Ron Kramer's PortraNet a place for Professional portrait photographers to improve their skills and learn more about their craft.

This page is "ABOUT what you'll learn on PortraNET". To jump to PortraNet training center... Enter Here!
Learn posing and lighting for portrait photography online in your spare time at your own pace! Learn digital workflow, Photoshop photo enhancement, bridge workflow, all post processing of your studio's digital images. Learn how to market... inexpensively... EVEN FREE! PortraNET shows you how. HUNDREDS of Ron's students have gained success from enrolling into PortraNET. You CAN TOO!
Learn to MASTER portrait photography in months rather than years! You'll make your investment back many times over! Most of our students tell us they've made back their enrollment fee in the first couple months! Make 300.00, 600.00, 1200.00 even 2400.00 and more per hour. Learn a NEW CAREER DOING WHAT YOU LOVE. Sound to good to be true? ASK ANYONE OF OUR STUDENTS! REGISTER (it's FREE! just CLICK HERE ) and use our free photographers lounge area. There you can post questions about joining and chat with current students and alumni. We've yet to find ANYONE say PortraNET isn't worth MANY TIMES THE ENROLLMENT FEE... and we're pushing near 1000 students. Most all students are so impressed that they renew for and 2nd, 3rd... even their 5th and 6th year! IT'S THAT GOOD. ( Click to see our enrollment roster ) Is your competition listed? Then you NEED PortraNET too! How does it all work? We have topics of lighting, posing, retouching and artwork, studio operations, business practices and marketing and more. There are "instructional" areas, which are created only for Ron's posts. Speaking on various topics, Ron uses text, video clips, photos, and screen shots to make things as simple and clear as possible. Each Instructional topic has a matching "class" area where members are free to ask questions if needed about instructional topics. Have a question about something that hasn't been covered yet? No problem, we'll get into what YOU need to learn. Each member has a "Project Folder" if they desire, where they can post their work and receive prompt critiques from Ron about what he would do to improve your work. You'll see immediate results and a steady improvement in your project folder. Your progression is documented then through the year in your personal folder. In addition, we have a Video library of OVER 100 VIDEOS... many an hour or more. You can download these to your computer and study over and over. These include clips from Ron's actual sessions where you see how he poses and lights various subjects. From senior sessions to bridal sessions, indoors and out, you'll find it in the PortraNet video library.
What about posing? This is broken down into Ron's simple building blocks that allow you to learn his easy rules to building poses. This gives you confidence and assurance that you will succeed with GREAT PORTRAIT WORK time and time again. Rather than being hit and miss by guessing at how to do a pose. From single individual senior poses to combining poses to create compositions of couples, and families... it's all covered here. We start with basic head and shoulders "Bread & Butter" poses and will continue into 3/4 length creative posing... and on into full length poses. Not only pose examples, but the "building blocks" of good posing so you can create your own on the fly. Plus our studio operations area shares how do setup workflow and computer invoicing... and all office topics... from receipts to policies regarding proof pickup, order placement, even packaging, prints for delivery. All professional methods and links and numbers to the best suppliers. Our "Build your own Props and Backgrounds" area shares how to build your own props, set, and how to create inexpensive backgrounds for your home or commercial studio and even shares how to construct your own "posing wheel".
Complex posing For pro's who already have a large repertoire of poses, we'll teach you some you've never done before which will set your studio apart from the dozens of other studios in your area. Learn what it takes to be "the place" for seniors who will want YOU to create their once in a life time senior portrait.. Ron specializes in senior portraiture, so why not learn from one of the top senior photographers in the country!
And Lighting? Ron demystifies complex lighting issues. No mathematical formula's for lighting ratios. Just start with a main light, Ron will help you get it set right. Then we'll add a fill if needed. Want some separation? We'll add a hair-light and background light. Everything is done in steps. Using methods that are broken down into "basic building blocks" which simplifies the entire process. Sure it's great to have good equipment, but great portraiture can also be done with little or no studio lighting. Learn how to control ambient light outdoors! To create wonderful outdoor portraits that look as if they were done with expensive studio lighting! Not just sample pictures, but clear explanations of why each scrim and reflector is placed where it is... so you will know where to place them during the creation of your work. You'll get panoramic views of Ron's camera room and pictures of his lighting equipment. Frequent posts of his "pull back shots" of his clients sitting in poses with all lights and reflectors in view. Then you'll see the final shot. It doesn't get any easier than that! Plus we'll show how you can control light outdoors with inexpensive reflectors and panels you can make from inexpensive materials you can pick up from your local hardware store. Sure others teach the same topics... but they don't do work like Ron's - AND - they don't teach Ron's methods.
Photoshop & other software? Ron shoot's all digital now (since 2004) and will show you the fastest and easiest way to get the job done using the latest software. In additional to artwork, you'll learn how to give your portraits that "WOW FACTOR" that people have come to respect in Ron's portraiture. Whether he shots film or digital... all Ron's work has always have that WOW factor... that just makes his subjects pop. Learn about this in his lighting style and what he refers to as "Tone Control". (UPDATE!) Ron switched to ALL DIGITAL shortly after starting PortraNET. Ron's studio has been all digital now for many years and PortraNET is now fully "digital". From workflow to mass processing the days proofs. Ron takes you step by step, showing you a image straight from the digital camera. Load the original into bridge and follow his busy studio workflow. Time is MONEY and if you spend to much time on your images and processing... then you're LOOSING MONEY. Ron shares each step of his workflow from copying the flash cards to computer (and backup external drive) the drive goes to another location to yet another backup computer. The proofs are automated and processed in batch processes... uploaded to PLE lab and proofs arrive a day or two later. It's THAT EASY. You will learn everything you need to process your portrait photography. All digital print enhancements and steps that Ron uses at his studio.
Advanced Photoshop techniques When you're ready, take on advanced retouching techniques, like changing the color of a article of clothing, placing your subject in front of a different background, turning your portraiture into a drawing or oil painting, even learn to refine their pose in many cases! If you're up to the task... Ron will show you these advanced techniques. One step at a time.
Post your work... In your personal folder or in any of the "Classroom" areas and Ron will tell you what he would do to improve it. He'll explain how he would have handled the shot if he were creating it. From pose refinement, to lighting changes... compositional balance, flow and color harmony... you'll learn to improve your work to that of the countries top portrait photographers.

And we're just getting started... PortraNET offers SO MUCH MORE. CLICK HERE TO READ OUR STUDENTS RAVES ABOUT PORTRANET These are unsolicited (we didn't ask for these comments!)