Portrait photography is used, in an emotional sense, to understand people, and, to a lesser extent, animals. In portrait photography, one is taking a picture and capturing a person's emotions and feelings in that moment in time. Their feelings might be completely different the next minute, but the photographer has done his or her job. A portrait can be used to get to know a person or an animal. What they surround themselves with and their mannerisms in the photo can be used to describe the subject's personality. In a professional sense, it's merely taking pictures of living organisms in the environment with which they surround themselves. However, not many people view this type of photography with a professional, detached manner. Portrait photography is personal.
             In order to capture one's subject in the most informative manner, one has to know the basic rules of composition and how they apply. First, simplicity is a large aspect of portraits. A photographer must know how to give the object of interest, the most attention. This may be achieved by choosing a plain colored background or one may use the Rule of Thirds to enhance one's center of interest or subject. The Rule of Thirds states that images with dominant points of interest usually look best with these points situated one third of the way along the image. This means that one's subject should be at the center of the picture or at least near the center.
             Another rule of composition that will help a photographer is balance. To make a picture excellent, a photographer must balance out all the light shades of color with dark shades intermingled. This helps the picture by creating a equilibrium between two different worlds, so to speak. Light and dark can be depicted quite successfully; however, there must be some shades of gray before the picture looks pleasing to the eye.
             Framing is another important rule for portrait photography. A...