Friday, February 28, 2020

6 Tips for Photographing People When Travelling

Photographing people you don’t know can be a daunting experience. A lot of people are not comfortable with approaching people and asking their permission. But if you can conquer your fear, you could be rewarded with some truly wonderful photographs from your trip.
So here are some tips for photographing people when you travel, to help get you started:
Photographing People-Kav Dadfar-Venetian

 1. When possible always ask permission

This is often the biggest hurdle you may encounter, after all approaching total strangers isn’t an easy thing to do. Therefore, you might end up trying to take a quick photo without your subject noticing which could annoy them, not to mention you might not catch the best angle or light. Here are some tips on how you could ask for permission to photograph them:
  • Simply smiling and pointing to your camera normally does the trick – even if the person you want to photograph doesn’t speak your language
  • If you are purchasing something from them, it is one of the best times to photograph people, as they would usually be amicable towards you
  • If you are able to, talk to them first and ask them about what they do, about their town or city and even tell them about yourself. It’s incredible how much more receptive people are when you put the effort in
  • A guide or a translator can be really useful in asking people if you could take their photo and also advising if there are places that you shouldn’t
  • Any time you are going to be photographing children you should ask permission from the parents
  • In popular tourists destinations it is common for the person your are photographing to want money for taking a picture. The decision is yours if you want to pay for a photo, but under no circumstances should you try to sneak a photo. If you are willing to pay, negotiate the price before you take the picture and also state how many photos you are going to take.
  • Don’t be offended if they refuse. There are plenty of other opportunities and people who wouldn’t mind having their photograph taken
Photographing People-Kav Dadfar-UAE Man
I spent around 10 minutes talking to this local before asking if I could take his picture.

 2. Be ready

Whether you are the shy type or not, being ready before you approach someone for a photo can be a really good habit to get into. Think about the lens you are going to use. Are you likely to need to raise your ISO? Will you require a fill-in flash? And make sure your camera is on and the lens cap is off. This is especially important if you want to photograph people who are going to be busy. For example a market vendor isn’t going to have too long to wait for you to take the shot before seeing to customers.
Photographing People-Kav Dadfar-Vietnamese
An example of a portrait

3. Portraits or environmental portraits?

There is no right answer here and it really depends on your style and preference. A straight forward portrait would usually isolate your subject in the frame and capture the details of their face. Obviously you can fill the frame if you wish or you can stand further back and capture more of the person’s figure and clothes. Environmental portraits add context to the person by showing more of their surrounding and allowing the viewer to learn more about them. Naturally for environmental portraits you would need a wider lens (e.g. 24mm – 35mm) so that you can get close and still be able to capture the environment.
Photographing People-Kav Dadfar-Turkish Street Vendor
An example of an environmental portrait

4. Don’t be afraid to direct your model

Once you’ve got someone’s permission don’t be afraid to direct them as to where, and how, you want them to stand, or look. Most people find it uncomfortable posing, so you as the photographer need to direct them and make them feel at ease. Will the photo look more engaging if your subject was smoking? Would they look better with the cap or without it? Is the background too busy? If they are nervous make them laugh to make them more comfortable.
Photographing People-Kav Dadfar-Smoking Man
I asked this farmer to smoke his cigarette as it adds to the mood of the image
Photographing People-Kav Dadfar-Vietnamese Woman Laughing
This woman was very nervous so all of the photos looked very staged and not natural, until my guide said something to make her laugh.

5. Look out for overcast days

Photographing People-Kav Dadfar-London Busker
Overcast conditions are perfect for portraits
Often a travel photographer’s worst enemy, overcast days are actually the best time to take portraits. The natural and soft light will mean your subject would be evenly lit without harsh shadows on their face. So the next time you encounter an overcast day on your travels, look out for interesting people to photograph.

