portrait help please

[tonyadgarcia]

could someone be so kind to tell me in detail the best way to pull off a great portrait. from the camera settings to the lighting to the posing of the subject. i have got to figure out what im doing wrong. is an external flash important when you have studio lighting?

 

[CraniumDesigns]

im a newb, but a wide aperture helps. something 5.6 or below, to get that blurry background. 50mm is often the most common setting for portraits too.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

Longest focal length you have + widest aperature it can go + warm color + soft light (eg. shade). + focusing on the eyes = generally winning results.

Your mileage will vary.

 

[Torus34]

The difference between a great portrait and a portrait is that a great portrait says something about the subject which is evident to a viewer who has never met him/her. A great portrait has been defined as 'more than a likeness.'

You did say 'great', no?

 

[JerryPH]

I could write a book about this... but you will have to settle for 37 tips on portraiture from me. Look HERE for the hints.

 

[EhJsNe]

A telephoto lens will result in the most flattering results. Not sure if the longer you go the more flattering, but it cant hurt!
Use a wide aperture, no more than 2.8 tho, you dont want parts of the face out of focus...and focus on the eyes. Thats the most important thing. The main focus must be on the eyes.

Soft light is also a must. Harsh shadows and hot spots are not good for portraits.

 

[JerryPH]

If you can find a telephoto at less than F/2.8... get ready to need a motorcycle to use it as a tripod... lol.

What others call "most flattering results" is technically a compression and loss of distortion. When using lenses in the 10-50mm range, you get facial distortions. I call them "chipmunk cheek". This distortion is minimized by around 70mm and impossible to detect at between 150-200mm. Above 200mm for portraits, there is a tiny and diminishing return of advantage.

Problem is... a good 70-200 mm F/2.8 is at least a thousand dollar investment (if not more). Softlight is not just a portrait issue, but a photography issue period. Early morning, late afternoon or in the shade of a building or trees (if you are shooting outside), is always a good idea.

In those times, I prefer shooting indoors and having precise control of my lighting. One can, of course, shoot any time of day anywhere, but to get decent results, be ready to have at least a thousand watt/seconds of light (or more), in your control and tiny apertures. TO over-power the sun, most professionals agree that you will need something closer to 2000 W/s to beat a mid-day sun of a bright day.

That kind of power will cost you significant $$.

 

[BDT]

Personally I use a 85mm fixed focal lens for portraits and shoot where possible at f2.8

Having said that I also use a 50mm 1.4 nikkor as well as a 105mm 2.8 Sigma lens.

Apart from the 85mm the other lenses here in the UK are reasonably cheap and probably a lot cheaper in the U.S.A.

As for lighting even bounced flash will suffice and even better if you have two or three flash guns available to control what light goes where.

 

[Montana]

If you can find a telephoto at less than F/2.8... get ready to need a motorcycle to use it as a tripod... lol..

You don't need a motorcycle to hold the Canon 135mm f/2 L or the 200mm f/2 L theres two telephotos faster than 2.8....

 

[Kenh]

If you have a garage, try this.......

Open the garage door when the sun is not shining directly into the door. Set your subject just inside the garage. If the sun is straight up don't let any direct light fall on your subject. If you have an asphalt driveway, lay a white sheet down just outside the door. If it is breezy you will have to put some kind of weight on the corners of the sheet.

Set your camera up outside the garage on a tripod. I don't know what you have for lenses but you want to get an effective focal length of around 70mm or longer. I believe your camera has an APS size sensor so a 50mm lens will work. (50 x 1.5 or 1.6) You can frame your image with some extra space around your subject and crop it in post production if you are using a 50mm. This will allow you to back away from your subject a little.

Since you are using daylight, which on most days is constantly changing, I set my exposure in this manner: Put your camera in Aperture Priority mode. "AV" on my camera. Set your Aperture to the widest setting. This would be the smallest number, "2.8" or "4.5" or "5.6". Take a test picture of your subject and look at your histogram. (If your subject is not wearing anything with some white on it then give them something white to hold onto for this set up) You want your graph to be as close to the right hand edge as you can get it without touching the side. If there is a lot of empty space on the right hand side of the histogram then you want to increase your exposure using "Exposure Compensation" (if you don't know how to do this you will have to check your manual) until you close the gap without touching the right hand side. Conversely, if all the information in the histogram is bunched up against the right you will want to decrease your exposure by using your "Exposure Compensation". Doing this will allow you to get a good constant exposure even though the sun light intensity may be changing drastically while clouds move in front of the sun. This sounds like a lot, but it really goes pretty quick. I usually check the shutter speeds I am getting to make sure they are not too slow. Your camera has an image stabilization feature built in so this should not be a problem for you. If it is, just increase the ISO.

