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Portrait Photography

The Essential Beginner's Guide

AE Publications Ltd

GETTING STARTED

When shown a great photograph, it is still a common reaction for people to say, "Wow, you have a good camera!" Yet the equipment you use Is only a contributing factor. Just as you would never credit the oven for the skills of a chef, there's more than decent camera kit behind a great shot — especially when working with people.

Our formula for successful portraiture looks like this: Camera settings + flattering light + appropriate background + good rapport = great portrait

We'll cover camera equipment and settings in Part One, followed by light and location in Part Two. Part Three will give practical advice for approaching different age groups, with hundreds of tips and techniques for getting those all-important expressions. We will also give you some practical "lessons" that you can follow for yourself to hone your skills.

Once you've read Part One, set your camera to Aperture Priority mode, select ISO 100, dial in the widest aperture available, and head outside and start shooting. Get to grips with these starter settings, taking photos of everything around you. Experiment using exposure compensation (see page 18) to lighten or darken your images, practice using different metering modes (see page 24), play around with different ways of composing your shots (see page 28), and learn to focus accurately (see page 26).

After that, move on to Part Two. Start looking for potential locations and notice how the light affects your images. Increase your ISO and try some indoor shots, but above all keep practicing!

At this stage you'll be ready to start getting other people involved, so read Part Three and arrange as many photo shoots of people of different ages as possible. Analyze your images critically — straight after you've taken them and again a few days later, with fresh eyes — and experiment with different postproduction techniques. Challenge yourself to continually improve the photos you take.

But don't stop there. Be brave and put your camera in Manual mode. Now you will be fully in control and, guess what? It's not as hard as it first appears.

Use your camera's histogram (see page 18) to tweak your settings and keep taking photos, as often as possible.

In a few days you can learn the basics.

In a few weeks you can become competent.

In a few months you will start to impress!

Let us know how you get on.

Hannah & Sarah

CHOOSING A CAMERA

You won't get far without the necessary kit, but which type of camera is best for portrait photography? There's more to it than just having a high pixel count — unless you're printing out huge enlargements of an image to go on the wall, a lot of the pixel detail will go to waste anyway. Instead, look for sensor size, lens quality, and the ability to take full control over the camera's settings.

CAMERA PHONES

Camera phones now boast huge numbers of megapixels, but don't be misled — these pixels are crammed onto tiny sensors in order to fit in amongst the phone's other electronics. This means that each pixel receives less light, so it won't necessarily produce better photos than a camera with fewer pixels, but a larger sensor. This is particularly evident in images taken in low light, which will have high levels of digital noise (random colored pixels appearing in areas that should be one solid color).

In addition, camera phones have a single, fixed lens, and the focal length is therefore not necessarily a flattering one, especially for close-ups. Many camera phones will not allow you to adjust the exposure settings, which will also curtail your creativity.

On the plus side, camera phones are portable and convenient, and as pro photographer Chase Jarvis once said: "The best camera is the one that's with you."

COMPACT CAMERAS

In general, compact cameras have larger lenses and sensors than camera phones, which allows more light to enter, and provides a larger area for it to be recorded on. This gives them superior image quality to camera phones, while offering similar levels of portability. The image quality of some of the latest compact cameras is more than enough for the average casual snapper, but in almost all models the sensor is smaller than those used in DSLRs.

The main limitation with this type of camera is that the lens is permanently attached, so you can only use the lens that comes with the camera. A compact camera's lens may have a good zoom range, but it won't have the ability to blur out the background on a portrait in the same way that a prime lens on a DSLR camera can.

Compact cameras still can't beat DSLRs for speed either — compacts are slower to start up and focus, and slower to take a shot Although this may only amount to fractions of a second, it can be the difference between capturing someone's expression and missing the moment.

You also need to make sure you can manually adjust the exposure settings. Some compact cameras have simplified "modes" (portraits, landscapes, sunsets, sports, and so on), but without full creative control over the exposure, your images are limited by the camera's decisions.

MIRRORLESS INTERCHANGEABLE LENS CAMERA

Mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras (or "MILCs") tend to be slightly larger than compact cameras, but as they don't contain a mirror, they are significantly smaller than DSLRs. However, they still allow you to change the lens and also have a sensor that is larger than those found in compact cameras, giving increased image quality. Indeed, some MILCs have sensors that are the same size as those in DSLRs, providing comparable image quality.