6. Practice

The great thing about photographing people is that you can practice it pretty easily. Wherever you live you can head out and find people to photograph. If you need to practice your technical elements (i.e. shutter speeds, lighting etc) get your friends or family to model for you until it becomes second nature.
The ideal focal range for portraits is 80mm – 100mm (which is why sometimes these lenses are called portrait lenses), but that’s not to say you can’t take portraits with other lenses  [Note: this is in relation to a full frame camera – on a cropped sensor 50mm – 75mm is roughly the same range] . And if you use a wide aperture (f/2 – f/5.6) you can blur the background so that the focus is on your subject. Remember for environmental portraits you will need a wide angle lens (24mm – 35mm). [Note: 16mm – 24mm on crop sensor cameras]
For further reading on photographing people try these articles:
Okay, let’s see your people photos!

4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session

Sooner or later, almost everyone has to sit alone in front of a camera for a grad portrait or professional headshot. It is almost always an uncomfortable experience for portrait clients. But it’s easy to forget this as photographers.
When I great people for their portraits they often confess things like, “I’m terrible with photos,” “I feel sick,” or “I hate my face.”
Perhaps because I’m so empathetic, I’ve developed a knack for making the most nervous and hopeless people shockingly excited about their photos.
In this article, I’ll show you how I do it so that you can make even your most uncomfortable portrait clients happy with their experience.
Black and white head shots - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session
I am personally drawn to black and white portraits.

1. Simple Light Setup

Since everyday life already throws you a heavy load of distractions and difficulties, I always encourage photographers to keep their projects as simple (but meaningful) as possible.
No matter how you choose to light your portrait subject, I recommend you do it as simply as possible. The point is to put all your focus on the person you’re photographing, not on equipment.
I either use natural light (a window and a reflector), or a one light setup inspired by Zack Arias.

Window Light

The benefit to natural light is that there are no flashes of light or large umbrellas to make the person feel as though they are at a high-pressure professional photo session. Your subject’s imagination is filled with the photo shoots they’ve seen on TV and you should relieve that pressure for them.
Natural light studio setup - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session
This is my natural light setup.
Window light portrait - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session
This is a portrait taken with that window light studio setup.
Using natural light and a silent shutter with a mirrorless camera allows the photography part to be as invisible as possible.

One Speedlight

My one light setup includes a speedlight with a 60-inch umbrella and a reflector.
One Light Setup - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session
This is my one light setup. It’s one speedlight with a 60-inch umbrella.
One light portrait - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session
This photo was taken with that one light setup.
Once set up, you should forget about your gear (the window, speedlight, and the camera) and focus 100% on your subject.

2. How to Focus

This isn’t about your camera, but focusing on your subject in order to make the best portraits possible.
If you are at all self-conscious as a photographer, it is absolutely critical that you do not focus on yourself.
Perhaps you’re nervous because of a lack of confidence, or because you’re worried they’ll hate their photos. Forget all that and just focus on your subject.

Small talk

“A portrait is not made in the camera but on either side of it.” — Edward Steichen
Female head shot - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session
You can use small talk to distract the subject from their own nervousness and self-consciousness in 
front of the camera. Talk about their business, their kids, or the last trip they went on. Anything that 
will distract them from being camera shy.

Warm up

Feel free to warm up with some “test shots,” even if you don’t really need them. Have your subject sit in front of the camera for a few shots where you’re doing nothing but “testing the light.”
Direct them a little bit, but nothing too serious. I sometimes transition into the real photos by saying something funny like, “Okay the light is perfect, now let me see a cheesy smile.” It can often lead to some laughter and the first candid photo.
Female headshot, laughing - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session
Candid portraits are the most joyful part of a portrait session for me. You don’t have to be a comedian 
to make people laugh. Just connect over something in your life and laughter will eventually flow.
Male headshot with suit. 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session
I’ll often try to match the expression with the clothes my subject is wearing. I think a softer 
expression is more suitable for formal wear. But I’ll try everything at the moment and decide 
what looks best later.

