Portraits

I sent my students out to do election interviews while we were at Poynter, and asked them to come back with some portraits of their sources. Their shots were not bad, but Denise McGill helped me advise them on how to make the pictures. Thought I would share with you guys what she said:

First off, there are a million ways to make a portrait, and millions of photo books and samples, and lots of philosophies and approaches. I show them lots of good samples, and we have a long conversation about treating photo subjects with respect, issues with shooting nudes, etc. I explain that in the non-journalism world, you always need a model release to publish a photo, so I make them get their photo subjects to sign a release.

OK, so what actually makes a good portrait?

 Get to the essence of the person. Use good composition. Study the light.
 Off-camera light is always better (ie, window light is better than the little flash on your camera, but your little flash is better than no light at all.)
 Look at the shadows. Make sure the eyes aren’t sunken in deep shadow pockets.
 Always focus your camera on the eyes.
 Backgrounds should be black or as uncluttered as possible.
 The photo should tell us something about the person.
 One good technique is to get the photo subject to lean in toward the camera. It gives a feeling of intimacy and intensity. Also, use your lens to zoom in, as this is a more flattering lens angle.
 So even on a pocket camera, you can use the zoom to zoom in and step back, which is better than using wide angle and staying really close.
 Wide-open aperture is often preferable, because it blurs the background and focuses all the attention on the face.


Before going out shooting, you ask:

__ Do I have film/digital card in the camera?

__ Is it properly loaded?

__ Do I have fresh batteries?

__ Is ASA set right?

__ Are the quality and other settings the way I want them?

I find something to take pictures of.

__ Am I in the best location? Should I get closer? Move around?

__ Do I have the right lens?

__ Is subject in focus?

__ Am I metering correctly?

I get a meter reading.
Have I adjusted it for:

__ backlight or special conditions

__ depth of field (aperture)

__ camera movement (shutter speed 1/60 sec. or faster)

__ subject movement

As I take the picture:

__ Am I standing solid?

__ Am I squeezing without shaking the camera?

__ Did I write down my settings and get caption information?

Also, check out these two links:
http://digitalphotography.tipcentral.net/

http://www.picturecorrect.com/photographytips/portraits.htm

-- Sue Robinson