What Makes a Great Portrait
One Part Technical. Three Parts Art.
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Anyone can take a picture of a person.
Scott shows you how to make a portrait.
About the Course
Great portraits are one part technical, three parts art. Scott Kelby breaks down the ten elements that separate a snapshot of a person from a portrait people remember — building real connection, lighting that flatters, perfect skin tones, responsible retouching, and the lens and composition choices that make faces look their best. By the end, you'll have a complete recipe for portraits with real depth and real emotion, no matter who steps in front of your camera.
Why This Course Matters
Anyone can learn to operate a camera. Far fewer learn to photograph a person — to earn their trust, read the light on their face, and press the shutter when something true shows up.
Scott has spent decades photographing everyone from brides to CEOs to strangers on the street, and here he hands you the complete playbook: the artistic decisions, the people skills, and the few technical moves that actually matter. You'll stop hoping for great portraits and start engineering them — on location, in the studio, or with nothing more than window light and a roll of seamless. If people are in your frame, this course belongs in your library.
Who's Teaching You
Learn from one of photography's most trusted teachers
Scott Kelby has taught more photographers than just about anyone alive — through bestselling books, live workshops, and KelbyOne itself. He has a real gift for making the technical feel easy, and here he turns it on the art of photographing people.
Scott Kelby is a photographer, award-winning author of more than 100 books, and the founder of KelbyOne. He's known for a friendly, no-nonsense teaching style that strips the intimidation out of complex topics — exactly what makes him the perfect guide for learning what separates a snapshot from a portrait.
What You'll Learn
Skills you'll use every time you shoot
From your first light to that final edit — here's what you'll walk away knowing how to do.
Read the genre before you raise the camera
Fashion, street, beauty, glamour, lifestyle, environmental — Scott's style guide gives every shoot a clear intent from the first frame.
Build the connection that unlocks real expressions
Research your subject, put the camera down, play their music — the rapport moves that turn stiff strangers into relaxed, expressive subjects.
Shape light that flatters
Use shadows to create depth and dimension, and position your subject so the light does the heavy lifting.
Nail color, skin tones & tack-sharp eyes
A gray card workflow that corrects a whole shoot's white balance in seconds, plus the eye-detection AF settings that lock focus where it matters.
Choose backgrounds & lenses that do the work
Seamless paper, shallow depth of field, and why the $639 lens beats the $3,400 one for most portrait shooters.
Retouch, compose & crop like a pro
Responsible retouching that keeps people looking like themselves, plus the headroom, cropping, and angle decisions that seal the deal.
The Full Curriculum
10 lessons, start to finish
Tap any lesson to see what's covered.
Fashion, street, beauty, glamour, lifestyle, environmental — every genre of people photography tells a different story. Scott’s style guide gives every shoot a clear intent.
The best portraits start before you raise the camera. Scott’s rapport-building moves turn stiff strangers into relaxed, expressive subjects.
Flat light makes flat portraits. Learn how shadows create depth and dimension in every face.
The camera exaggerates what the eye forgives. Make your subject look like they did in person — natural, believable, better than ever.
Blue skin tones sink more portraits than bad poses. Scott’s gray card workflow fixes an entire shoot in seconds.
Miss focus on the eyes and nothing else matters. Put your camera’s eye-detection AF to work.
From seamless paper to shallow depth of field, simplify the scene and make your subject the star.
Do you really need that $3,400 f/1.2? Scott reveals which portrait lenses matter — and where to save serious money.
Genuine expressions don’t happen on command. Keep the conversation going and catch the moment your subject forgets the camera.
Headroom, cropping, camera angle, and getting close — the framing decisions that turn a good portrait into a keeper.
All 10 lessons are streaming right now. Join KelbyOne for just 54¢ a day →
From the Course
What you'll learn to capture
Loved by Members
You're in good company
Rated 4.8 out of 5 — "Excellent" — across 1,843 reviews on Trustpilot. Here's what members say.
KelbyOne is so inspiring, exhilarating, fascinating and downright exceptional. Every aspect of KelbyOne is like a good novel that you can't put down. Great technical and useful knowledge.
These courses don't treat you like you're an idiot, but still walk you through step by step. Other members really go the extra mile to help you understand and progress as a photographer.
I am soooo pleased that I found this program. I am learning and growing by crazy leaps and bounds in my photography skills. The teaching style makes everything stick.
