50mm prime is ideal because it gives portraits