Beginner Portraits

[KWM]

Dears,
I have attempted to take portrait of my son. I think the light is not enough. I don't have any external flash etc, just camera. Suggestions are welcome to improve composition and lighting conditions.

18mm/ f3.5/ ISO 4000


26mm/ f4/ ISO 4000

[Steaphany]

Try a white or silver reflector to reflect ambient light into the shadows to add a fill

You can buy something like these Collapsible Reflectors or just use a white card of sufficient size

[Shadowman]

Nice efforts, just be careful of foliage sprouting from your child's head, a compositional no no; unless used for humor.

[Manfred M]

Welcome to CiC Tayyeb.

Portraiture is a fascinating subject and one of my favourite aspects of photography. It's nice to see that you have a willing subject. I don't know what camera you are using, but given the 18mm focal length, I would guess that you are using one with a crop-frame (APS-C) sized sensor. If you could please confirm this, as some of the comments I am going to make depend on this.

Let me throw two or three hints your way:

1. Wide angle focal lengths do cause some distortion by accentuating parts of the body that are closest to the camera. Longer focal lengths do not exhibit this behaviour; so portraits like the one where the image is a head and chest shot in the camera orientation you have used, a 55mm focal length (or longer) tends to be used.

2. A portrait is about the person or persons being photographed. The background should complement the image and not distract. In your second image, had you not written that this is a portrait, I would have assumed the picture is really all about the structure, rather than your son.

3. The camera can be held the way you did in the first image and this is usually referred to horizontal or landscape orientation. If you rotate the camera 90 degrees and take a picture in that orientation, it is referred to as vertical or portrait orientation. Your first image might be more suitable in that orientation.

[KWM]

Thanks a lot for the comments and suggestions. I am using a Nikon D5200 with kit lens.

So for portraits I should hold the camera in portrait mode?
You are right about the second pic as I have captured the structure more than the portrait structure. I am new so hopefully wont make such mistakes in the future.
I have read a lot about blurring the background. My question is with the kit lense (18-55 mm) would i get a better blur with 18 mm or 55 mm and getting as close as possible to the subject?

[Dave Humphries]

I have read a lot about blurring the background. My question is with the kit lense (18-55 mm) would i get a better blur with 18 mm or 55 mm and getting as close as possible to the subject?

Keeping it simple, 55mm.

However, using that you will need to shoot from a bit further away, which is good to avoid the distortion of body parts Manfred mentioned. Just be sure to keep your son away from things behind him - do not stand him against a blank wall to take a shot, ask him to stand half way between you and the wall, this will help ensure the wall is not too sharp.

Welcome to the CiC forums Tayyeb.

Cheers, Dave

[rpcrowe]

Vertical (portrait) or Horizontal (landscape) format is (IMO) dependent on the type of portrait that you are shooting.

I hold my camera in the vertical configuration when I am shooting images that are designed to be portraits of the SUBJECT, not of the environment surrounding the subject. These are quite often head and shoulders portraits and are often shot at the long end of the lens focal range (55mm for most kit lenses). This is because I will want to show my subject without a lot of distracting clutter around the subject. I will also, most often, shoot at the widest aperture possible, since I want the subject in focus and the background out of focus. This is to isolate the subject from the surroundings and background. This type of portrait is often a head and shoulders shot. Using the longer focal length and shooting from a slightly longer distance will keep the subject in perspective without the closest body parts looking abnormally large. This was shot at 169mm @f/4

The subject can also be isolated with lighting.

When I want to show my subject in the context of his/her surroundings, I will often hold my camera in the horizontal (Landscape) mode. I will often use a shorter focal length that in the above style and will also often use a smaller f/stop so that I have more of the environment surrounding the subject in focus. In fact, this type of portrait is often called an "environmental portrait". As with this stall operator in the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul. This was shot at 42mm @ f/45 so everythng from the nuts in the foreground to the nuts and fruit in the background would be in focus...


I am quite sensitive to color balance in portraits when the image leans towards the green or blue. I shoot in RAW so that I can easily adjust the color balance to something more pleasing. IMO warmer colors are more pleasing for portraits of people. I will also often include a color balance target in one of my shots so that I can get a close approximation of the correct color balance using the color balance eyedropper tool in Adobe Camera RAW...

I used Google NIK Software to adjust the color of your son's face a bit. I don't know what his complexion looks like so I couldn't be very accurate. NIK is now free from Google and I used the Viveza Plug-In to adjust the color by decreasing the green and slightly increasing the red.