Portrait Photography Tips
Portraits and people - by Portrait Photography Tips
It’s not just our option here at portrait photography tips, it's a fact that portraiture
is by far the most popular of all photographic subjects. For people who do not consider
photography a hobby, but merely a method of recording family events, the majority
of shots they take will be portraits.
For the enthusiast, portraiture allows far more freedom than other forms of photography,
simply because the subject can be moved around and posed with such ease. Much of
the composition can therefore be controlled by instruction - rather than just by
viewpoint. A cooperative subject can be asked to turn this way or that, to smile
and laugh, and to use props. You can take the person to a particular background
you want to use - and persuade them to wear clothes that fit in with the colour
scheme or style you want to depict. All this affords the photographer much more
control than he or she would otherwise have.
Choosing the setting
When undertaking a portraiture session, the first consideration is whether to use
the controlled environment of the studio or the natural lighting of an outdoor setting.
The advantage of the home or studio is that lighting can be put at any angle, at
a range of intensities, and with as much diffusion as is required. Backdrops can
be changed quickly and lit separately. A studio can also be a more pleasant place
to work for photographer and model. Not everyone has room for a studio, but one
can always be hired. At Portrait Photography Tips we recommend using the small ads
in your local paper looking for discount studio hire.
Outdoors, less skill is required with the lighting — as, unlike with flash, what
you see is what you get. The intensity and direction of the light is mainly determined
by where you place your model, or the time you choose for the shoot. But the real
appeal of being out of the studio is the huge choice of backdrops — which can be
chosen to suit the subject, or to reveal more about them. At Portrait Photography
Tips we recommend you explore the outdoors for new subject matter.
Using lighting creatively
Pools of light make interesting pictures all on their own - but the beauty of some
types of photography is that you can move a subject into the light. Photography
literally means writing with light, and while light is the basic ingredient of any
photograph, it can often become part of the subject itself. How often have you seen
a shaft of light breaking across a room late in the day? The sun is at just the
height and angle to flood through the glass — creating an intricate pattern that
mirrors the leaves of a tree that have partially blocked its path, or the shape
of an outside window frame.
This effect is not only true for pictures of sunsets, car headlights, and candles
— the light itself can become an integral part of any type of photograph, even portraiture.
A person can be manoeuvred into the pattern of light — so that it looks like the
spotlight has been set up deliberately to catch the subject. At Portrait Photography
Tips we strongly advise you to experiment with light and shadows.
Professional Portrait Photography Tips
Many shots that use light beautifully are found outdoors, where streaks of dappled
sun breaking through trees or bushes create patches of light on the ground. Ask
your models to lie down if this is necessary to take advantage of a small pool of
natural light on the ground. Recreate the effects on these pages in the studio by
using a mask or ‘gobo” over a spotlight, which creates the appearance of a window
with its shadows.
Profiles and silhouettes
In profile shots, the side-on pose can reveal far more about the shape the face,
and therefore someone’s identity, than a picture for which the sitter is looking
at the camera.
In a silhouette portrait, all colour and form are absent from the face — the shape
alone identifies the person. For silhouettes, the profile must be backlit and very
underexposed.
One of the most famous profiles in the world is that of Queen Elizabeth II. The
shot below was approved by the Queen for use on postage stamps in the UK and throughout
the Commonwealth. Printed billions of times over the last four decades, it is likely
that this is the most reproduced image in history.
Life and work
For portraits, the lens of choice is usually the short telephoto. If you want to
include more background than usual, however, especially if you want to show where
the person works or lives as well as their face, you will need a wider lens. For
shots of artists, for example, you may want to show their work, and perhaps their
studio, in order to provide added insight into their way of life. If you use a wide-angle
lens, however, there is a danger that the perspective provided by being so close
to the subject’s face will distort the features — but this can be minimized if the
subject is kept at the centre of the frame. For
portrait photography in which background detail is less important, a focal
length of 70—135mm (for a 35mm-format camera) flattens the nose and chin just enough
to provide a flattering portrait. If you use a longer telephoto lens, you will be
too far away to give the subject instructions. For DSLR, at Portrait Photography
Tips we recommend using a 50mm lens specifically designed for portrait shots.
A top portrait photography tip - Playing to the camera
Although there are plenty of guidelines that you should try to follow in photography,
there are times when you need to bend the rules. Sometimes, the only way to create
impact — and to develop your own individual style — is to deliberately break with
convention. The normal approach to
portraits is to catch people looking at their best — to provide a dignified
or photogenic picture of the subject. But the photographer does not always succeed:
subjects get bored or mischievous — and poses become playful or childish. Rather
than keep trying for classic shots, it sometimes pays to ignore the rules and actually
encourage outlandish behaviour. These camera verité shots show a side to people’s
characters that traditional portraiture techniques usually miss.
This is an approach that works particularly well with children. They love to mess
around, and if you let them have their way, you will find that they will be more
cooperative than with any more formal poses that you have in mind. They say never
work with children or animals but at Portrait Photography Tips we say that this
should be encouraged as children and animals can give you your most random and creative
subjects.
Portraits outdoors
The main advantage to shooting
portraits outdoors is that you have much more space; this gives flexibility
not only of the backgrounds themselves, but also in the distance between subject
and backdrop, and between camera and subject. The main disadvantage is that the
photographer is at the mercy of the elements, from a harsh sun to too much cloud
cover.
The photographer does, however, have some tools that can help to control the lighting
— the reflector and the diffuser. The reflector bounces back light to soften shadow
areas on a subject. Popular versions are circular models that collapse to a third
of their maximum diameter when not in use. The diffuser can be used to soften the
brightness of the sun. Some white reflectors double as diffusers, and can be bought
from professional suppliers in different strengths (measured, usually, by how many
f-stops they cut the brightness of the light by).
Here at Portrait Photography Tips we hope you’ve enjoyed this article on Portrait
Photography.