Candid portraits

“There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment.” — Robert Frank
Yes, even a professional headshot session should include some informal candid photos. Candids are real, and even if you’re after a posed photo, candids are the path to discovering who they are when their guard is down.
Female headshot laughing - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session
When people can laugh together there begins to be a comfortable connection.
Female headshot - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session
We often laugh because of the tension created by a joke. But even real-life discomfort or tension 
can lead to the eventual release through laughter.

3. Finding Soul

“Look and think before opening the shutter. The heart and mind are the true lens of the camera.” — Yousuf Karsh
I don’t care whether I’m photographing real estate agents, future lawyers, high school grads, or “mompreneurs.” I treat everybody like an executive, valedictorian, or royalty during their portrait session.
We’re all much deeper than our occupation, even though it may be a deep expression of who we are. Fill your sessions with lightheartedness and true human connection. When you look through your photos later, you should be able to see the moment that your subject finally became relaxed.
Once relaxed, you’ll find the “real” person that was trapped below the surface of fake smiles and self-consciousness.
It may take you 10 minutes or more to get there, but it is the point in the session that you can move through your creative vision with your subject. You can show them how to squinch (Peter Hurley’s famous technique with the eyes), strike more advanced poses, or move in for close-ups.
Female headshot - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session
Once I know I have made the portrait that the subject needs, I move on and try other things. I love 
this very soft expression and the way that her hair creates a frame around her. This won’t likely 
appear on her business card, but I think it’s a wonderful portrait.

4. Completely Candid

“It’s one thing to make a picture of what a person looks like, it’s another thing to make a portrait of who they are.” — Paul Caponigro
Being inspired by photojournalism and the idea of capturing truly raw, candid, spontaneous photos, I decided to try a portrait session with no posing. All there would be was conversation and pictures.
Here are some of the results, which I love.
Close up female headshot - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session
This photo is all about the eyes, and whatever is going through her mind makes me want to laugh!
Female soft light headshot - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session
A completely candid photo portrait session means taking a lot of photos. Some of them looked 
posed, but it was a matter of quickly noticing something that looked right and capturing it before 
the moment passed.
Window light headshot - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session
I used a window as a natural light source. There were moments of silence during our conversation 
when she just looked out the window. Those were wonderful chances.
Portrait of a mother and her son - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session
Leave room for surprises in your portrait sessions. You may find yourself thinking, “Did this client 
dare to bring their kids to a portrait session?” True, they’ll tear your studio to pieces and distract her 
from her professional portrait session. But along with a little chaos comes life and surprisingly human 
moments. In the middle of it all, her son came up to be nursed. Maybe this is what Robert Frank meant 
about the “humanity of the moment.”
Mother hugging son portrait - 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session
The portrait session was supposed to have been for her. But who she is on her own isn’t who she is 
completely. We’re all much deeper than ourselves and are who we are partly because of the people 
around us.
Portrait of a mom nursing her baby. 4 Tips for Helping People Feel Comfortable During Their Portrait Session
Perhaps you know your subject has reached their maximum level of comfort when they can nurse 
their baby even while the camera is still clicking. I’m thrilled to photograph people one on one and 
make portraits that they’ll use as authors or business people. But I’m even more thrilled when those 
portraits become intensely human moments.

 Get Comfy

The next time you greet a nervous portrait client, remember that the experience has been hyped up in their mind. Distract them from their discomfort with small talk, warm them up with “no pressure” test photos, and make laughter a part of your session.
Include the candid photos when you deliver their photos. Even if they don’t use them for business purposes, they may be the photos they (and you) love most.
I’d love to hear what else you do to help people get comfortable in front of your camera. Let me know in the comments below.

