NTP: Challenge VIII - Portraiture

[ricktas]

Moving along in our New To Photography Challenge series.

We now come to Portraiture. Portraiture is usually accepted to be photos of people, but remember that you can also do animal portraiture, especially of domestic animals. This challenge is about using what you have learned from the New To Photography Resources, to achieve a portrait shot.

Things to consider

- Aperture (depth of field) to blur your background to isolate your subject.
- Light, using light effectively, maybe back lighting, side lighting, maybe use your flash, consider bouncing the flash off a ceiling, wall etc.
- Your subject's pose, front on, side on, head tilted.
- Are you going to take the photo from the same height as your subject, from above or below?
- Is it going to be a formal portrait, and environmental portrait (taken showing your subject undertaking their work/hobby etc)?
- Are you going to take it indoors with a backdrop etc, or outdoors on the beach, in the park?
- Remember that in portraiture, the subjects eyes are very important, make sure they are sharply in focus.

Please feel free to ask any questions in this thread to help you achieve your results, and we look forward to seeing your final portrait photo.

HAVE FUN!

[Kym]

This will help - http://www.lumitouch.com/benstudiotutorial/index.html
If nothing else read item 10.

[yummymummy]

I took this one yesterday, am going to attempt some more portraits of the kids tomorrow if the weather is still ikky like this. :-S
My son Corey

[DAdeGroot]

I took this one yesterday, am going to attempt some more portraits of the kids tomorrow if the weather is still ikky like this. :-S
My son Corey

Mind if I critique a little ?

For portraiture, try to use a longer lens, as wide angle lenses tend to distort and are generally unflattering. In this case, you can see the bottom of the head is wider than the top due to the distortion caused by a wider focal length at close range.

Light control isn't bad here, although possibly a little flat. Some shadow is ok, preferably soft, to add dimension to the portrait. I see there is a degree of directionality to the light (right side brighter than the left), but possibly not enough to really define the shape of the head.

You've also shot from below, causing us to look up his nostrils, this usually isn't a good plan.

Otherwise you've controlled the depth of field nicely and the eyes are sharp.

[yummymummy]

Thanks Dave !! The light was a little hard to control, we were next to a window where the light was pretty harsh. I'll remember that about the longer lens, the only other lens I have at the moment is the 75-300mm, but will give that a go and see how I go Thanks so much!

[Kym]

70-100mm is usual for portrait work.

[maccaroneski]

Here's one that I took last weekend that i really liked.

I have skipped a few challenges ahead, however had done the basics on my own over the last few weeks so won't bore you with those details



f5.6, 1/125, ISO 125 (was on auto ISO....)

[AndreaB]

I took this last week of a friends little boy. I tried editing gout all the food and dirt on him, but it just distorted the image, so i have left most of it, and it is just part of him.

[ricktas]

Hi andrea.

Looks like you caught him on the move. There is some motion blur evident in this photo, especially across his t-shirt. However, that is not a bad thing as kids are often always on the go, and the motion blur shows a true representation of that. But, here is a question, do you know what settings to do, to counter motion blur?

I also find the background here a bit distracting and I reckon if you could find a section of the yard with just shrubs or a fairly plain fence etc, and kept your subject a decent distance from that background, you would be on a winner.

I love the dirty face. Kids are supposed to have dirty faces and happy grins, so you have captured a great and natural moment here.

[AndreaB]

Thanks, Ummm to avoid the blur I would need to up the speed of my shutter I assume? It was a snapshot more then a posed picture, I was actually taking a pic of hom walking by, and he turned and smiled at me which was much better. Thanks for the input.

[ricktas]

Yep Andrea, you would need to increase the shutter speed, but just doing that alone will mean less light hitting the sensor and your photo would be quite dark, so you would need also to either use a larger aperture (smaller f number) or increase the ISO, to ensure a correct exposure.

[nature]

Here's a random of one of my boys!

[ricktas]

Nice depth of field there nature and well focused on your young fella. There is just way to much background stuff. It makes as look away from your son and see what is in the room. Always consider what else is visible in the viewfinder as well as your subject and try to get rid of all the distracting elements.

[nature]

Thanks Rick,

Is there any way to make the background blurrier if you're already at the lowest aperture? This one was f/4.5. I do need to start planning some photos I think instead of just snapping away.

Cheers.

[bigdazzler]

Thanks Rick,

Is there any way to make the background blurrier if you're already at the lowest aperture? .

Longer focal length will help you achieve this too Andrea ... as long you as you have the room to use it.

[MYQ73]

Here's an attempt with my youngest daughter ... was also looking for an excuse to try out my new flash

[ricktas]

In camera, the further your subject is from the background objects the blurrier they will be. So for example if you took photos of your son outside in front of some shrubbery using f4.5 again, If he was 1 metre away from the bush, it would probably not be very blurry at all, but if he was 5 metres from it, it would be a lot more blurred.

You can increase the blurriness in post processing in your editing software but this has to be done well or it will look 'edited'.

[nature]

Most of my practicing with the camera has been either indoors in our small house or outside in our small backyard, so I'm having the same trouble with most of my photos being too in focus and not getting that blurry effect. I'm still learning heaps and at the moment all are for our own photo albums anyway.

Thanks for your help.

[ricktas]

She smiles with her eyes and you have captured that well. There appears to be a distinct colour cast on this photo giving it a slight yellowing, which is evident in her hair and under her chin on the right. Did you shoot Raw or JPG? If Raw a white balance adjustment on the Raw file could really help here. I also think the crop is a little tight and would have liked to see more of her hair etc

[MYQ73]

Thanks for your comments

She smiles with her eyes and you have captured that well. There appears to be a distinct colour cast on this photo giving it a slight yellowing, which is evident in her hair and under her chin on the right. Did you shoot Raw or JPG? If Raw a white balance adjustment on the Raw file could really help here.

Yes it was shot in Raw with AWB, I'll try white balance adjustment.

I also think the crop is a little tight and would have liked to see more of her hair etc

The reason for the tight crop here was that I was trying to imitate a 'pro' shot of my eldest daughter when she was this age so that 1) I could compare my shot and 2) I could prove to everyone I have identical twin daughters that were born two years apart