The pho­tos we like best are the ones that evoke our emo­tions. We’ll take a look at three ways to cre­ate a mood in por­trait photography. 

Before we get into these three meth­ods, you have to deter­mine what kind of mood you want to estab­lish. Is it a sense of belong­ing? Do you want to cre­ate some­thing sul­try, or pos­i­tively ener­getic? Your sub­ject can bring out his or her emo­tions and sen­si­bil­i­ties, but that’s only half the job. As the pho­tog­ra­pher, you have to com­ple­ment the mood of your sub­ject with your pho­tog­ra­phy skills.

1: Styling

Food pho­tog­ra­phers know the ben­e­fit of work­ing with a food styl­ist. Por­trait pho­tog­ra­phers should know the ben­e­fit of work­ing with a good Make-​Up Artist (MUA) or fash­ion styl­ist. Let’s face it, we don’t all have an innate sense of style. That goes for mod­els as well as pho­tog­ra­phers. Work­ing with a good MUA or styl­ist can set the scene for your mood.

I’m show­ing an inti­mate por­trait below. Her hair and wardrobe work for that mood. If I wanted to pro­vide a sense of fam­ily or moth­er­hood, she’s prob­a­bly wear some­thing else and have her hair styled dif­fer­ently. They say “Clothes make the man.” It works for women, also. One of my friends is into Cos­play and she has a mag­nif­i­cent Cat­woman cos­tume. If only she weren’t over­seas right now, I’d throw her on the ledge of a build­ing and start work­ing up a scene to cre­ate a sense of adventure.

Imag­ine your mood. Cre­ate a scene that fits it. Then find a style to bring it alive.

2: Light­ing

Your light­ing setup has tremen­dous impact upon the mood your photo con­veys. Try to get the viewer to match the emo­tions of the sub­ject. A shot with high energy may work bet­ter if you blast every­thing with hard light. Some­thing more inti­mate requires a softer light­ing approach with dra­matic light fall-​off.

Shoot­ing in low light cre­ates a sense of mys­tery, as does cre­at­ing a sil­hou­ette. You can under-​expose your back­ground while adding just a touch of light on your sub­ject to keep the viewer’s eyes locked and engaged with your photo.

Use light and shadow to iso­late your sub­ject, to cre­ate a sense of form, and to cre­ate a sense of curios­ity. Over-​lighting a scene elim­i­nates shad­ows, and with it, elim­i­nates mys­tery. Make your viewer won­der just a bit. Doesn’t mat­ter what they won­der. Let them fill in that blank on their own.

3: Post Processing

Dif­fer­ent post pro­cess­ing styles can enhance your mood or con­flict with it. Choose the style that works best with the mood you want to cre­ate. I love color, but the por­trait below works bet­ter in Black & White. Color is a mes­sage all by itself. You can elim­i­nate it if it becomes a dis­trac­tion or selec­tively boost it to enhance an area of your photo.

Some pho­tog­ra­phers desat­u­rate the color in their pho­tos and add high con­trast to cre­ate a grungy appear­ance. You can direct the eye by sharp­en­ing some areas and soft­en­ing oth­ers. The pos­si­bil­i­ties are end­less, but they must be com­ple­men­tary to your sub­ject and your mood.

You can cre­ate some­thing ethe­real with a com­pos­ite, or make your sub­ject hyper-​realistic. The key is to bal­ance the amount of post pro­cess­ing tech­nique you use with the impact you want to cre­ate. Oth­er­wise, your view­ers will stop think­ing about the mood of the photo because they’re too busy crit­i­ciz­ing the tech­nique in the photo.

Three Ways to Cre­ate a Mood in Por­trait Photography

Try to remem­ber that most peo­ple who look at your pho­tos don’t care about your tools or tech­nique. They just want to feel some­thing. If they don’t, then they’ll pass over your photo in a split-​second. You can cre­ate a sense of mood to keep them drawn into your por­trait photography.