Portrait Advice

Ostrom

I have an event coming up in about two weeks and have agreed to do some shots for it. I am completely inexperienced with people photography!

Any folk wisdom??

I have my D80, nifty fifty (or should I go wider?), and SB-400


I intend on doing a number of individual portraits for prints, and some out and about shots. Whats the best approach, or what do you guys do when quality counts?

Lock it in manual 1/60 5.6 and use the flash comp?
Shoot raw or set a custom WB?
Shove them up against a neutral inside wall and bounce straight off the ceiling?

All help appreciated

melekalikimaka

Play around with settings, fast enough shutter medium to shallow dog. Shot raw and wb is irrelevent as you can change it post pro, I'd work on composition over technique, that's the easy part

oshead

Well..... You have two weeks. So if I where you i'd get practicing with some members of your family and friends. There are loads of different techniques and styles so its probably best to starting developing your own be it contemporary, traditional or whatever.

Just some things you could try do... By no means, is this an exaustive list.

If you can, take the flash off the camera. Angular light is so much better than head on flash. Bounce off a white celing is a good start but I wouldn't rely on it. Walls are good for that too. If you can get an umberella and lightstand it would be ideal. A light reflector would come in hand too. Don't be afraid to use the light from a shaded window.

For outside shots you can find good locations practically everywhere. This is where a reflector comes into its own. I prefer it over a flash. If it's a very bright sunny day try and shoot in the shade. Watch out for your backgrounds. No one likes to see photos where a tree or pole appears to be jutting out of their head.

Depending on your experience with the camera, you should choose the mode you are most familiar, be it P (Professional ), AV, TV or M. The most important thing is to shoot consistantly. Once you can do this you will be able to see the shot before you take it and always be one step ahead.

Shoot in RAW, if you have a white balance card then use it when the light colour changes. Otherwise, don't worry too much about colour balance. For indoor shots you may have to contend with three different light sources. As long as light colour is fairly constant, you could take the colour mode out of Auto White Balance and maybe choose Daylight or Shade. This will make it easier to balance white later in batch mode. One setting should work fine for most of them. Another approach is to set the colour balance for the key light and go from there.

Anyway..... This post could go on all night. Above all have fun and be confident. This will transfer itself to the models. Stick with what you know for the start of the session. Once you get the money shots you can start playing around and be a little more creative, changing things a little as you go.

Hope this helps

Dave OS