The classes are well done and I always learn something new. I especially enjoy the no-nonsense approach to teaching. It keeps what could be a dry topic interesting.
More Than One Course
This course is just the beginning
What Makes a Great Portrait comes with your KelbyOne membership — and so does everything below. Tap any benefit to see what's included.
The full KelbyOne library covers photography, Lightroom, and Photoshop from first principles to professional technique — portraits, landscape, travel, studio and flash, wedding, sports, street, food, fashion, business, and more. Every course is taught by a working pro, broken into focused lessons you can watch in any order, and available to stream whenever you want. Start a class on your lunch break, finish it that night, and come back to it any time you need a refresher.
KelbyOne releases a new course every single week, so your membership is worth more the longer you hold it. New techniques, new gear, new software releases, and new instructors are added continuously — meaning the latest in photography and post-processing is always waiting for you, and you'll never pay extra for it.
Not sure what to watch next? Curated learning tracks sequence the right courses in the right order so you build skills step by step instead of jumping around. The Photographer's Fast Track is designed to save you years of trial and error, and your progress is tracked along the way so you always know what you've finished and what's next.
Your membership includes a growing toolkit of free Lightroom presets, Photoshop brushes, and other downloadable resources you can put to work right away. Many courses also include downloadable practice files so you can follow along with the exact images the instructor is using — learning by doing, not just watching.
Stream on your computer, phone, tablet, or Apple TV and pick up right where you left off on any device. The KelbyOne app also lets you download classes for offline viewing, so you can keep learning on a plane, a road trip, or anywhere without a connection. Your account works anytime, anywhere.
Learning is easier with people in your corner. KelbyOne members are a welcoming, genuinely helpful community — the kind who go out of their way to answer questions and help you progress. When a technique doesn't click, there's a place to ask, and real photographers at every level who are happy to help.
If you're unhappy for any reason, contact us within the first 30 days of an annual membership (or the first 7 days of a monthly membership) and we'll gladly cancel and issue a full refund. You also get access the moment you join, and you can cancel anytime from your account page. There's nothing to lose by trying it.
Membership
One membership. Everything unlocked.
What Makes a Great Portrait and the entire library of courses come with a KelbyOne membership. Go annual and you'll pay about 54¢ a day — and save $40 over paying monthly.
Everything included
- This course — What Makes a Great Portrait, all 10 lessons
- Full access to all 1,000+ courses
- A new course every week, at no extra cost
- Guided learning tracks & the Photographer's Fast Track
- Free presets, brushes & downloadable practice files
- Watch on desktop, mobile, tablet & Apple TV — even offline
- Friendly, helpful member community
Still on the fence?
Start monthly at $19.99/mo and switch to annual anytime. Heads up: paying month-to-month works out to $239.88 a year — $40 more than going annual.
Backed by a 100% Money-Back Guarantee
Not happy for any reason? Contact us within the first 30 days of an annual membership (or the first 7 days of a monthly membership) and we'll gladly cancel and issue a full refund. You get access the moment you join.
Questions? Answered.
Everything you need to know
Right away. The moment you join, you can sign in and start watching What Makes a Great Portrait — and every other course in the library — immediately, on any device.
Absolutely. KelbyOne has courses for every skill level, taught in plain language, step by step. This course meets you where you are, and the rest of the library grows with you as you improve.
Not at all. Scott's whole point is that great portraits are one part technical, three parts art — he even shows you where to save serious money on lenses. Any camera that lets you control your settings will do, and several techniques here work with nothing more than a smartphone and window light.
Annual is the best value by a wide margin: $199 for a full year works out to about 54¢ a day and saves you $40 compared to paying month-to-month ($239.88/year). Monthly is there if you'd rather start small — and you can switch to annual anytime.
Yes. Cancel whenever you like from your account page and you'll keep access until your membership period ends. You're also covered by our money-back guarantee — 30 days on annual, 7 days on monthly — so there's no risk in trying it.
Yes. Stream on desktop, mobile, tablet, and Apple TV, and pick up right where you left off on any device. The KelbyOne app also lets you download classes to watch offline — on a plane, a road trip, anywhere.
Of course — KelbyOne has members all over the world. All prices are listed in US dollars (USD), so just keep your local exchange rate in mind at checkout and renewal.
Your best portrait
is waiting for you.
Join KelbyOne today and stream What Makes a Great Portrait — plus 1,000+ more courses from the world's best photographers — with a single membership.
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