Portrait photography itself is a relatively complex discipline, although at first it may seem like there is nothing difficult about photographing portraits.
Moreover, this genre can be divided into many categories. But if we talk about a classic portrait, where the photographer has to photograph another person, then the photographer must know some things: how to work with light, with color, what technique to use and, finally, how best to communicate with the model.
What
makes a portrait good
A portrait is always about one thing: about the person in
the photo. It doesn't matter if you are shooting a person isolated from
the external environment, or shooting a portrait of a person with a certain environment
- a portrait, it's all the same about a person.
So
what makes a good portrait different?
First, a good portrait draws attention to the subject. This is usually achieved through some combination of shallow depth of field, composition, color, and lighting. When everything is done correctly, as soon as the viewer sees the portrait, his gaze involuntarily in the photo.
Secondly, a good portrait tells something about the person in the frame. Shows some trait of their personality, or a part of his life. The best portrait painters can tell a whole story in one image.
To achieve these two goals, you have a lot of room for creativity.
Creative
details
1.
Connect with the person in the portrait
The recipe for a good portrait is about more than just
photography and lighting equipment. It all starts with the fact that the
photographer makes a special effort to find a common language with the person
he is photographing. Often this can include a preliminary acquaintance
with a person and his interests: from acquaintance with a person's hobbies,
with his life positions, and up to what kind of music he prefers.
All this will liberate your model and he or she will feel comfortable in your studio. Especially if you still play his favorite music.
If you are making a portrait for the person himself (and not for a magazine, for example), then ask in advance, ask what his favorite clothes are, is there a face angle, posture, or even a past portrait that they like best; and whether the portrait you are shooting has any production characteristics that you need to know in advance.
2. What to focus on in portrait photography
A basic rule of thumb when shooting portraits is that the
photographer should always focus on the eyes of the person he is
photographing. After all, it is not for nothing that they say that the
eyes are the mirror of the soul. Therefore, in portrait photography, the
eye is the most important element. In the eyes, the viewer will be able to
read joy, pain, fear and many other emotions that are conveyed in the
photograph.
3. Think over the composition
The genre of a portrait is not a photo for documents, when
you photograph a person "head-on" and get a flat, lifeless
picture. And in the genre of portrait, building a composition
is no less important than in other genres of photography.
Do not be lazy to think over the composition. Instead, move back and fill the frame with space. Placing a person on one side of the frame is a good way to experiment. Also try different depth-of-field options.
4. Posing for a portrait
How your subject stands and looks has a huge impact on the
outcome. A slight change in facial expression - such as smiling or not
smiling - can drastically change the feel of a photograph.
Try to capture different expressions as you shoot, so that after shooting you can choose what you like best.
Also consider creating portraits with the person looking to the side, up, or down. Play around and see what works.
Black and white photography has its own charm. And it will always be relevant. Therefore, think in advance whether to make a portrait in color or black and white. Of course, you might think that making a black and white photo from a color photo is just moving one slider, for example, using an adjustment layer in Photoshop.
Yes, it is technically easy to convert a color image to black and white. But there is one caveat - this is the use of soft or hard light. In short, for lighting color portraits, soft light sources, such as soft boxes , are used more . When shooting black and white portraits, it is more common to use harsh light, such as the light of the sun, as is done in the Rembrandt lighting scheme .
And this difference in lighting, in post-processing, will be impossible to fully compensate.
Technical details
1. Lighting
When shooting day comes, make sure you have a solid plan -
both for portraits and any settings you need for your camera and lighting. Powershoot
If you will be shooting indoors or in the studio, check out the existing indoor background and lighting options. Will it be possible to shoot a portrait in natural light or will artificial lighting need to be provided? Are there clean walls or simple drapery that you can use as a backdrop, or will you be shooting outdoors in natural light?
