Starting taking Portrait Shots

[Manfred M]

Oh dear, now that I look at it again I can see that it’s not a good photo at all. It’s very hard to be objective about these things when your not only the photographer but the mom. It would have been improved cropping out the distracting painting but even then...

Catherine - this is an environmental portrait. Can it be improved? Certainly; I'd use a reflector on the camera right side and work on the pose and posture; but those are all things that are easy fixes. The couch, wall with picture and basket are all part of the setting where you took the picture, and there is nothing wrong with having those in the shot.

Good start. Now analyze what you like and dislike about it and try something else next time.

[William W]

As promised:



A few points for your consideration:

> often when choosing the square format for a Tight Head Shot, it is best to frame the face in the centre square (of the set of nine squares) - this typically works well for a tight head portrait of a man

> note the black Tee Shirt (bottom left) "leads in" to the frame arriving at the Face

> note that the basket is still in shot, arguably creating more of a three dimensional feel to the final image

> note if you had moved a tad to camera right, then the neck would not be as swiveled - (this is an important technicality, especially for Candid Portraiture: to understand that a very small relocation of the Camera Viewpoint will usually create a much larger body movement in the Subject's Pose)

> note the lighting is directional but a little soft (artistic comment) - the light can can be "hardened" by increasing the Mid Tone Contrast in Post Production - I think this does look a bit better for a portrait of a Young Bloke

> the image appears overall a tad soft - just a little bit of output sharpening added

> finally, wrap it in a frame, IMO makes it a bit more 'important'

Brava - nice Portrait!

WW

PS - choice of "the frame" - the white is to "set-up" the Portrait Image as a finished 'photograph; and the brown around that frame refers directly to the basket colour - i.e 'picking out' a tone in the image so there is a colour relationship from outside to inwards.

Obviously the above is a mixture of technical and artistic commentary - there are some elements of Photography which are mostly unarguable and "as stated" these are the technical bits - for example the comment about a small relocation in the Camera Viewpoint usually results in a relatively more severe change in the Subject's Pose; there are many technicalities and a lifetime is not enough to learn them all.

And there are the artistic elements - some are very small elements, but they might make a large impact to you (the Photographer) and/or to others (the Viewers) - for example you might not at all like the idea of the Frame - or you might like the idea, but you don't like the white bit - this is where discussion and opinion harvesting is very important.

The most important bit about opinion harvesting is to always seek out "the why?" - if someone does or doesn't like an aspect of your work find out WHY.

This last point is especially important when YOU don't like something about a picture that you have made . . . find out WHY you don't like that bit - this is often a difficult task, but if you work on it you will succeed more often than not and the result will be a wealth of learning for you.

WW

[rpcrowe]

I haven't viewed all of these. To be honest, I have only viewed one or two.

https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...ght+portraits+

[inkista]

Just me, but consider off-camera lighting with a speedlight, Strobist-style. You don't need a new camera to do this (although having one with a bigger sensor, RAW capability, and a flash hotshoe might make things a little easier). But I think your camera does have full manual mode, and that's what you really need.

My recommendation would be to consider a simple one-light Strobist setup with the following gear (price in US$):

• Godox TT600 ($65)
• A lightstand ($30-60)
• An umbrella swivel/adapter or bracket ($20-30) [so you can connect the flash and umbrella to the stand]
• A convertible umbrella (a white one with a black cover. Without the cover you can use it as a shoot-through, with the cover, you can use it as a reflective). ($25-30).

The Godox TT600 is a bare-bones manual-only speedlight. You will have to walk up to it to change its power settings. But it does have a built-in optical sensor and S1/S2 slave modes that can fire the flash remotely when the pop-up flash on your P900 fires. So you could do what the Strobist describes in this introduction to off-camera flash:

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2015/04...in-around.html

You can also bounce the flash from the stand if you don't want to bother with an umbrella in the beginning. Although you may want to flag it.

The TT600 also has a built-in radio trigger, should you eventually decide to take the light outside, where optical slaves don't work so well. But to fire it over radio, you'd need an X1T transmitter ($45) and a PC-connector optical slave ($10-$20), and you'd have to set the X1T's sync port to be input, and then connect the optical slave to it, and hold that combo up in front of your pop-up flash. But, you could set the power from the X1T.

The black/white background thing is often done with a gray background and lighting. See Zack Arias's white seamless tutorial on Youtube if you really want your head to spin with this lighting stuff...