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Thursday, February 27, 2020



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15 Tips for More Powerful Portraits

15 tips every portrait photographer must know for making more powerful portraits!
Powerful portrait tips 01

Here are 15 tips on getting powerful portraits

1. Have respect

This is my number one rule. It doesn’t matter if I am photographing a poor boy in Laos or the CEO of a large company in New York-I always respect the people I photograph. I live by the motto: “you should never get close to people in order to take their photo; you should take their photo in order to get closer to them”. Act as if your camera is a bridge and not a weapon. I have friends who are amazing street photographers, who manage to work with such discretion that they can get the portrait without the person realizing he was photographed. Certainly, there are some exceptions, but I believe that people are not zebras and we are not hunters. To summarize the point, I photograph old people in same manner I would like someone to take pictures of my grandmother.
Powerful portrait tips 04

2. Ask yourself – Do I understand what a portrait is?

“A Portrait is painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person […] the intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person” (from Wikipedia)
While this is a very basic definition of the concept, it can help us to understand the true nature of good portrait photography. A portrait must tell a story. What kind of story? A story about the person in the image. How can you tell a story of a person in one image? You can’t! You can never capture the whole story, because human beings are too complex. You can either choose to focus on a specific emotion expressed by the subject or by yourself. I call the first method “highlighting”, in which you zero in on a specific story, at a specific time.
Powerful portrait tips 02
For example: when I took the photo of the Japanese girl (above) I was trying to highlight this specific moment, when she held her mother’s hand, when she has not yet decided – whether to leave or hold on tight. Sometimes the best stories don’t reveal the whole story at once. Like in this image from China (below). Do you think this girl is waiting for someone who should be coming soon, or is she watching someone leave?
Powerful portrait tips 03
The second method, in which you imprint your on feeling onto the story, can start with answering the following question: How did you feel when you met this person? Because a good image is told by two people – the one in the image, and the one behind the camera.

3. Look for emotion

Someone’s exotic face from some remote tribe is nice to look at, but for it to be a true visual storytelling portrait, this face must evoke emotion. Steve McCurry called this the “unguarded moment”, the essential soul peeking out. It can be happiness, fear or excitement. Emotion is the best way to create a bond between the image and your viewers.
The best way to “catch” emotion on your camera’s sensor is by choosing the right moment to click the shutter. Be on the lookout for a specific powerful moment that can evoke the story on the person’s face.
Powerful portrait tips 05b

4. Start with your comfort zone

Going out to the streets to shoot portraits of strangers is not an easy task to start with. The best way to hone your craft is by starting with a person you already know. By skipping the need to “break the ice”, it will be easier for you to think about other important elements in your portrait, such as: the light, composition, posing and color. You don’t have to travel far for an interesting face; you can start with friends and family.
Powerful portrait tips 11b

5. Get out from your comfort zone

A day without learning something new is a wasted one. One of the most important things to note when dealing with portrait photography is that usually, the problem is with ourselves. “I do not want to hurt or offend”, and “I do not want to invade someone’s privacy” are all excuses which we tell ourselves on why we photograph people with a telephoto lens from a distance. So, if you truly want to take your portrait photography to the next level and be able to evoke emotion in your work, you must, as my mother says: “fake it till you makes it”. It is not as complicated as it seems in your head. Get out to the streets, find an interesting person and just go for it by saying: “Hello, I am a photography enthusiastic and I would like to take your photo…I would love to send you a copy as well”. You might be surprised with the results. By using this technique, the worst thing that can happen is that you will get a refusal and then just move on to the next person.
Powerful portrait tips 08

6. Choose the right focal length

“What is the best lens for portraits?” is a very common question among my students, and the answer is simple – there is no one best lens for portrait photography. You should adjust the focal length to your working style. When considering your next lens, you should take into account the following elements:
  • The distance from which you usually like to photograph people
  • The weight you are willing to carry around
  • What is the maximum aperture for low light photography and for shallow depth of field?
  • And of course, price
For me, most of my portraits are done with an 85mm or 24-70mm lens.

