portrait tips please

[robertwsimpson]

I'm leaving work in 20 minutes, and I just got my 50mm 1.8 which I told my girlfriend she must let me try out on her...


so any tips before I go?

the conditions will be:
sun setting
outside
98% humidity (lol south florida joke)

ok go!

 

[ben.]

There's nothing really specific asked but anyways, I would say make sure your portraits show something: expressions, emotions, feelings. Also make sure those feelings match the background. For example: no pale expressions with a busy background.

have fun out there

 

[robertwsimpson]

the specific thing I asked was for general tips! which you gave me! thanks!

 

[Big Mike]

If shooting with a wide aperture is new to you...it's important that you know exactly where your focus point is...and for portraits, you probably want the eyes to be sharp at the very least. So set your focus on her eyes.

 

[ben.]

No problem, would you mind posting up some pictures later to see some results??

 

[ben.]

The thing I just thought about is the following: you said its gonna be a portrait but the conditions will be a sunset. Make sure you know what your focusing on: her or the sunset!!

 

[robertwsimpson]

I was planning on focusing on the eyes, but it's nice to have my thoughts confirmed since I have never done this before and I'm planning on shooting all photos at 1.8 since that's kind of the whole point of the lens... I might stop down to 2.0 or so just to see if the pictures are any sharper or if the DOF is too narrow, but I won't really know that until I get them on my computer since my camera screen is so terrible. And I will post results tomorrow prolly.

 

[robertwsimpson]

well, I won't be able to see the sunset because there are trees all around... but I will see if I can make something work... if the sun is in the picture, I'd be worried about backlighting. idk I'll try a bunch of different things!

 

[Big Mike]

Back lighting is great...but you may need something to light up the front of her, like a reflector or a flash.