Topic: Portraits and person photography (and person in environment)
- Different and difficult than other type of photography technique because it involves people.
- needs to know people
- know your camera/equipment
- people are afraid of camera, they pose, freeze when shooting
- kids and pets are most challenging
Type of Portraits: there are four basic types of portraits:
- head and shoulders,
- 3 quarters length and
- full length
- environmental
- close-ups or facial shots: Close-up portraits usually have the subject’s shoulders and head or less. They are basically framed around the face. These are the best to capture expressions and glamour shots. With the view the subject's head is turned to the left or right so one of the ears is not visible and the corner of the farthest eye is touching the borderline of the face. (eg: )
- Full View - the subject looks straight ahead and both ears are clearly visible. It is rarely the best way to make a portrait, because this position is very static and usually used in passports or other documents. Upper body shots or midrange portraits are a little less personal than close-ups. subject is probably more relaxed and can include a little of the background.
- Profile View - in this position the subject's head is turned 90 degrees from the camera and only one eye and one ear are visible. This view creates a bit dramatic image and requires good facial traits of the subject, especially nose and chin.
- Environmental portraiture are portraits that let us into the life of the subject. These usually include the whole subject in a scenario or partaking in some hobby that they enjoy. These are best for telling a story to the viewer about the subject in the pictures.
Lighting:
- proper lights are very important for portraits
- natural lights are good, but its not possible all the time
- light can be bounced from wall with flash that can turn their direction of pop-up, but also remember not to bounce from walls with very hard color.
- make sure that shadows are not harsh in the face unless that is what you are trying to do
- In sun, put person in shadows and put soft flash. If there are direct light, you can use some cloth or paper sheets
- Between person and sun, use sheet to soften the lights
- You can also use reflector if necessary, its not very expensive and could be used in different situations as most of them also contain refractors in them. This is important when the portrait is being taken in sunrise / sunset where you want both warm color background and also portraits look natural
- To know more about different lighting techniques
- Rembrant lighting,
- split-portrait lighting,
- butterfly portrait lighting, refer to:
Based on these category, there are other types as we ll:
Tips:
- eyes are important in portraits, focus in eyes
- talk to person , take 5 more minute before you start taking pictures
- it is important that you understand how/what they do
- understand what characteristics of person (what they like, hobby) and look for perspective while you are doing that
- it is important that people are comfortable, so respect the way they are, don’t comment negative way (“that’s great”, “you look nice”, “your boot color suits perfectly” and so on)
- advice now and then, “could you please do…”, “maybe if you…”
-
People are more comfortable in their own location, whatever the location is (work, home) because they know the place and does not get nervous in new place with new people. Goto persons place in their own environment, something in background should be important for them
- if person is not sure about their pose, give them something in their hand (eg, a ball, apple) so that they can do something with it
- act like as if you know what you are doing (even if you don’t know) to make person feel comfortable that you are not doing something wrong to their picture.
- Say something nice, guide the person (stand here, look that side!!)
- Look out for
- frame, side lights, background (should be darker to make persons face stand out)
- to pack more stuffs, use telephoto lens and make person stand out from the frame
- depending on lens you have or type of photo you are taking, f-value cane be between 1.4 to 5
- use panning, servo-mode focusing on certain subject and background is moving
Links:
Note, if you don’t understand certain term or concept, google it and try to see the “images”, that gives more clearer picture of what those thing means
HOMEWORK:
Take 2 pictures:
- First picture with one of the first 3 style of portraits described above
- Second picture of a person doing something or in situation (Environmental portraiture)
Send it to joemul.photo@gmail.com before our next meeting on 9.1. at 17-19.
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