7. Choose the wrong focal length

Try this creative exercise. Go outside and take a portrait with a lens you are not used to working with. If you always work with a telephoto lens, try using a wide angle one. If you prefer to get close to your subject, take a step back and wait for the decisive moment. A good photographer is a flexible one.
Powerful portrait tips 10b

8. Study the great masters of portrait photography

Whenever I need inspiration, I turn to the portfolios of this great photography masters:
  • Dorothea Lange – one of the first photographers of Social realism
  • Steve McCurry – probably the best color portrait maker in history
  • Richard Avedon – unique fashion and portrait photography
  • Sebastião Salgado- outstanding B&W documentary portraits
  • Annie Leibovitz- Editorial portraits
(Please add your own in the comments section)
Powerful portrait tips 19c

9. Experience variable depth of field

We all love portraits with that sweet low depth of field, which makes everything blurry in the background. In portraits, shallow depth of field is usually good because it leads the viewer’s eyes directly to the subject by making it sharper than the rest of the image. YET, please note that there is such a thing as a too shallow depth of field. In this case, the sharpness by the AutoFocus may be on the eyebrows or eyelashes instead of the eyes. Practice in order to understand the elements that affect the depth of field: the distance to the subject, focal length and aperture.
Powerful portrait tips 13

10. Leave the flash behind

The more gear you have with you, the less available you are to give attention to the person you are photographing. If we are dealing with studio photography, then the person knows what to expect. There is no need take your flash to India or China when there is so much beautiful available light. Craft your skill while working with natural light only BEFORE jumping to the next step of using reflectors, flashes or any other extra gear.
Powerful portrait tips 14

11. Don’t follow the crowd

Try this little exercise: type “woman with cigar in Cuba” into Google and see what happens. The same woman appears in almost all the images right? Those are images of many different photographers. I do not mean to hurt anyone, but how come with 3 million people visiting the country each year and with a population of 5,612,165 women, the same woman comes up in almost every image? Here’s a tip for you, before heading somewhere, anywhere, near or far, you should understand the place, culture and the “story” of the person in front of you. By doing your homework you will not fall into the trap of the “fake authenticity”
Powerful portrait tips 15

12. Think about the background

Many elements are required to create an interesting portrait: light, composition, angle, etc.., but one element is so important that I sometimes give it my pure attention: the background. You can think of the background in two levels. First, as an aesthetic element. Make sure there are no distracting elements, such as bright colors or moving objects in the background. Secondly, another level of using the background, is as an element to bring your story to life.
Powerful portrait tips 16

13. Keep it fun

If you are dealing with subjects who are not paid models, you should give something back as well as taking the photo. I do not want to discuss paying the person (maybe in another post) but you should make it easy and fun for your subject: telling a joke, showing the image on the back of the camera and making sure they are not in the sun are good points to start with.
Powerful portrait tips 17

14. Always ask for the person’s name

It doesn’t matter if you do travel portraits of strangers or work as a wedding photographer; always ask for the person’s name and if promised, send the photo. Don’t make excuses about the language barrier. If I don’t work with a fixer (a local man or woman, who can help with the translation) I will always have a phrasebook or try to use drawings and images that can help me to communicate.

15. Add depth to your images by the a 45 degrees light

Think carefully about the direction of light. By placing the subject at an angle of 45 degrees from the light source, you can create a wonderful effect of volume. As I made this picture (below), which was taken at a grocery store Georgia, using only natural light by a window on the right.
Powerful portrait tips 18
And one more…
ENJOY
It does not matter if you’re photographing people as a hobby or to pay your rent. Teach yourself to enjoy to process and not just the outcome (the finale image). Enjoy getting closer, getting to know each other and overcoming cultural barriers. If you do what you do with passion, your viewers will see it right away.


