Old Fashioned Portraiture?

Am just sat listening to the Scott Mills BBC Radio 1 show and they are talking and laughing about high street photography studios who offer make over photo shoots.

The joke is that Mills, his colleagues and the majority of his listeners think the stereotypical black and white portrait images - with soft focus and feather boas wrapped around the shoulders - are very old fashioned, and in many ways they are right!

Just like all fashions and trends, times change and the majority of high street studios have fallen behind them. Granted, there is still a certain demand for this type of portrait, but today's 'in-thing' for portraiture is a much more relaxed, natural and lifestyle format, with less empathsis on 'before and after' and just concentrating on a subject's natural, everyday beauty in convential environments.

Instead of plain backgrounds and studio props; a wood, park or even a scrap yard make for much more interesting portraiture backdrops, with the key being to capturing the subject in a relaxed and natural way in these surroundings.

This trendy style of portraiture is great because it works for all forms of portraiture - families, kids, couples or friends.

So, whilst Scott Mills mocks the photographers who offer the old fashioned makeover style shoots, MSW-Design are with the times in offering more natural 'lifestyle' shoots that many photographers are yet to grasp.