If you will be shooting outdoors in natural light, consider the time of day and the direction of the sun depending on how and where you want to position your subject. Early morning and late afternoon are the best times to take portraits in natural light, and you probably don't want to shoot at noon when sunlight and shadows are at their sharpest. Keep in mind that cloudy weather can also be a good opportunity to photograph a portrait with softer shadows and constant lighting over a long period of time.
Ideally, your subject should
be facing the sun or at an oblique angle, and your face should be lit to
indicate facial features while minimizing unattractive shadows. When
composing a portrait, it is important to look beyond the subject and check the
composition for issues such as distracting backgrounds, as shown in the
portrait below. While it is easy to overlook the geometric shape in the
background when looking through the tiny LCD screen or through the viewfinder , it
creates unwanted tension in the image and distracts the viewer's attention from
the subject of the portrait.
2. Which Super zoom lens to use
For classic portrait photography, lenses with a focal length of 50mm or more are generally recommended. It all depends on the distance to the model, how much detail you want to capture, and the size of the camera sensor.
Why 50mm focal length lens? This rule is based on the fact that the human eye has roughly the same angle of view as a 50mm lens.
Each photographer uses their favorite focal lengths, but the most commonly used focal lengths are 50mm, 60mm, 85mm, 90mm, 100mm, 105mm and possibly more.
3.
Shoot in manual mode
Which camera mode to shoot in is your next big decision.
There are two simple guidelines you can follow too:
· If your camera is mounted on a tripod, shoot in manual mode .
· When shooting handheld, shoot with aperture priority .
These portrait modes will do about 95% of the time.
So using a tripod also includes things like shooting HDR bracketed shots, night photography, and any long exposures.
The main plus of the manual mode is that you can set your camera settings once, after which they will not change, even if the lighting or other factors change. This also means that you will have a truly consistent exposure from one shot to the next.
4. ISO
For portraits, you want the highest possible image quality. Therefore, set the ISO as low as possible. This will avoid unnecessary noise in your photos.
Choose an ISO value between 100 and 400.
But in doing so, you also need to maintain an acceptable shutter speed.
If your image is blurry due to subject or camera movement, it doesn't matter how little noise is in the picture. Start at ISO 400 and adjust as needed. This means that if you are shooting in the shade, low light, or indoors using light from a window, then you will probably need to increase your ISO. Feel free to use ISO 800 or even 1600 if you need to. But remember that you can also open the aperture in low light.
5.
Focus mode
When shooting a portrait, use single point focus here (not a
zone or multiple points), don't let the camera choose for you what to focus
on. The camera often gives incorrect settings. Always focus on the
subject's eyes. If one eye is closer to the camera than the other,
focus on the near one.
6. Aperture
For portraits of one person, set the aperture from f / 2 to
f / 4. If you don't have a lens with that aperture, go for the good old
50mm f / 1.8. It is an inexpensive and versatile lens. Using such a
wide aperture will help you blur the background and make the background less
distracting.
Be careful when shooting with apertures too wide open . Then you can get such a shallow depth of field that you can get a shot where the eyes are in focus, but the nose or ears are no longer in focus.
7.
Shutter speed
I already said in the ISO clause that you need to make sure
you have a fast enough shutter speed to keep the image sharp. Think about
the minimum shutter speed you can use handheld (one more focal length) and what
shutter speed you can set when using a tripod.
A tripod will keep the camera steady at any shutter speed, even one second or more. But what are the chances that the object will not move during this time? So choose a shutter speed according to your subject.
If you are working with an adult or teenager and they do not move much or gesture, you can probably reduce the shutter speed to 1/15 or even 1/8 of a second.
But if you are working with children or filming a group of people, then reduce the shutter speed. Start at 1/125 and adjust as needed. If the subject is blurry, use a slower shutter speed.
8.
White balance
To get the correct white balance, select one of the white balance presets on your camera, such as daylight, cloudy, tungsten, and so on. Select the preset that best suits your lighting conditions. Take test shots in each mode and see which one looks best.
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