Professional Portrait Tricks
May 14th, 2009
This photo from yesterday’s shoot demonstrates a couple techniques I use frequently to add interest to portraits.
Choose Subjects You Know – If there is a personal connection between you and the model, it shows. Why place an ad in the classifieds to find a model? Ask your friends and family to pose for you.
Keep it Simple – Simple lines, simple color schemes and simple backgrounds let the subject stand out.
Tilt the Camera – Straight up and down gets old. Mix it up a little!
Use a Shallow Depth of Field – Shallow DoF allows you to blur out background and foreground elements so your subject stands out better. In this case, the shallow DoF helped me create in interesting diagonal gradient shooting around a corner. The top left is a wall between me and Brittany, which fades smoothly into the background because of the shallow DoF. To achieve the effect, open up your aperture as wide as it will go (smaller numbers).
Light from Behind – In this shot there are flashes on both sides of Brittany, lighting her from behind, and creating the pretty edge highlights on her skin.
Create Contrast – I used flashes to create areas of dark and light on Brittany, which helps to sculpt and define her shape.
Next time you set out to shoot a portrait, keep these tips in mind, and don’t be afraid to share your results with me!
Strobist Info: SB-600 shot through umbrella camera left, SB-600 bounced off white wall camera right, SB-600 bounced off ceiling for hair light. The gradients in the upper left corner were created by shooting around a corner with a shallow depth of field. Triggered via CLS. f/1.8, 1/500, 50mm
Awesome tips presented in a very simple explanation. I especially liked the strobist info at the end. Such a simple concept, but I never thought of using walls and ceilings for bounce (especially as a hair light). That certainly reduces the need for dedicated studio lighting.
I frequently use anything handy to bounce flash. You can use the distance from the flash to the wall to control the softness of the light. When the flash is farther away from the wall, the light will be softer (and weaker).
For those of you who don’t yet have an external flash, try putting an angled business card or small mirror in front of your built in flash to bounce it off the ceiling instead of letting it hit your subject directly. The bounced flash will look much more natural than direct flash.
Your strobist info helped me make up my mind on buying a 3rd strobe. I have a sb-600 and a sb-800. I have been debating whether to buy the 900 or another 600. I use my 600 more than my 800, and the fact that you used 3 600′s pushed me over the edge for the 600.
Thanks. Nice shot.
For the price of one 900, you can buy 2 600′s and have twice the power and versatility. The 900′s are great flashes, but they’re over-priced. Bang-for-buck, 2 600′s is a much better deal.
Absolutely, I am also looking at the radio popper. Although I must say that I love the Nikon wireless CLS system with my D300.
Thanks for your original post and your response.
The radio popper X system looks really nice. Better than infra red CLS.