Photographing people can be a tricky business. Unlike shooting a landscape, portrait photography demands that you be personable and amicable and a talented photographer. You need to be familiar with your equipment and use it correctly and quickly to avoid creating unnecessary and damaging lag time in the portrait session. However, there are some techniques you can use that will allow you to capture excellent portraits nearly every time.
Posing your subjects
Before you do anything, make your subject's comfortable. Make small talk with them and, if they are nervous about being photographed, reassure them. When they are comfortable, you can begin to pose them. Sit your subject down on a stool with their legs turned about 45 degrees away from the camera lens. Have them fold their hands in their lap and sit up as straight as they can. Their shoulders should be turned to face the camera lens squarely, and the subject should look directly into the lens. If you need to physically adjust your subject's pose, ask if you may touch them first, by saying something such as, "May I move your head?"
Lenses
The best lens to use for a portrait situation is a short telephoto lens, such as an 85mm prime or a zoom lens with a range between 50mm and 135mm. Fast lenses with wide maximum apertures, such as 1.8, are ideal because they blur the background in an aesthetically pleasing way, drawing the viewer's focus to the subject's face. The length of the lens is important because it allows you to make an image that is primarily of the subject's face without getting uncomfortably close to your subjects.
Lighting
If you are working with studio lighting, the best technique to use is soft, two-point or three-point lighting. To soften the light, use umbrellas or softboxes. This eliminates hard shadows on the subject's face which are distracting and look unpleasant. Position the lights about 30 to 45 degrees off the line created between your camera and the subject and about three feet above the subject's head, pointing downward. If you are using a three-point lighting setup, put the third light behind the subject, aiming it so the light glances off the top of the head, providing spot illumination on the hair.
Background
If you are working in a studio, use a seamless or muslin cloth backdrop when photographing your subjects. This provides a clean background for your portrait that is guaranteed to not distract the viewer's eye. If you are photographing outdoors, shoot at your lens's maximum aperture to blur the background. To do this, focus on your subject's eyes and zoom in. The longer the lens, the greater the blur, and focusing on your subject's eyes, which are the most important part of the portrait, guarantees that all of the their face, except perhaps for the tip of their nose, will be in focus.
Photographing people can be a tricky business. Unlike shooting a landscape, portrait photography demands that you be personable and amicable and a talented photographer. You need to be familiar with your equipment and use it correctly and quickly to avoid creating unnecessary and damaging lag time in the portrait session. However, there are some techniques you can use that will allow you to capture excellent portraits nearly every time.
Posing your subjects
Before you do anything, make your subject's comfortable. Make small talk with them and, if they are nervous about being photographed, reassure them. When they are comfortable, you can begin to pose them. Sit your subject down on a stool with their legs turned about 45 degrees away from the camera lens. Have them fold their hands in their lap and sit up as straight as they can. Their shoulders should be turned to face the camera lens squarely, and the subject should look directly into the lens. If you need to physically adjust your subject's pose, ask if you may touch them first, by saying something such as, "May I move your head?"
Lenses
The best lens to use for a portrait situation is a short telephoto lens, such as an 85mm prime or a zoom lens with a range between 50mm and 135mm. Fast lenses with wide maximum apertures, such as 1.8, are ideal because they blur the background in an aesthetically pleasing way, drawing the viewer's focus to the subject's face. The length of the lens is important because it allows you to make an image that is primarily of the subject's face without getting uncomfortably close to your subjects.
Lighting
If you are working with studio lighting, the best technique to use is soft, two-point or three-point lighting. To soften the light, use umbrellas or softboxes. This eliminates hard shadows on the subject's face which are distracting and look unpleasant. Position the lights about 30 to 45 degrees off the line created between your camera and the subject and about three feet above the subject's head, pointing downward. If you are using a three-point lighting setup, put the third light behind the subject, aiming it so the light glances off the top of the head, providing spot illumination on the hair.
Background
If you are working in a studio, use a seamless or muslin cloth backdrop when photographing your subjects. This provides a clean background for your portrait that is guaranteed to not distract the viewer's eye. If you are photographing outdoors, shoot at your lens's maximum aperture to blur the background. To do this, focus on your subject's eyes and zoom in. The longer the lens, the greater the blur, and focusing on your subject's eyes, which are the most important part of the portrait, guarantees that all of the their face, except perhaps for the tip of their nose, will be in focus.
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