[dem]

I was about to suggest a square crop, exactly the way Bill did it. The main reason for me would be to have more empty space in front of the subject to "look into" than behind him. This would also get rid of the sofa and the picture on the wall that are slightly distracting in the original shot. I am not a big fan of adding frames but most people seem to like them.

A big window facing North is a great soft light source. If you stand in one corner with your back to the window and your son is diagonally opposite to you, that's an easy way of getting good lighting. You will get slightly different looks depending on how far away from the window your son is and the direction he is looking.

I think the best advice for portaiture is to take loads and loads of pictures. A small change in camera position, movement of shoulders, neck, head tilt, change in facial expressions can make a big difference.

Just keep on trying!

[rpcrowe]

Another hint: Focus on the eyes, focus on the eyes and did I say FOCUS ON THE EYES

Many folks suggest the "nifty-fifty" (50mm f/1.8) for portraits but, I think that is too short (even with a crop camera) for head and shoulder portraits. I like at least 75mm focal length on a crop camera or somewhere around 100mmm or more on a full frame camera. I am not interested in shooting at f/1.4 or even f/1.8. I usually shoot at f/4 or smaller apertures...

Here is a shot of my wife that I did with my Canon 7D, using focal length 75mm, ISO 320 1/60 @ f/4 with on camera flash, modified with the Demb Flash Diffuser Pro.



BTW; THIS DOG ALWAYS LOOKS SAD

And, here are some portraits that I did with the 7D using a single flash plus Flash Diffuser Pro on a Stroboflash bracket...

176mm, ISO 160, 1/160 @ f/11



200mm, ISO 400, 1/60 @ f/4 this was shot outdoors under a tree in the evening. Backlight is from the setting sun...



189mm, ISO 200, 1/60 @ f/4



144mm, ISO 200, 1/400 @ f/5.6. Under a pier at the ocean late afternoon.



This time I used a small softbox on the flash with the Stroboframe bracket.



Using this bracket, my flash is always over the lens, even when I am in the vertical shooting position.



I like this for fill flash outdoors but, the Flash Diffuser Pro with the Flip-It portion tilted 45 degrees forward is also decent...

[xpatUSA]

Thank you Richard, those links are really helpful and it was kind of you to go to the trouble. I replied to your pm, at least I hope I did. My "sent items" box in "My Messages" says there is nothing in it but there is a green arrow pointing to the the left by your message. Hope that means that my message to you has been sent.

If I recall correctly, Cath, Messaging doesn't save sent items unless you tell it to. Sorry, I forget how that's done.

[Donald]

If I recall correctly, Cath, Messaging doesn't save sent items unless you tell it to. Sorry, I forget how that's done.

Go into your settings and find Sent Messages. Check the box that ask if you want messages that you send, saved.

[rpcrowe]

BTW: Cath, I got your message and I am looking for the lens I told you about. It is somewhere in my camera gear locker, I will have it by tomorrow at the latest. I am charging the battery for the 30D camera...

[CatherineA]

Thank you very much William, Donald, Ian, Peter, Manfred, Richard, Kathy, Dem and Ted!

William - Your points are really helpful and I appreciate all the time and thought that you put into this. I have read and re-read it because it helps to explain some things I was wondering about and other things that I hadn't even considered or noticed. You are very kind!

Donald - Thanks for commenting. And I also wanted to say that during the difficult weeks of the New Year I looked to writings and images that were strong and beautiful and I often looked at your work. I'm glad that you do your art.

Ian - Thanks for the encouragement - both for the photography and the recovery of my dear son. And thanks for doing that edit. Yes, I would like my images to be sharper and I am going to put effort into getting the eyes in better focus. Those beautiful eyes of my son motivates me to improve there. Sounds like it should be simple but it isn't for me, at least not yet. The tutorial on CIC was super. Now I need to practice with the camera....And Joe McNally's images are great fun. I love the energy in them.

Peter - Thanks! So true!

Manfred - Thanks! I plan to take photos everyday and maybe by next week I will have another - better - one to post. Hope so.

Kathy - Thank you so much! That was a lot of work that you went to and I appreciate it. The strobist blogspot looks great for its exercises - in fact all the links that you provided are great for my stage of photography. Sure helps me whittle down choices going forward - I was feeling a bit snowed under by all those choices.

Dem - Thanks for the tips!

Richard - Thanks for the helpful link to shooting with one light. And, yes, absolutely, getting the eyes in focus will improve my shots no end. It's my current aim. And thanks too for telling me what some of your preferences are when you shoot your wonderful portraits (but I have to say how surprised I am that you and your beautiful wife have such a sad dog ).

