Portrait photography can run the gamut in type and style—everything from the traditional “head and shoulders” shot to lifestyle and environmental, candid and street, glamour, boudoir, maternity sessions and much more. View some of the eye-catching portraits and photos that stopped us in our tracks this week for the way the photographers were composing subjects and posing outdoors.

Chester Kher, a photographer based in Malaysia and Hong Kong, wanted to draw visual contrast between the beautiful bride and gown and the raw, rugged environment in which she stands posing outdoors. Finding such a location was perhaps the biggest challenge, Kher says, who spent about a week on Google Maps and Recce in order to find this abandoned factory. “The other challenge was probably the wild dogs that were around—they there were pretty intimidating,” he adds.

The gown hugged her body, so Kher asked her to stand slightly in profile from the side with her hands up in the air to give the overall feel of the shoot a flair of fashion editorial. For good measure, he added a prism effect in post to give the shot “a little flavor,” he says. “We didn’t want too much compression nor too much distortion for this as we wanted to showcase the surroundings as well—a balance between both,” Kher notes (check out his gear settings in the gallery above).

Cassie Kahl of Cassandra Daye Photography, based in New York and Florida, went up to the Berkshires in Massachusetts for a wedding, where she was determined to get some shots that would incorporate beautiful details from the day with the stunning venue.

“I’m huge on composition and I think all too often, details of the day get isolated into singular images or ‘moments,'” as she says. “The cake was placed in the garden, with the estate behind it in the background, which I think gives a grander vision to the details of the day.”

Alessandro Negrini, the photographer behind Italian Lovers, got to photograph a maternity session that was a gift from the pregnant mother to her own mother for her birthday. It had been a surprise—Negrini recalls the joy and enthusiasm from the mother-to-be’s mother when she caught on to the portraits that would be happening that day, posed outdoors amid lush greenery. In terms of the concept of the maternity shoot, it was a first for Negrini, too.

They ventured to Villa Litta Borromeo in Lainate, gardens located just outside Milan where the aristocratic Borromeo family resided in the summer. “In order to keep everything as simple as possible, without any artificial pose, I decided to play with some particular spots,” Negrini says, including this grand wall of leaves. “I like to play with lines and, if possible, keep the symmetry of the picture,” he explains. “The wall was so massive that I decided to put the subjects in the middle.”

Becy Stabler of Belle Art Photography caught the last quiet moments of a bride reflecting on the pastures of the Isle of Skye, just before she was to walk out and exchange vows. The morning light was harsh in autumn at the Harlosh Black H, a minimalist house overlooking the sea where the couple stayed.

Just as the bride stepped out of the house, Stabler noticed the sun flared. She peered through her viewfinder and set a narrow aperture (f/9.5) to better define that flare in camera while still capturing details of the house and surrounding landscape. “I work with both digital and film medium-format Hasselblad cameras because the format feels so special and almost tangible,” Stabler explains. “It really forces you to slow down and frame an image before you take it—that way each one feels important.”

Magdalena Glowacka of Fotomagoria, who was one of our chosen 30 Rising Stars of Wedding Photography in 2021, was in the Dolomites in Italy for this proposal shoot. “This particular shot almost wouldn’t exist,” Glowacka says. The gentleman had arranged the whole thing with Glowacka in the weeks preceding this day: they’d hike for a time and then wind up at this beautiful spot for the proposal itself. But after the hike, the girlfriend had gotten concerned by their dwindling energy levels and possibility of worsening weather.

“I was supposed to take a picture of the proposal without even being seen,” Glowacka explains. As the clouds rolled in, she spotted the couple approaching and sent her drone up in the air, watching as he got down on one knee.

Dig into our Photo of the Day archives for even more compelling and eye-catching portraits.