Doorstep photography or ‘Doortraits’ have become the latest photography trend during lockdown. You may have seen on social media photos of families sitting on their front porch and posing outside their front door.
This is a great way to capture some informal family snapshots during this time when we can’t get out and about. It is important to document this time to allow us to reflect in later years, but not everyone can afford to hire a professional photographer at this time. You may have been on a reduced salary due to being furloughed or (if you are like me) you might also want to wait until the hairdressers reopen before you spend money on a portrait. In this blog I will share my tips on how to produce your own doorstep portraits.
DIY Doorstep Photography - Step 1 - Equipment
You will need your phone camera (or digital camera if you have one). For this example we used an iPhone.
You will also need something for your phone to rest on.We have used a flexible phone holder clamped to a step ladder.You could use a stack of boxes and something to prop up the phone instead.
Step 2 - Framing up your doorstep photo
Frame up your doorstep photograph in the screen. Most phones have guides to help you line up your images. You want to make sure that all your vertical and horizontal lines are straight. From the image on the left you can see that the guide lines do not match up with the door. The image on the right they do match up and everything appears straight.
Step 3 - Getting your equipment setup
Activate your camera.There are a few ways you can do this.
You can use the 10 second count down timer on your phone. One person will have to press the shutter button and then you have 10 seconds to get into the photo.
You can activate your phones voice controls.
If you have an Apple Watch you can use this to trigger your camera. Which is how we did it in this example.
Step 4 - Start Shooting
Get everyone involved. If you have kids interact with them, tickle them or tell jokes to make them laugh. Keep snapping, take loads of photos so that you can select the best ones later. This might mean running back and forth to activate the self timer but that’s part of the fun.
We don’t have kids so we got our fur baby involved.
Step 5 - Change Your Angle
You don’t have to shoot your doorstep photograph straight on. You might find a more interesting angle by moving the camera.
Step 6 - Get LOW
If you don’t have anything to balance your phone on then try simply putting it low to the ground. For this shot I used a mug to sit my phone in and used the self timer to take the shots. You could use a couple of books to prop up your phone instead. This angle worked out great and the driveway created some great leading lines in the photograph.
Step 6 - EDITING
There are loads of photo editing apps that you can use. The ones I use or editing my phone snaps are Snapseed and Afterlight. If you don’t want to spend money on apps the iPhone as some pretty cool filters that you can use.See how I edited this photo below using the iPhone.
Coronavirus Family Reunion - Studio Photography
Lock down has taken a huge toll on many lives and families over a number of months, I hope that your family has stay safe and send my deepest condolences to all the families that have suffered during this time. I am hoping that I will be able to get back to my studio and begin photographing again soon. As you all begin to meet back up with you families I would love to produce a studio photograph of your family for you all to cherish and hang in your homes. I will begin taking risk free zero deposit bookings for studio photography for September hopefully things will have returned to a form of normality by then but if not we can rearrange with no cost to you our your family. Any NHS staff who book a family reunion studio photography session will receive a 10% discount.
I hope you enjoyed this blog on how to do DIY doorstep portraits.If you give it a go yourself I would love to send them to me on and please give my facebook page a like and if you would link to book a reunion family studio photograph please visit my contact page
