Under a large portrait is still one of the most important skill to have as a photographer. The need for good photos of people will never go away. Whether for weddings, corporate photography and lifestyle, you will always be the question, if people like the images taken of them. In any case, we want to make a start and look at the camera gear I use.
Fortunately, many of us already have the kit needed to make a portrait fabulous. The kit standard lens that comes bundled with mostdigital cameras should be good enough to get you in the ballpark. When I bought my Canon 5d Mk1, I chose the 24mm to 70mm 2.8 lens as my standard lens. For environmental portraits, (when you take a picture of someone and show some of their surroundings) 50mm is an ideal place to start. It has a very similar viewpoint to what we see with our eyes and so gives us a very natural looking environmental portrait. Be careful not to go too wide, say much below 35mm as the wider angle produces unflattering distortions. The longer end of the zoom range is great for three quarter length/head and shoulder shots. This combined with a wide aperture can separate the subject from the background by throwing the background nicely out of focus.
Although the standard zoom lens is excellent for portraits, most professional photographers prefer something a little longer. I personally use the Canon 100mm 2.8 Macro lens which is out of this world for head shots, the fast aperture blurring the background and the telephoto really flatters the sitter. I think anything above 100mm is too much unless your going for a full length shot and you want that perspective compression effect on the background, say on a tree lined avenue or set of columns.
Probably the most favored of all portrait lenses is the 85mm. Luckily they are pretty affordable for the 1.8 variants, though if your a Canon user the ultimate is the 85mm 1.2. It really is a monster of a lens with a price tag to match. One thing to remember is to adjust the focal lengths if you are on a smaller sensor. The crop factor is normally 1.3 or 1.6. So a 50mm lens becomes a 80mm lens on a camera with a crop factor of 1.6.
Now let us take a look at lighting and exposure. Unlike most other subjects, bright sunshine does not make for flattering portraits. It produces harsh unpleasant shadows and causes the subject to squint. If you must shoot in the midday sun, look for some shade in which to place the subject. It will be a lot easier to get a good shot and the light is far more controllable. One of my favorite techniques is to sit the subject on the ground, a few feet under the branches of a tree. I then place a white reflector on the floor in front of them, this bounces light into the shadows that are typically under the eyes and nose. The light coming in from behind you will give you a lovely catchlight in their eyes and you will get an excellent portrait.
Another popular technique is to place the subject with their back to the sun. This avoid the horrible shadows but you now have another problem, exposure. If the sun is behind the subject the camera can get fooled into underexposing the face. In this scenario I either use spot metering or dial in some exposure compensation, a stop or so should do it.
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