1) INTRODUCTION TO PORTRAIT COMPOSITION
2) PRACTICE SHOOT
3) PROJECT: VERTICAL PORTRAITS
4) STUDENT EXAMPLES
1) INTRODUCTION TO PORTRAIT COMPOSITION
A portrait is a photograph that features a still subject (person). Thus, the emphasis needs to be on the subject and not the background. Anyone can take a lousy portrait, but it takes skill and planning to take an effective one.
Tips for proper portrait photography:
- Be close to your subject. 2-6 feet away is a good guideline.
- Keep your subject well in front of your background. Don't back them up against a wall, tree, etc.
- