Whether you photograph people or landscapes, capturing the emotions surrounding them is essential. This can be done through storytelling.

People show their emotions through facial expressions and hand gestures. One of the easiest ways to tell how someone feels is by looking into their eyes.

It isn’t easy to create powerful photos without capturing genuine emotion. Here are some tips for incorporating emotion into your images:

Focus on the Details

The most powerful way to convey emotions in a photo is through the details. This could mean everything from the wrinkles on someone’s face to the sparkle in their eyes. Aim to capture the details that make your subject unique.

Similarly, pay attention to the lighting in your photos. Natural light can give an image a soft, warm feel, while harsh artificial light can create a dramatic effect.

It’s essential to help your subjects feel comfortable in front of the camera for portraits. This can be done by interacting with them and discussing something they enjoy. It can also be helpful to make them laugh, allowing them to relax and show genuine emotions in their poses. This technique can work well for couples, friends, and even strangers.

Be Flexible

Taking photos of people who look natural is often the best way to capture emotion. However, it can be challenging to get that authentic feel, mainly if your subjects are used to being posed.

For instance, Meg Bitton is flexible and open to experimenting with different settings to evoke emotions in her portraits. The time of day and the lighting you use can drastically change an image’s appearance, evoking different moods.

You can also use props to add emotion to your photos. For instance, a person holding flowers can convey happiness, while a person alone in an empty room can be used to portray sadness. The subject’s positioning within the frame is another important factor that can convey emotion, such as centering them in the middle of the photo to make it feel intense and direct.

Be Bold

Whether you’re taking photos of people or things, it is essential to be bold when you take your shots. You can’t infuse your images with emotion if you don’t feel those emotions yourself. For example, creating sad or bleak photographs will be challenging if you’re over the moon with happiness.

It also helps to get to know your subjects deeply. Understanding their history, hopes, fears, and dreams allows you to create a narrative around them that evokes genuine emotion.

Playing with shadows can also create dramatic, high-contrast portraits ripe with emotion. Try photographing your subjects with their backs to the sun to create dark, mysterious portraits, or experiment with prolonged exposure to capture motion blur and movement. Both can be very powerful for evoking emotions.

Be Intuitive

One of the best ways to capture emotion in a portrait is through the eyes. Techniques like shallow depth of field, directing the subject’s gaze toward the camera, and eliminating distracting elements from the frame can evoke powerful emotions in the viewer.

Color also plays a role in capturing emotion. Subdued, darker colors can give a heavier feeling to a portrait, while brighter, lighter colors can help amplify the joy in a happy image.

Finally, remember that many subjects other than people can arouse emotions. Landscapes, fog, water, sunsets, and flowers can all be fantastic subjects for atmospheric photos. Find a subject that inspires you, and try to capture it in a way that makes the viewer feel something.

Be Creative

The best way to be creative in your photography is to shoot with a vision. You can experiment with composition, lighting, and other elements to create your desired mood or story.

You can also be creative by focusing on the details of your subjects. Details such as how a subject’s body is positioned, hand gestures or even tiny details like tears or sweat can evoke emotions in your portraits.

The most powerful portraits are often those that reveal genuine emotion. Authenticity is hard to fake, so be on the lookout for those moments when your subjects’ mask drops and they let their true emotions shine through. These are the pictures that will leave a lasting impression on your viewers.