Shutterstock Photographer Forum :: View topic - Advice on portrait lighting outdoor, please?

markrhiggins · Joined: 28 Jan 2008 Posts: 2041 Location: Australia

WHen reading the replies it is important to try out the advice and learn from the mistakes you make. The guy in your shot has a great expression but what for? Maybe he should be clutching a fist full of money? Have fun with it and enjoy the learning. Be cautious of those offering advice that themselves can not pass the test here. Too much theory can kill good practical photography. Set up remotes etc is great in theory but really a plainer background and a bit of light will get you there.

Stopping your lens down a couple of stops will give you a better hit rate . While shallow dof is good in theory, it kills a shot if your focus is not spot on. I shoot a lot of weddings (even though I do not shoot many people shots for here) and I can tell it is not worth ruining half your shots to get arty shallow dof.You can soften background but not sharpen an oof shot. Using a flash outside will help and make your shots sharper. Read up on flash and ambient light mix including white balance and understand how the flash's short duration freezes action/movement. Learn to use the manual settings when using flash. A simple cheap diffuser on the flash will improve light quality. Check out the portfolios of those offering advice. When you get strobes you will find the dof you get with them unbelievable.

banepetkovic · Joined: 03 Mar 2012 Posts: 135

semmickphoto · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2012 10:03 am

If you are an audience, then you sit back and watch in silence. Audiences normally do not get on stage and interfere with the performers. So you are not really an audience? But more someone with a grudge because he couldnt be on stage himself.

jeffbanke · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2012 11:02 am

I should point out that the advice Laurin has given you regarding lens focal lengths while absolutely correct is for a full frame digital or 35mm film camera!

SO, that means for a 1.5 (Nikon) or a 1.6 (Canon) DX size sensor the best lens lengths for portraiture are going to be from 45 to 90, with 55-70 being the optimum.

jutia · Joined: 15 Apr 2012 Posts: 290 Location: Dominican Republic

blinztree · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2012 12:36 pm

Jeff, I would think a FX 1:2 100mm on both APS-C and FX bodies would be a great combination for portraiture. Your thoughts?

Jelena Aloskina · Joined: 07 Jun 2012 Posts: 670

markrhiggins · Joined: 28 Jan 2008 Posts: 2041 Location: Australia

crop sensors give the same image view as full frame. In other words the image is identical to full frame with the same focal length but cropped around the edges. It means that with cropped you cropped you have to stand further back to get the same amount in frame. To flatter the subject 100mm or more is great and produces slightly compressed features great if the person has big nose they do not like. For stock it is not always about flattering the subject so 50mm can work fine to capture an expression concept. For wedding work I usually use a 24-105mm for most shots as the wide side is really required for groups (make sure they are in the same plane to avoid a wide angle look.

PS. If someone can not get accepted as a photographer due to the LCV (maybe the first of several issues with the images) do yourself a favor and disregard their advice.

PaulCowan · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 4183 Location: Evolving

Mark, the "perfect portrait" lens length is all about perspective. If you have a 50mm lens on a crop sensor and stand back the same distance you would with an 80mm on full frame, then you get the same perspective, so the 50mm works.

It's really all about how far away you are standing from the subject when you fill the frame, the actual focal length is an accident of that.

On 6x6cm format, the portrait lens would be around the 120mm and on large format 4x5inches there's nothing wrong with using a 200mm lens for portraits.

Plus, of course, there is a big difference between a tight head-and-shoulders portrait and a waist-up portrait.

PaulCowan · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 4183 Location: Evolving

BTW, Yelena, it looks to me as if Laurin took your photo, selected the background and put a Gaussian blur on that, then applied a tonal contrast filter across the whole thing with a bit of desaturation thrown into the mix.

That would take a couple of minutes in photoshop.

I doubt if a tonal contrast filter would pass inspection, though, but it would be good for high-street sales and crops up all the time in photo exhibitions.

rinder99 · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2012 2:41 pm

All about distance,Subject,Your creative eye,mood and so forth, Like everything else, There are no rules But it's pretty darn wise to totally understand them first.Ever see a shot or a commercial with 2 people on a beach and the setting sun behind them Is gigantic. Simple shot and in the film business it's called stacking, we call it compression. Back up, get a monster lens, foreground stays the same relative but what ever is in the distance gets huge. same applies to portraiture.And the reverse happens when you go wide.It's entirely what story you wanna tell.Knowing when to use it, Is the trick.

here's a simple illustration in a smaller scale. The bush was 7ft, the Mountian was a few miles. 200MM lens and it stacked up. 400mm would be more and 600 or 1200 would make the mountain huge. Hope that explains it a bit.I was explaining Compression to a group for this example.

rinder99 · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2012 2:46 pm

PaulCowan · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 4183 Location: Evolving

Yeah, but these days they are more likely to drop the huge Sun into the picture in Photoshop than to cope with the vibrations and hot-air distortion from using an incredibly expensive 800mm lens, aren't they?

Maybe not with TV, where the zoom ability is fantastic because the resolution isn't such an issue.

PaulCowan · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 4183 Location: Evolving