Portraits are all about people so let’s begin by talking about the common mistakes that many, if not most, people make when shooting portraiture. No one will buy a portrait if there’s a tree or telephone pole growing out of the top of his or her head. No one will buy a portrait if there’s a tree limb or some other object poking out of the side of their head. It’s all too easy for the photographer to become so engrossed with their subject that they become totally oblivious to what’s behind their subject. Unfortunately, the cameras eye isn’t as selective as the photographer’s eyes and will record everything that is in the frame, even that unwanted flag pole that appears to be growing out of the top of your sexy subject’s beautiful head. OK, if you’re a PhotoShop pro you can fix those things in the digital darkroom but no fix is ever as good as doing it right the first time. The good portrait photographer, amateur or pro, is always conscious of the background and surroundings of his subject before pressing the shutter release. The gifted portrait photographer, amateur or pro, either adjusts the background or moves his subject to a more suitable location. With hose things in mind, let’s move on to the six easy steps to a perfect portrait.
Step number one: zoom in for a “tight shot.” Fill the frame with your subject. A “tight Shot’ doesn’t necessarily mean a head shot or a face shot. You zoom in for a “tight shot” of your subject leaning against a tree, standing in a doorway, or sitting on a chair or stool.
Step number two: Using the Rule of Thirds, place you subject’s eyes on the upper, imaginary, line in your camera’s viewfinder. Picture this reticule in your mind’’ eye and place your subject’s eyes on the upper line.
The Rule of Thirds Reticule
Step number three: Use framing or composition to concentrate all attention on your subject. Use architectural or environmental features to draw attention to your subject. Straight or diagonal lines formed by windowsills, hand rails, roads, sidewalks, etc all serve the purpose of pulling the viewer’s eyes to your subject when used properly.
Step number four: Use a distracting backdrop to create an attractive, artistic texture if you can’t eliminate the distracting backdrop by moving the subject. Shoot using Aperture Priority mode. Using an f-stop of 4.0, you will have an extremely shallow depth of field, throwing the backdrop out of focus.
Step number five: A brick wall makes the perfect backdrop for outdoor or indoor portraits. The mortar lines work to direct attention to your subject. Any horizontal lines work this way and they work best when they originate outside of the frame. The end wall in my old studio was made of red brick and it was one of my favorite backdrops for shooting portraits.
Step number six: Move around and shoot from multiple angles. There isn’t any law that says that you have shoot all your portrait shots with the camera right in front of the subject. Experiment. You’ll be surprised at some of the great shots you will make.