[William W]

I was about to suggest a square crop . . .
The main reason for me would be to have more empty space in front of the subject to "look into" than behind him. This would also get rid of the sofa and the picture on the wall that are slightly distracting in the original shot.

Exactly.

There are other reasons too for using a square crop in the Final Image. One more is when you've got an almost profile torso and front-on head, usually this always lends itself best to Square Crop for both Male and Female for the Tight Head Shot. . . on the other hand if the 'gaze' of the Subject is not front-on, then then this lends itself to a Landscape Rectangular Crop, for a Tight Head Shot -

e.g this example is a bit looser than THS, it is technically a "Bust Shot" but I think you should get the idea. The space into which the Subject is "looking" is termed the 'negative space' of the Image and it is usually about equal in area to the area the Subject maintains.


Candid Portrait, Available Light, EOS 5D, EF 85/1.8 @ F/1.8, probably about ISO1600

Actually it is coincidental and fortunate that this was the first example that I found: you should also notice that in my Image of the Woman, the Subject is lit from behind - i.e. the back side of her face is where the Key Light (the window light) is directed - you might like to try that, too.

For clarity, I am certainly not apposed to using Flash, Flash Modifiers and/or Available Light Reflectors and I encourage that you learn and practice all that. It is just that I have used so much Flash and Studio gear I like to more often than not capture Portraiture using only Available Light.

On that topic of using Flash, and/or Reflectors I would encourage you to keep it very simple at first, this is for the sake of minimal expense and also I find it the best way of learning in baby steps at first and my recommendations would be close to those articulated by Kathy Li (Post #24 )

WW
Image © AJ Group Pty Ltd Aust 1996~2018 WMW 1965~1996

[rpcrowe]

As Ian mentioned - try always to view the background for distracting elements. I'd like to add, also view the foreground and the sides of the image for distracting elements such as a portion of another person intruding.

I did a quick edit but. left a bit of the background in. I reduced the brightness of the basket in the expectation that this would reduce its impact on the image.



You can reduce a lot of background impact by using a wide aperture and a long focal length additionally being somewhat close to your subject and having the subject a distance from the background.



You can see in this image how the background becomes out of focus the further back from the dog. It separates the dog which is sharp from the background which is OOF. This was shot at f/5.6 which is certainly not a wide aperture but, it was shot with a focal length of 300mm on a 1.6x crop sensor camera which results in an equivalent 480mm.

[CatherineA]

“This was shot at f/5.6 which is certainly not a wide aperture but, it was shot with a focal length of 300mm on a 1.6x crop sensor camera which results in an equivalent 480mm.”

My camera says “ Equiv. 135” and it’s sensor size is 1/2.3”. I don’t think I have a variety of choices for aperture size.

[Manfred M]

Catherine - Are you a member of the Ottawa Public Library?

If you are, you get free access to Lynda.com and they have a number online courses that cover portraiture including some introductory stuff, as well as some more intermediate and advanced material.

[inkista]

Catherine - Are you a member of the Ottawa Public Library?

If you are, you get free access to Lynda.com and they have a number online courses that cover portraiture including some introductory stuff, as well as some more intermediate and advanced material.

David Hobby's "Lighting with Flash: The Basics" on Lynda.com is pretty much equivalent to his Lighting 101 course.

[Manfred M]

David Hobby's "Lighting with Flash: The Basics" on Lynda.com is pretty much equivalent to his Lighting 101 course.

As Catherine is using a bridge camera and has nothing other than the built in flash (if I remember correctly, the Nikon Coolpix P900) all the information on flash is not going to be a great deal of use to her if or when she gets one. There's a lot of portraiture work she can do with natural light.

[wilgk]

Sorry to be late to the party, but a most interesting thread.
Best wishes to you Catherine, I started a similar journey photographing my daughter, whom we warmly refer to as the ‘Fashionista’
I can say with 100% conviction that I learnt everything about Portrait photography right here at CinC.
I agree with Manfred today as well, plenty to be done with no extra gear, the first thing I did buy was a reflector, to direct the natural light.
Having said that, any extras sometimes require an extra pair of hands.
Getting out just you & a camera & your subject is a great way to practice.

My one tip of advice I received which holds true very time, is to get your subject away from the background if you can & have a neutral or even pattern background.
I started with a brick wall.

My very best wishes to you, as we keep learning together.

[William W]

. . . My camera says “ Equiv. 135” and it’s sensor size is 1/2.3”. I don’t think I have a variety of choices for aperture size.

