A portrait is an artistic representation that focuses on the expressions of a person. Personality and mood play a dominant role in capturing a good portrait. A portrait is meant to catch the eye of the viewer. Thus, it is way different from a snapshot.
As mentioned above, portraits only have one focal point, that is the person. It doesn’t mean that you’ve only got to work with the subject. Other factors such as lighting, depth of field, color correction, etc, also count. If your portrait quickly catches someone’s attention, it means you’ve accomplished in working well with all the factors.
Apart from working on all the important factors, conveying what the subject has to say is also essential. It can be related to the personality or the life of a person. Someone who’s very fond of portraits can also draw out a complete story from looking at a single picture.
Creativity matters when you’re the portrait artist. However, there are a lot of technical and non-technical tips and tricks that you can follow to take a good portrait picture. If you’re interested to know more, read along!
Technical Tips and Tricks
Dedicated portrait lenses are put best to its use while capturing portraits. These portrait lenses consist of high aperture and a focal length between 50mm to 100mm, which helps you capture appreciative images of the subject. The wide aperture gives a shallow picture that quickly catches the eye of the viewer.
Canon and Nikon portrait lenses are the perfect tools to take a good portrait and are available for $125 and $215, respectively. In case you already own a DSLR, it’ll work fine as well.
It is advised to set your aperture between f/1.8 and f/2.8 for extreme images. If you don’t have a lens that wide, you may use the widest aperture of your lens. Also, set a shutter speed at 1/100th of a second. Plus, a lower ISO will work excellent for you.
Once you get all the technical tips right, nothing can stop you from capturing a picture worth everybody’s attention.
Non-Technical Tips and Tricks
Do not forget, the main motive of clicking a good portrait is to bring out the best version of the subject. Keep reminding yourself of the same formula from clicking a portrait to editing the picture.
Make sure to capture an image from the eye-level or slightly above from the subject’s point of view. A lower angle doesn’t make the model look good, thus avoid the same.
The two most effortless picture compositions to get right are the headshot and a midriff upshot. If you stand with the goal that the subject covers up the frame in both of these arrangements, your portraits will look great.
It is important to note that none of the body parts of the model should be cut off from the picture. For instance, if you’re capturing an upper-body shot, it is evident that the portrait will only consist of half the body of a model. However, make sure not to crop the fingers or any other parts.
One approach to take your portraits to an exceptional level is to utilize great lighting. Don’t simply shoot anyplace. Rather, discover someplace with decent lighting. An incredible spot to shoot a picture is someplace obscure, as under a tree, on a radiant day or in a room lit by a solitary huge window.
Portraits, more than some other sort of photography, expect you to draw in with your subject. If you step back and simply take photographs while your subject gazes at the camera with a phony smile all over, you’re going to wind up with cold uninteresting pictures. Rather, you should continuously try to bring out the best version of themselves. Shooting portraits demands your complete attention and patience. However, it’s a great fun activity. The best portrait pictures come out when the model is completely candid, and that realness is what catches the attention.
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