In use, the lack of a mirror system means that a MILC is much quieter than a DSLR. Many of them also function more like compact cameras than DSLRs, so they will feel more familiar to anyone who is used to a point-and-shoot camera. This makes them less daunting to budding photographers than dial- and button-covered DSLRs.

Some MILCs will accept DSLR lenses using an adapter, which is useful if you already have a range of lenses that you want to continue using. It is also beneficial because this is a relatively recent breed of digital camera, so there are currently fewer dedicated lenses to choose from.

Although the technology is rapidly improving, the autofocus system in most MILCs is not yet as good as those found in most DSLRs — some MILCs struggle to focus in low light, for example, while others fail to maintain focus on a moving subject. In portraiture, this can mean that you end up missing the moment, or the subject is out of focus.

DSLR CAMERAS

DSLR (Digital Single-Lens Reflex) cameras have a mirror that reflects the image coming through the lens up to a viewfinder in the camera, so you can see the precise view that the camera's sensor will record. It is this "single lens" viewing system that gives DSLR cameras their name.

DSLRs have a much larger image sensor than camera phones and almost all compact cameras. This means that each light-sensitive "photosite" on the sensor will be bigger, allowing it to capture more light. So, even though a DSLR might have a lower pixel count than a compact, that doesn't necessarily equate to lower image quality. This is particularly important when shooting in low light levels, as DSLRs will produce images containing less digital "noise" than other camera types.

DSLRs are also more flexible than compact cameras, as you can change the lens you are using. This means you can get better quality lenses that are particularly good for specific uses, such as taking portraits. As a general rule, your images will only ever be as good as the lens on the front of your camera, so being able to upgrade the lens is a major advantage over compact cameras. DSLRs also make it easier to produce images with a beautiful, out-of-focus effect that is popular in portraiture.

There are hundreds of other accessories that you can buy for a DSLR, ranging from filters that attach to the front of the lens through to external flash units for powerful, artificial lighting. Even if you decide to buy a new camera body in a few years' time, the accessories you have now should still be compatible with it. The only exception to this is if you switch brands, as the lenses for one camera system (Nikon, Canon, Sony, Olympus, and so on), won't necessarily fit on another camera system.

The disadvantages of a DSLR are related to bulk and cost. Although they vary in size, even the smallest DSLR outweighs a compact camera, making it more cumbersome. DSLRs are also more expensive than most compact cameras, especially when additional accessories are added to the cost of the camera.

SENSOR SIZE

Camera manufacturers often advertise the number of pixels in their cameras far more prominently than the size of the image sensor. Yet the latter is far more important. This is because the size of the sensor determines how big each light-sensitive "photosite" on the sensor is. Each photosite records the light that generates a pixel in the final image, so larger photosites will record more light than smaller photosites. In general, this will result in a "better" picture, meaning that fewer pixels on a physically larger sensor is often preferable to a small sensor with a high pixel count.

To give you an idea of the difference, a typical camera phone's sensor measures approximately 5mm across its longest edge; a compact camera usually has a sensor measuring from 5-18mm across; and a MILC ranges from approximately 6-23mm.

The sensor in a DSLR depends on the camera's format: Micro Four Thirds cameras have sensors that are usually 17mm across; an APS-C sensor is roughly 23mm on its longest edge; and full-frame sensors measure 36 x 24mm.

The larger the sensor, the more expensive it is to produce, and the more space it takes up inside the camera. It also requires a larger lens to throw light over the whole surface, which is another reason why phone cameras are so small: a bulky lens would make them less pocketable. If you are serious about image quality, however, a larger sensor will perform better in low light, offer better depth of field control, be affected less by digital "noise" (see page 22), and offer a greater dynamic range (see page 18).

RAW OR JPEG?

All DSLR cameras and MILCs (and some high-end compacts) let you save your photographs as Raw files or JPEG files. Which you choose will often depend on your shooting style and how quickly you need the images, but it's worth appreciating the differences between them.

A JPEG is a standardized image file that has been processed by your camera This type of file is readable by any image-editing or viewing software and is ready to print or display immediately. JPEGs are compressed when they are saved, so they take up less digital storage space than Raw files, meaning you can fit more JPEGs onto a memory card. However, some of the data from the initial exposure is lost in the compression process and more data will be lost each time the image is resaved (after editing, for example). Because of the in-camera processing, JPEGs are typically sharper than Raw files, and have higher contrast. The dynamic range is lower, though, which means detail in extremely light or dark tones can become lost more easily, as these areas turn pure white or pure black instead.

