Many people now own digital cameras and if there is one thing they love doing it is taking pictures of family and friends. And it is here that things start to go awry because the typical amateur snapper does not know the basics of portrait photography.
Armed with a camera, most people take pictures that are too close, or too far way from their subject. Heads go missing and the whole thing is out of focus. If you want to avoid these photographic disasters the best thing to do is to learn the basics of portrait photography.
If you want to take a portrait picture of someone, it is quite easy to ensure that the whole head appears in the photograph. Ensure that everything you want to shoot is centred on your digital cameras LCD screen. Everything that appears on that screen will appear in your portrait photograph.
Unless you are trying to take a professional style close up portrait don’t worry about the background. In fact you should use the background to produce a really interesting shot. Now, I’m sure the person whose portrait you are taking is very interesting in their own right, but by allowing the background to add context to the shot the photograph will be enhanced and will really tell a tale about that person and their environment.
Don’t worry about ‘posing’ your portraits as off the cuff or spur of the moment photographs can be the best. Of course, if it doesn’t work out and you find the subject had already wandered out of shot when you pressed the shutter button then don’t worry. Just delete the picture and move on.
As well as trying to give the picture an air of spontaneity you should also try and fill the frame with something that will add to the quality of the portrait.
A good basic to of portrait photography to learn is lighting. If your pictures are being taken outside in natural light, lighting may not be a problem. But indoors the correct lighting is crucial.
If there is natural light coming through a window it can be used to disseminate the shot by adding some nice gentle shadows. Be careful though, if the light is too bright the shadows will too strong though, if the portrait is a posed one, you could use white card to reflect the shadows.
A very important thing to consider when taking a portrait photograph is to focus on the eyes. The eyes are supposed to be the window to the soul and they can tell an awful lot about your subject.
Insight Photographers are specialist Hull wedding photographers and portrait photographers Insight are based in HUll, East Yorkshire and provide a full range of services including weddings, headshots, portraits and commercial photography
Recent Comments