This post is inspired by some wonderful portraiture I found today on the web by a Russian photographer, Rustam Rakhimov Рахимов Рустам and I will show some of his works which appear to me to rely on aspects generally unrelated to the camera itself for their success – in particular, his wonderful understanding and control of light as well as a creative mind and the use of foreground materials.

Obviously to achieve imagery such as this you need some studio lights of the appropriate types and a makeup artist, but neither are beyond your capabilities if this styling is something that inspires you to go beyond the millions of boring FB and IG portraits.

So before you rush out and spend your hard earned cash on a fancy expensive new camera, consider if what you really need is something else such as lighting – but note that these results will take quite a bit of practice, experience and knowledge to achieve! That’s why a good professional photographer is worth paying if you want great results consistently.

Hopefully, these will inspire you to experiment more with light, shadows, chiaroscuro, gels, camera angles and use of out of focus foreground objects.