Now with your subject in place, strike up a conversation and start shooting. Get another person talking to your subject and observe his or her expressions and shoot. Talk about anything other then the fact that they are getting a picture made. Don't just take a couple of shots. Shoot, shoot and then shoot some more. It goes pretty fast and if the conversation gets pretty lively, everyone will forget your snapping away!

I hope this helps..............Also, you don't have to have a Garage. You can use a porch with an overhang or go to the park and shoot under a pavilion!

 

[Mike_E]

Or you could go and read what one of the Masters had to say.

Here you are... http://jzportraits.home.att.net/

 

[JerryPH]

You don't need a motorcycle to hold the Canon 135mm f/2 L or the 200mm f/2 L theres two telephotos faster than 2.8....

The 300mm f/2.8 is not much longer either, but the front end is a whole lot thicker.

 

[bigtwinky]

I've been told that the ideal focal range for a portrait is between 85mm and 105mm. You can have more, but try not to aim for less.

This is of course on a full frame sensor (35mm equivalent) camera. If you have a crop sensor camera (Canon Rebels, x0D, Nikon Dx0,...) you are looking at a range of approx 50mm to 70mm.

If you do get a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens, that will be an effective focal range of approx 110mm to 320mm, making it useful mostly at the shorter focal lenghts.
But I'm just learning portraits, so I could be a bit off

 

[Torus34]

Final thoughts:

Many of the posts on this thread have been technical -- what rig, lens, etc. to use. Mastery of this is a given for great portraiture. Reach the point where you think of your gear little more than the carpenter thinks of his hammer.

Jerry, through his rules [First class exposition, Jerry!], covers posing the model(s) in detail. There's a wealth of distilled knowledge there for the taking. Reading and re-reading the rules is a good thing to do. Internalize them. And know when and, most importantly, why to 'break' them.

Lighting has been at least alluded to, and you can easily work it out for yourself by doing a bit of rummaging about on line and on this site. You can also go to almost any shopping mall portrait studio and check their set-up. Never forget that at the very least your work must measure up to theirs in technical and lighting competence. As you set up your 'studio' lighting, have a friend sit for you so you can gauge various effects and 'calibrate' your system to the final results.

[Anyone out there willing to do an article for TPF on lighting for portraits? I'll edit, if you want someone to check your sentences, punctuation, etc.]

That leaves me a bit of wiggle room to return to the thrust of my previous post [great portraits] and amplify it a tad. I'll add three more things to consider before posing and shooting.

1. Take time to get to know the subject if you don't already have at least a speaking acquaintance. A portrait should reflect the person inside as well as the surface appearance. Sometimes a simple prop will help in suggesting the particular over-all character or some unique feature of the sitter. Often it's worth while to spend 15 minutes or so just talking with the subject a couple of days before the sitting. You're after a great portrait, remember? Better than the mall stuff. Great has never come cheaply in time or effort. During an initial conversation you can suggest clothing to wear for the shoot, make-up, etc.

2. Find out who the portrait is for. If it's for the sitter's parents you'll want to shoot it differently from, say, a portrait of a young lady who wants to send the print to her boyfriend in the service. The differences may be subtle, but we're talking great portraits. Subtle is important. Subtle makes a difference.

3. Never be afraid to vary from the normal if the final portrait will benefit. A full-length shot of a young man facing away from you, jacket slung over one shoulder and looking back at the camera may be far truer to the character of the subject than the best possible head shot. Backgrounds other than the studio can enhance the final product no end if they are true to the character of the sitter. I can envision certain young ladies of my acquaintance who would be well-portrayed if photographed while in motion on a swing.

Regards, and enjoy both the work and the results of high-quality portrait photography.

 

[JerryPH]

Lighting has been at least alluded to, and you can easily work it out for yourself by doing a bit of rummaging about on line and on this site. You can also go to almost any shopping mall portrait studio and check their set-up. Never forget that at the very least your work must measure up to theirs in technical and lighting competence. As you set up your 'studio' lighting, have a friend sit for you so you can gauge various effects and 'calibrate' your system to the final results.

[Anyone out there willing to do an article for TPF on lighting for portraits? I'll edit, if you want someone to check your sentences, punctuation, etc.]

Lighting is not mentioned a lot likely becuase that is a world unto itès own. No need to recreate the wheel here, there are hundreds of websites on the net that discuss it. One of the best places to learn about getting the light off the camera is www.strobist.com and their related flickr group.

Thanks for the kind words.