Raw files are unprocessed, which means you will need to take them into photo-editing software on your computer to adjust sharpness, contrast, color, and many other elements, before converting them into JPEG or TIFF files that can be more easily shared or printed. Each camera manufacturer uses its own Raw files, which means you will need to check that the image-editing software you choose is compatible.

The main advantage of shooting Raw files is that they are uncompressed and contain all of the image information recorded by the camera. This allows you to make more decisions about things such as white balance at the postproduction stage, and it also means that the file will contain more detail in areas of extreme light and dark tones. Raw files are consequently much larger than JPEGs, though — on average, a single Raw file will take up the same amount of space on your memory card as two or three JPEG images.

Some cameras allow you to record both types of image at once, which means you can use the JPEGs to quickly assess your images and decide which ones to work on later (from the Raw files). As a general rule, if you are happy to spend time processing the Raw files later on, and need the maximum amount of leeway in terms of being able to adjust the image, use Raw. Otherwise, get as much as possible right in-cam era and save time by shooting JPEGs.

LENSES

FOCAL LENGTH

The focal length is a number that represents the amount of magnification that a lens provides. A lens with a short focal length, such as 18mm or 24mm, has a lower magnification and a wider angle of view (these are known as wide-angle lenses). A lens with a longer focal length, such as 85mm or 200mm, has a higher magnification and a narrower angle of view (this type of lens is referred to as a telephoto lens).

In practical terms, if you use a wide-angle lens you need to stand close to your subject to fill the frame. However, standing close would result in an exaggerated perspective that distorts facial features, resulting in a comically big nose and tiny ears. Therefore, it is often better to stand further away and use a longer focal length.

For portrait photography, a focal length of 50-85mm (a mild telephoto) produces the most flattering results. The disadvantage is that you need to stand further away from your subject, especially if you want a full-length shot or to include space around your subject. Sometimes — especially when shooting indoors — this isn't always possible.

The longer the focal length, the more likely you are to see camera shake, as any slight movement while the exposure is being made will be magnified. Many lenses (and cameras) now come with built-in image stabilization to help combat this.

It is worth noting that the size of the sensor in your camera might have an apparent affect on focal length.

The focal length of a lens is given in terms of 35mm or "full-frame" cameras. While the focal length never changes, if you use a lens on any camera with a smaller sensor it will produce a "cropped" or "zoomed-in" version of the same scene (the sensor is basically recording a smaller part of the scene projected by the lens). In this way a 28mm lens used on an APS-C DSLR would give approximately the same angle of view as a 45mm lens on a camera with a full-frame sensor. Therefore, wide-angle lenses effectively become "less wide" and telephoto lenses get "longer."

ZOOM VS. PRIME

Most enthusiast DSLRs come with a zoom lens included. This lens typically offers a focal length range of 18–55mm, which enables you to take a wide-angle shot (18mm), then twist the zoom ring on the lens to crop in closer without physically having to move nearer to the subject (55 mm).

A prime lens has a fixed focal length and can't zoom in. This makes it a much simpler design, and the image quality only has to be optimized at a single focal length. Consequently, prime lenses usually produce higher-quality results than zoom lenses.

In order to get a blurred background on a portrait, you need a lens with a wide aperture. The aperture is represented by f-numbers, or "f/stops," and the wider the aperture, the more blurred the background will be. The widest aperture in a DSLR "kit" lens will typically be around f/3.5–f/4, whereas a 50mm enthusiast-level prime lens will have a maximum aperture of f/1.8 (or wider). You don't need to worry about what those numbers mean right now (we'll look at those later), but a prime lens with a wide aperture is very useful for portraits. This type of lens isn't very expensive, either.

LIGHTING

REFLECTORS

Reflectors are an easy and inexpensive way of throwing light onto your subject and filling in deep shadows. They come in a range of sizes and colors, but a good starting point is one that is around 3 feet (1 meter) in diameter, with white on one side and silver on the other: the white side will produce a softer, more natural looking effect, while the silver side is stronger so will boost the light more if you are working in shaded or overcast conditions. You can also get gold reflectors, which help to warm the light that's bounced back onto your subject.

If you want to save money (or accidentally leave your reflector at home), you can often improvise: a white wall, a large sheet of white card, or a large piece of aluminum foil that's been scrunched up and flattened out again will all have a similar effect to a purpose-made reflector.

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Excerpted from Portrait Photography by Sarah Plater, Hannah MacGregor, Chris Gatcum. Copyright © 2014 Sarah Plater & Hannah MacGregor. Excerpted by permission of AE Publications Ltd.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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