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How to Create Compelling Wide-Angle Portraits Using One Off-Camera Flash

What are your most memorable moments as a photographer? As a travel photographer, my short list of stand-out moments include wandering alone in Namibia’s dead tree forest, photographing sunbeams from the top of a cliff in China, and capturing the Aurora Borealis on the coast of Iceland.
1 Colombian Girl
However, a year ago all of those amazing locations and moments were trumped by spending 30 minutes photographing a little girl outside her home near Villa de Leyva, Colombia (pictured above). This was the first time the girl had her portrait taken, let alone by a foreigner. With all the confidence of an experienced model, she literally stole the show that day. I believe the session is an important memory for her and instantly became my top moment photographing to date.
Ironically, two years ago I would not have even bothered taking this picture. I was focused on landscape and outdoor travel scenes. Also, if I’m honest with myself, I was somewhat intimidated by using artificial lighting and working with people as subjects. In April of 2014, I gave environmental portraiture a shot and have never looked back. It is now an important focus of my work.
This article will provide some guidance on how you can create images like the ones you see here, using a wide-angle lens and just one off-camera flash. But first, let me let you in on a little secret – it’s not that difficult.
Getting things right in camera is the important first step, which is the focus of this article. Processing your images is equally important, but I’ll cover that in a future article. So, let me start by providing you with the core techniques, then get into equipment and settings.
2 Smoking Guy

Use a (Relatively) Wide-Angle Lens

Lens choice is critically important in portraiture. Most portrait photographers reach for their 85mm or 105mm lens when heading out on a shoot. These focal lengths give a nice, realistic look to the subjects. However, I find myself drawn to portraits that have a surreal look to them, and include extra context that helps tell a story. Also, wide-angle lenses require you to shoot close to your subject, which also brings your viewer into the scene.
So, the first step is to leave your 85mm or 105mm in the bag, and grab a wide-angle lens. Most of the portraits you see here were created at 24mm using a full frame camera (use a 16mm for the same view if your camera has a cropped sensor). For me, this focal length is the perfect blend of reality and distortion. If you shoot much wider, elements closer to the lens, such as arms and hands, look too big or elongated. Also, wider focal lengths mean a much bigger background, which is usually not desirable.
3 Dockworker Ships

Choose a Compelling Subject

Your subject is paramount. The Indonesian dockworker above is amazing. I spent 20 minutes photographing this guy and really had a difficult time choosing the best image. On the other hand, you could spend all day photographing me on the same dock, in front of the same ships, and have nothing but tossers at the end of the day.
I look for people that have experienced life. The ideal subject has a particular interesting quality about him or her, that makes them stand out from the rest. However, my subjects also have an everyday person quality about them. Finding subjects can be challenging, especially if you live in the suburbs of Chicago, like I do. I am a travel photographer and usually find my subjects in rural areas overseas. However, there are great subjects everywhere.
Clothing is critically important. If your 90-year old rural villager is wearing a hat that says, “I Love New York”, then you will want to politely ask him to take it off, or at least turn it around for the picture. The point is, don’t let out-of-context clothing ruin or weaken your shot.
4 Smiley Guy

Choose a Complementary Background

Your image is only as strong as the weakest part of it, which is often the background. This is because, as photographer Jim Zuckerman puts it, “The world is a compositional mess”. There are two important qualities you want out of your background:
First, at the very least, your background must be non-distracting. Although you can easily isolate your subject with a longer focal length, the background becomes a major consideration with wide-angle portraits. Beginner, and even intermediate photographers, can overlook even some obvious distractions in the background. You have probably seen them before: trees that look like they are growing out of the subject’s head, patchy spots of bright light in the scene, colorful objects, straight lines and geometric shapes. You essentially don’t want anything that competes with your subject for attention.
The image of the Indonesian dockworker below is non-distracting, but not much more. He is essentially standing in front of a shipping container, so this image won’t win any awards for its background. Nevertheless, it is still a good picture because of the strength of the subject.
5 Dockworker Container
Second, whenever possible, include a background that complements your subject by providing a context. I’ve shot many images with simple non-distracting backgrounds. But, my favorite pictures are those with a background that tells a story about the subject. This is why I love shooting in places like rural China and Indonesia. These countries have many ancient villages that provide opportunities for amazing backgrounds, such as in the image below.
6 Chinese Guy Hat
I like to keep all evidence of modernity out of the background. I don’t like plastic stuff in my pictures. I don’t include modern looking buildings or cars. Instead, I prefer rural areas with weather-beaten buildings. Of course, this all depends on what you are after. The important thing is that the background complements the subject and does not distract from it.

