Portrait photography

[Sign Of The Fish Burger]

Hey y'all.

So the more I get into photography the more I've realized that I am much more interested in portrait photography. Specifically photojournalism portraits (does that exist ).

Since I've discovered this I've decided that I would like to focus on this aspect and really sharpen up my skills.

I've encountered a few problems
1- People are harder to find to photograph
2- Not sure what specific equipment I should invest in (what flashes, lenses etc- I have an XTi FYI) etc.
3- How do I teach myself to do this? Is it a matter of trial and error? I guess I'm not sure where to start...

Can anyone help?

 

[Tiberius]

Some tips for portrait photography...

• Don't use wide angle lenses, they'll distort the facial features. Use a lens around 80mm or more.These give a pleasing perspective to the features.
• Use a wide aperture, as theis limits the depth of field, giving a nice out of focus effect to the background.
• Focus on the eyes. Everything else can be a little soft, but the eyes must be in focus.

For more tips, go to your local bookshop and pick up a copy of "The Digital Photography Book} by Scott Kelby. it's got a whole section of tips about shooting people, covering flash, time of day, reflectors, focal lengths...

http://www.scottkelbybooks.com/prod...k/?PHPSESSID=7d6e202e6df55840c39eb42e23ab42cb

 

[Sign Of The Fish Burger]

Oh thanks!! I have a 20% off coupon for borders- I think I'll pick it up

 

[scraparcs]

Do you shoot digital?

 

[Sign Of The Fish Burger]

Yes ma'am.

 

[Tiberius]

Ah, that's great. You can shoot lots of pics and not have to worry about spending lots to develop them.

 

[MarkEvan]

Your family are the best subjects to begin with as they will hopefully be supportive and wan`t to model for you .................maybe, failing that there are plenty of modeling agencies out there, but you pay quite a bit for the use of one of their models and studios.
As to lighting etc why not try a short course, they can give you all the background knowledge you need and help you to have hands on expierience with soneone who knows what they are doing.
Reflectors are also useful for bouncing light back into the shaded areas of peoples faces.



hope this helps.

Mark

 

[cristianna]

Baby dolls help when family members don't cooperate. And they are the most cooperative too.

Definitely heed Tiberius' input-- he's provided key advice! Don't use the "portrait" mode on your XTi-- go to your manual settings section and shoot from there. Manually focus your lens if you are patient enough to do so.

 

[Sign Of The Fish Burger]

Great!!! Thanks for the advice all

 

[Tiberius]

A great way to get a reflector is to avoid camera shops. They generally charge a small fortune for what is essentially a shiny surface.

Instead, go to a $2 shop or similar and get yourself one of those reflectors that you put on your car's windscreen on a sunny day. You can generally pick those up cheap, and you can use the silver side to get a crisp light and the white side to get a softer light.

And it's a whole bunch cheaper too!

Another tip with light...

If you are using a flash that slots into the camera's hotshoe, make sure you have one that has an adjustable head. You are using a Canon XTi (AKA 400D), which can use any of the Canon EX series speedlites. The top of the line model and the moment is the 580ex, which is very expensive, but also very capable. The head of this can rotate 180 degrees both left and right, and can point upwards 90 degrees. Basically this means that you can aim the flash anywhere above the camera. The benefit of this is that you can bounce the flash off a ceiling or a wall. This gives several advantages:

• The light is much softer. Quality of light is determined by how large the light source is from the point of view of the subject. Any direct flash will appear to be coming from a rather small area, and this gives crisp shadows, and very hard light. But when you bounce the light off a wall or ceiling, the apparent light source is no longer the flash unit, it's the area on the ceiling/wall that is reflecting the light. And because the flash lights up a section of the wall/ceiling that is much larger that the flash itself, it gives a much softer light.
• The light is also indirect. Flash photos often look artifical because the light source is directly next to the lens. This is like walking around with a miner's lamp attached to your forehead. It gives a very flat light, because you can't see any of the shadows that define a three dimensional object. When you bounce the light, the light appears to be coming from the wall or ceiling, giving a much more natural look to the light.
• Related to the last benefit, you'll eliminate red eye 100%. Red eye is caused when the flash is located very close to the lens because the retina at the back of the eye (which is rich in blood vessels) acts as a mirror and reflects light right back into the lens. basically, red eye is a photo of someone's retina. By moving the source of light away from the lens, you eliminate those reflections.

If you want to try this bounce technique in a place where there is no convenient wall or ceiling, you can use your reflector instead. Just make very sure that the surface you use isn't coloured, otherwise the light will become tinted.