Best Moody Photos Ideas

 20  Moody Photos Ideas For 2022

Moody dark portrait photography is about extreme feelings. You can utilize this classification to take interesting and contacting photographs of individuals. 
Dull representations aren't generally melancholic and are extremely simple to make.

What Defines Moody and Dark Portraits?

Moody portrait photography doesn’t have to be gloomy or upsetting in any way. You can photograph a smiling person and end up with a moody photo.

Lighting, concepts, and angles all play a significant role in moody photography. Simply altering one part of your image can turn it into something with depth and meaning.

This is why color correction is so important in this photography genre.

As you can see, dark portraits are defined by the way they’re made. Not by the subjects they feature.

Treat this style as a canvas. And then you’ll be able to take incredible, moody photos of all your models.

               #1

Come Up With an Interesting Concept to Inspire Yourself

If you enjoy writing, you might find inspiration in quotes or your own stories. You can write short stories and see if they help you visualize your photoshoots.

Most moody photos come with a story. This can be a simple theme or a complicated prose piece.

You can also come up with themes related to moodiness. Unrequited love, yearning, and curiosity are often expressed in dark portrait photography.

Once you have a concept in mind, you’ll find it easier to take meaningful photos of yourself or your models.

#2

Shoot in low light

This can be challenging but the efforts are worth it. Think of it backwards. What’s the worse light you can take photos in if your aim is to create mood? A really bad place to start is to take photos in bright midday light in the middle of summer. There’s a limit to what you can do with such high hard, bright light.

What’s the opposite of this? It’s low light. The sort of light you find at the ends of the day when the sun is rising or setting (the golden hour). It’s the blue light you get after the sun has set at dusk (the blue hour). It’s the soft, beautiful, subtle light ideal for portraits that you find in the shade. It’s the beauty of soft sunlight breaking through autumnal leaves at the end of the day.

Take the time to develop your understanding of the nuances of light and the way light affects the mood of your photos. You will be rewarded by better images that evoke strong emotional responses from the viewer.

I’ve been taking a lot of portraits recently, and I’ve taken some of those (such as the one below) in fading light at the end of the day. These are challenging conditions and I have to use prime lenses, wide apertures and high ISOs to get the image. But the results have been worth the effort – there’s something a little special about the quality of light at this time of day.

#3

Long exposure photography

This applies mainly to landscape photos, although you can apply it to other subjects with a little imagination. Slow shutter speeds are really a result of shooting in low light, with a narrow aperture (for good depth-of-field) and using a low ISO setting (such as 100 to obtain the best image quality). In these conditions the required shutter speed will be anything from around 1/2 second to 60 seconds or more. You’ll need a good tripod and a cable release to keep the camera still throughout the exposure.

The result of slow shutter speeds is that anything that moves during the exposure becomes blurred. This creates mood, and it’s really effective whenever there is water or sea in the image (which is why so many photographers use long exposure techniques to take seascapes).

You can see that in the photo below, made with an 80 second exposure.

#4

Tell Your Clients to ‘Enjoy the Moment’

Remind the family, couple, or individual to enjoy the moment as you photograph them.

This can create relaxed and authentic emotions from everyone at the session.

For couples, pose them close while you capture photos from a good distance. This will allow the couple to relax and enjoy the moment together.

They can talk, hug, kiss, and act authentic in front of your camera.

#5

Pay attention to the background

Like it or not, the background is an important element of most photos. Your subject may be stunning, but a distracting background weakens the composition.

Strong photos go further – the background works with the subject to make a better image.

There are two approaches to background. One is to use a wide aperture to throw the background out of focus. This is an easy technique to master and a popular one to use. It’s easiest if you own a prime lens (which have wider maximum apertures). I made this portrait with an 85mm lens set to f1.8).

#6

Shoot From a Distance

Create some distance between you and your client. It will help them to feel more comfortable in front of the camera.

This also allows them to be themselves with one another without much thought of where you are.

You can also have them move about the location. You’ll be able to capture full length photos of your clients from a distance.

#7

Use black and white

This is another of my favorite techniques. Black and white photos have a timeless mood all of their own. Color is so strong that it is a dominant aspect of just about any color photo (more on that in a bit).

But strip away the color and you are left with the building blocks of any good photographic composition: line, shape, tonal contrast, pattern and light.

I converted the portrait below to black and white. It was taken in low light and both versions are moody, but the mood in each is different. The black and white portrait has a different feel to the color one.