Shoot in the Right Lighting Conditions

Because the majority of the background is not lit by the flash, many of the same outdoor photography lighting principles hold true, even if a flash is being used. Try shooting either early or late in the day (when the sun is low in the sky) or in overcast conditions. I actually prefer overcast conditions, but still shoot relatively early or late in the day.

Put Your Subjects at Ease

I don’t hire models, so some subjects work well and others not as well. What you want to avoid is a picture of your subject standing flat-footed, straight up and down, and holding a fake smile.
To help avoid this, it is a good idea to start your session by gaining their interest and confidence. If you have some images you’ve shot and processed, show them to give him or her an idea of what you are looking for, and hopefully pique their interest. This should communicate immediately that you are not looking for them to just stand there and smile. It should also show that the posing expectations will be basic.
7 Colombian Lady Cat

Posing and Composition

Because I am shooting wide, I get quite close to my subjects and warn them ahead of time about this. For me, the eyes are a critically important part of the picture and must be very sharp. I focus on the closest eye, and re-focus frequently as I move around the subject slightly.
I generally ask him or her to look directly at the camera and not to smile, although not always. I then start moving slightly left or right, asking them to keep their head still and just follow the camera with their eyes. I usually shoot from slightly below eye level. I have them stand or sit at an angle to the camera. If the subject is standing, I have them put their weight on the back foot.
I like to include the subject’s hands in the composition. With a wide-angle lens, their hands in the foreground will look large, so try to strike a balance with the hands being prominent, but not too large. You can do this by simply positioning the hands closer to or farther away from the lens relative to their body.
8 Chinese Girl Laughing

Equipment and Settings

The Camera

Your camera should be equipped with an internal or external flash trigger to control your off-camera flash. Here is how I set things up:
  • Start by leaving your flash or trigger initially turned off.
  • Set your camera to manual mode.
  • If the session is outdoors, I try for settings of ISO 100, f/7.1 and a shutter speed of around 1/160. You can adjust your f-stop and shutter speed to your preference, but keep in mind that you cannot go faster than your camera’s maximum flash sync speed.
  • Make the necessary adjustments to slightly underexpose the background by 1/3 to 2/3 stop. I usually start by adjusting shutter speed, but go no slower than 1/60 and no faster than 1/160. If necessary, I will then adjust my f-stop to f/5.6 at the widest. Then, and only then, will I start bumping up the ISO.
  • If you are indoors, you need to start with a higher ISO as a first step, and then make your adjustments to shutter speed and f-stop in the same manner.
9 Chinese Woman

Lighting

For 90% of my portraits, I use a single off-camera flash, diffused with an umbrella or softbox. The most important rule with flash is “don’t ruin your shot,” which is usually done by putting too much flash on your subject. Instead, you want to get a decent balance of natural and artificial light, so that the flash is undetectable to the untrained eye, but lights your subject brighter than the underexposed background.
Now, turn your flash and trigger on:
  • Set your off-camera flash to manual mode.
  • I typically position the flash at a 45-degree angle to the subject, about 2-3 feet (slightly less than a meter) away, higher than their head, angled downward.
  • I usually start with 1/16 flash power when outdoors, and adjust from there until the subject stands out from the background, but does not look like they have been blasted with flash.

Post-Processing

You need to get things right in camera first. But, you will need to use a variety of post-processing techniques to get the effect you see in these images. I’ll coverthe techniques I use to process environmental portraits in a future article.
Thank you for reading, please share your wide-angle portraits and questions in the comments below.

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Wednesday, February 26, 2020



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