Although it is an accurate representation of the young lady standing near a walkway, it is not flattering to the subject, and has several other problems.
First of all, the subject is standing in direct sunlight, which:
- forces the subject to squint from the harsh light
- causes harsh shadows under the eyes and nose
- causes skin tones and light colored clothing to appear washed out.
Now the subject is in the shade, which helps the skin tones look more natural. The lady is now able to smile without squinting, and the shadows under the eyes and nose have been lessened.
It is important to watch the background when you take a person into the shade for drastic differences between the light on the subject and the light in the background. If the background is not in shade, then the background may cause the camera’s light meter to under expose the shot, and make the main subject look dark, or if the camera’s meter exposes for the main subject, the background will appear almost pure white. This might be an effect you want, but it can often be unpredictable, because of how the camera’s light meter might interpret it. If you insure that the background is also in shade, the camera’s meter will work properly, and you will get a photo that is properly exposed.
- Even though this photo is better, it still has some problems.
- The main subject only fills out a small portion of the photo
- There are a lot of distracting elements in the photograph, that take away from the main subject
- The lighting is better, but there are still some fairly harsh shadows under her eyes and nose
Turning the camera vertical helped to eliminate a lot of the distracting elements from the background, and focus attention on the main subject. In order to fill the frame, I also used the camera’s optical zoom to fill the frame with the subject. Not only did zooming in a little bit help to fill the frame, it also caused the background to become more blurred. There are some very long and involved explanations for why this occurs, and they all involve the concept of the depth of field.
For the purpose of portraiture, it is much simpler to remember that the more magnification, or closer you zoom in with the camera, the more blurred the background will be. This is one of the techniques that professionals use to make their subjects look their best. When you blur the background, you focus attention on the main subject.
You will also notice that the concrete pillar that was seen in the background of the previous photo has been used as a prop. This allowed the subject to lean against the pillar and tilt her head slightly.
There are entire books written on how to pose people. You can, however, see the basics by looking at some professional portraits and taking notes. After looking at these photos, go out and spend a little time posing some friends and family and taking their portraits. Take a look at the results, and then compare them to the professional portraits again. With a little time and effort, you will be able to get pleasing poses on a consistent basis.
There is one final difference in this photograph that needs to be addressed. The main subject is not centered in the frame, as she was in the first 2 photos. Centering the main subject in a photograph often looks boring. When you place the main subject slightly off center, it causes tension, which makes the image more appealing.
It also causes the viewer’s eyes to stay on the main subject. This is known as the “Rule of Thirds”.
If you look at this illustration, you will notice a series of vertical and horizontal lines that split the frame in to thirds. You will also notice some dots that are placed where these lines intersect. These points are where you want the main subject to be placed. In portraiture, that means that the person’s eyes should be approximately at one of these points.
The final 2 steps to create a professional portrait are shown in the following photo.
The first observation is the most important. I used the camera’s zoom feature to get closer to the subject. I could have walked closer to her, but portraits are generally more pleasing at higher magnifications, because it flattens the features out. By flattening the features, the person’s nose looks smaller, and any imperfections in the skin are less noticeable than if you stood close to the subject and shot with the camera’s lens at a wider angle.
The second change in this photograph is that I turned on the camera’s flash. Even though the camera’s meter didn’t think that flash was needed, I toggled the flash button until I got the flash to fire every time I pressed the shutter. This helps to fill in shadows and reveal the texture in the subject’s hair. This subject had very dark hair, and without flash, it would have gone to pure black.
As you can see from these illustrations, taking a professional looking portrait is not hard, even with a point and shoot digital camera. All it takes is a little knowledge and some time and thought before pressing the shutter.
Practice these techniques, and you will be amazed at what you can do with your digital camera.
There are, however, advantages to taking the camera off of the fully automatic mode, and using the other modes that are a part of most digital cameras. Some of these modes include portrait, landscape, aperture priority, shutter priority, and full manual control.
I will be producing more easy to understand how-to posts on different aspects of photography, including how to use the specialty modes mentioned above.
© Mark Stewart
