I took these shots of my husband, Shayne, on Christmas day. I’m very pleased with how they turned out. It made me think about what it takes to make a great portrait of someone. Here are the three ingredients I think most important to a great portrait:

1) Great Lighting. In this case, the warm afternoon sun was coming in through the big picture window in our living room. There are sheers on the window, and they softened the light. The angle of the light worked well for these shots – it was dipping low in the sky and gave Shayne a nice side light.

2) Good Framing. For an intimate portrait, getting really close-up on your subject can make all the difference. I really like the look of a long lens and a close-up shot. See the difference between this wide shot in great lighting and the closer version? This means zooming in your lens and backing up. For these shots, I used my new Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens. This lens is a good portrait lens because it is long enough to soften the features and it threw the Christmas Tree in the background out of focus. Having an out of focus background helps to make your subject pop. You do not have to have a fancy lens to make a good portrait, and often just zooming in and backing up can make the difference. Click here for more on lenses and depth of field.

3) A Willing Subject. Generally, my pictures of Shayne involve a stuck out tongue or other funny face. I seriously have dozens of tongue stuck out shots in our albums. For some unknown reason, Shayne let me snap away on Christmas day. A present in and of itself. We had friends over when these pictures were taken, so as Shayne talked and hung out with his friends, I was able to shoot away.