Portraits

[Nikon Lite]

In this upcoming spring I was asked to shoot some pictures for a friend with his girlfriend. Now I know a bit about taking pictures of people. Now I live out in the country area of PA, and there's lots of woods, open fields, etc etc...

Provided that it's a nice day in the upcoming spring (Which I'm sure they'll be one) how would I go about getting a nice shot for them. Now I plan on setting them up against a tree for one picture, and possibly near a stream or waterfall. As far as posing what would be best for those areas? What I'd like to do it try to keep the photos as natural as possible. Any pointers on a beginner?

- Nikon L.

 

[Jeremy Z]

Well, first off, don't put them against a tree. Portraits look weird when things are "growing out of their heads" directly behind them.

Under a tree would be good. Use a wide aperture and a short telephoto zoom so the background is out of focus; you want the attention to be on THEM, not the background.

You could try a couple scenic ones with the waterfall in focus.

 

[shingfan]

yes....have your friend on the side of one tree with the background blurred......will come out quite nice.....the tree would be best to be isolated from the majority of the forest....otherwise will look too crowded and you might have the effect of "someting growing out of their heads" if a tree is right behind.....i've seen many model shots done that way and they look really good