The P900 has a Varying Maximum Aperture Zoom Lens. That means the Maximum Aperture attainable (the biggest sized hole) will vary depending upon what Focal Length is set. The Maximum Aperture range is F/2.8 to F/6.5

The Lens has a range of Focal Lengths from 4.3mm to 357mm, that is an equivalent Field of View to about 24mm to 2000mm for a 135 Format Camera (“135 Format” is the technical term for what is commonly called nowadays ‘a full frame camera’, for example a Nikon D800 or a Canon 5D Series)

The main practical relevance of ‘Varying Maximum Aperture Zoom Lens’ is that when the lens is set toward the wider Focal Lengths, the Maximum Aperture available is towards the wider apertures (i.e. nearer F/2.8) – conversely when the lens is set towards the longer Focal Lengths, the Maximum Aperture available is towards the narrower apertures (i.e. nearer F/6.5).

Using a rule of thumb that is an approximation, the maximum apertures available for your camera would be a table approximating this:

Focal Length 4.3mm (24mm equiv.) the Maximum Aperture Available F/2.8
Focal Length 30mm (170mm equiv.) the Maximum Aperture Available F/4.0
Focal Length 80mm (440mm equiv.) the Maximum Aperture Available F/5.6
Focal Length 150mm and longer (830mm and longer equiv.) the Maximum Aperture Available F/6.5

So, you do have arrange of apertures that you can use, but the range will be smaller as you zoom toward the longer Focal Lengths. Also you do have the option of using the Camera in either "M Mode" and "A Mode" and "P Mode", all of which allow you to set the Aperture used to make the shot.

Your camera has a relatively small sensor – the sensor size is termed ‘1/2.3’; the technical term for these sized sensors is ‘Sub–miniature Format’. These things are neither good nor bad, yet somewhat archaic terminology / categorization and the technical details, but these are quite relevant details in real world photography .

Depth of Field and Background Blur are related but they are not the same thing. In simple, terms you have to work harder and it is more difficult and limiting to get a Shallow Depth of Field on smaller sensor cameras than it is to achieve a Shallow Depth of Field with a larger sensor camera. This is one reason why many W&P Photographers choose to use cameras like the Nikon D800 or Canon 5D Series rather than the smaller APS-C models such as a Nikon D3200 or Canon 70D.

In very simple terms Background Blur is mainly dependent upon the RATIO between the distances of CAMERA to SUBJECT :: SUBJECT to BACKGROUND. A good rule of thumb to achieve a nice Background Blur is a RATIO of about 1:4 or greater

In definite terms, for any camera, a Shallow Depth of Field is achieved by using the LARGEST aperture available at the tightest FRAMING possible/usable. This is a very important technical/mathematical rule for Portraiture – Depth of Field is directly related to FRAMING and Aperture, and when considering this relationship we can forget about Focal Length.

“Framing” is what you see in the Viewfinder - one way of categorizing ‘Framing for Portrait Photography' is to describe “The Shot”. For example here is a list of the typical Portrait Shots and their names should be self explanatory:

> Tight Head Shot
> Head Shot
> Bust Shot
> Half Shot
> Three Quarter Shot
> Full (Length) Shot

So if you’ve read this far – here is the bottom line:

Using a Coolpix P900, if you want to get a Shallow Depth of Field and some noticeable Background Blur, then doing so will generally be easier and more efficient if you:

1. Frame Tight - more toward a Tight Head Shot than a Full Shot

2. Use a Shorter Focal Length to allow you to use the Larger Apertures

3. Have the Background at least 4 times the distance behind the Subject, than is the Camera in front of the Subject

This example employs those three guidelines and was made with a Canon S5 IS; this camera has a sensor size and maximum aperture very similar to your camera. Again it employs only available light and no reflectors/modifiers:



WW

Image © AJ Group Pty Ltd Aust 1996~2018 WMW 1965~1996

[CatherineA]

Catherine - Are you a member of the Ottawa Public Library?

If you are, you get free access to Lynda.com and they have a number online courses that cover portraiture including some introductory stuff, as well as some more intermediate and advanced material.

hi Manfred, Thanks to your recommendation at the end of last year, I did re-join and I was watching a number of them up to December. My challenge - or, one of my challenges - is to get familiar enough with the camera is to put into effect the theory I learn. I also bop around a bit too much - a bit of landscape, a bit of wildlife and now a bit of portraiture. I plan to print out his thread though to try and learn all that has been offered here.

[CatherineA]

David Hobby's "Lighting with Flash: The Basics" on Lynda.com is pretty much equivalent to his Lighting 101 course.

Thanks again Kathy!