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    Practical Digital Portraits
    Practical Digital Portraits
    Practical Digital Portraits
    Ebook191 pages52 minutes

    Practical Digital Portraits

    By Duncan Evans

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    Read preview

    About this ebook

    In this e-book are 10 projects, varying in complexity and style, covering many aspects of shooting portraits, from the basics to hiring a studio and shooting on location. It starts with a guide to composition and the kind of mistakes that can easily be made, whether they are the fault of the photographer or a characteristic of the focal length of lens being used. If you have never been in a studio then that chapter will be invaluable as it explains how to use studio lights with your DSLR. Then come the standard photo shoot tutorials covering fashion styles and glossy portraits. From there it’s a trip into the past on how to shoot various retro styles and images from the golden age of Hollywood portraiture. To finish there’s a look at period-themed shoots by organising a shoot at Whitby Abbey with a Victorian-attired model, going on location for a massive war weekend re-enactment, and rounding things off with some post-apocalyptic shots from the near future.
    Who is this book aimed at? Typically, a DSLR owner who knows how to change a lens and turn the camera on, but wants to get more out of the custom aperture, shutter speed, ISO and metering settings, wants to learn a little more about lens effects and who doesn’t have experience of carrying portrait shoots on location or the studio. If you’ve never photographed a model before, there are some helpful hints. Also, if you have a fully featured compact camera then there’s plenty of advice here as a lot of the book deals with location based photography.
    At all times this is a practical book, explaining how to get things done, and ways to make shots better.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDuncan Evans
    Release dateMar 17, 2014
    ISBN9781310329999
    Practical Digital Portraits
    Author

    Duncan Evans

    Duncan Evans LRPS is a member of the Royal Photographic Society and the published author of 12 photography books. He is a journalist, photographer and author, working in photography and hi-tech fields. Duncan first got involved with digital photography in 1999 and was the Editor of Digital Photo User, one of the first magazines covering the rise of the format from overpriced novelty to essential photography tool. The digital books on sale here are the result of 12 years experience, reviewing, writing and authoring in this field.

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      Book preview

      Practical Digital Portraits - Duncan Evans

      INTRODUCTION

      Welcome to Practical Digital Portraits, the latest e-book from Duncan Evans. In this e-book are 10 chapters, varying in complexity and style, covering many aspects of shooting portraits. It starts with a guide to basic composition and the kind of mistakes that can easily be made, whether they are the fault of the photographer or a characteristic of the focal length of lens being used. If you have never been in a studio then that chapter will be invaluable as it explains how to use studio lights with your DSLR. Then come the standard photo shoot tutorials covering fashion styles and glossy portraits. From there it’s a trip into the past to see the classic styles of Bailey, the golden age of Hollywood portraiture and the painted drama of James Wedge and his Victorian dancing girls. To finish there’s a look at period-themed shoots by organising a shoot at Whitby Abbey with a Victorian-attired model, going on location for a massive war weekend re-enactment, and rounding things off with some post-apocalyptic shots from the near future.

      Who is this book aimed at? Typically, a DSLR owner who knows how to change a lens and turn the camera on, but wants to get more out of the custom aperture, shutter speed, ISO and metering settings, wants to learn a little more about lens effects and who doesn’t have experience of carrying portrait shoots on location or the studio. If you’ve never photographed a model before, there are some helpful hints. Also, if you have a fully featured compact camera then there’s plenty of advice here as a lot of the book deals with location based photography. However there are studio, or home studio, sections where being able to connect your camera to studio flash lighting would be an advantage. It isn’t essential to have your own studio lighting though. You can either hire the lights in a studio or simply replicate some of the lighting ideas in other ways. In all aspects, this is a practical book, explaining how to get things done, and ways to make shots better.

      Duncan Evans LRPS

      www.duncanevans.co.uk

      CHAPTER 1. BACK TO BASICS

      Your guide to getting started with lenses and composition

      The single, biggest mistake beginners to portrait photography make is in regards to their choice of lens. When you first start out, all it appears is that lenses simply make things appear closer, and that’s it. Except that they don’t and also, the longer the lens, the more limited the aperture selection, particularly at the wide open end – unless you spend thousands of pounds. This chapter then, is about lens distortion, composition and depth of field in portraits.

      DISTORTION

      The shorter the focal length of the lens, the wider the field of view and the more curved the glass is on the front of the lens. This means that when standing close to the subject, all the detail that is further away from the central point will be shortened and diminished as the light from the lens is bent into the camera. Now, it’s often the case that there isn’t much room to take a photo and that consequently, you have to use a wide angle lens – anything under 50mm can be considered wide – in order to get everything in. Firstly, in these circumstances, ask yourself, do you really need to see the whole of the person, or will a head and shoulders shot do? If you really do want an entire body shot, then you must be aware of the effect of foreshortening.

      How to get around it without moving back? Well, strictly speaking, there isn’t any way around the effect, but you can minimise it to a degree. Normally, the camera is at head height and you are focussing on the subject’s face, so it’s the same height. This will lead to the torso and legs becoming much shorter and the head longer. A quick fix is to drop down and aim the camera at the chest area, so that this is the central point and the legs and head are roughly balanced in terms of their size.

      Another alternative is to actually use the effect to play around with the image. Get up on a chair and focus down at the subject, and they will appear to be in a pit looking up. Have the subject hold out a hand towards the camera and it will appear to be the same size as their head. If they are sitting down on the floor, point the legs towards the camera and they will appear longer and will not look unnatural.

      The actual solution to lens distortion like this is to use a longer focal length lens and stand further back. While this isn’t always practical because of space considerations, it can also limit the lowest f-stop number available, which dictates the amount of depth of field in the picture. Many top pro’s swear by using a 200mm lens to shoot portraits with, however you would need an awful lot of room to use a lens that long. The other advantage of a longer lens is that it offers a very narrow field of view, so that once the subject is in it, nothing else usually is there to distract the viewer.

      In this shot, at head height, with a wide-angle lens, the legs appear shorter, the head and torso longer.

      By moving the lens downwards and pointing at the middle of the subject, the distortion effect is lessened with the head and shoulders appearing a more natural size compared to the previous photo.

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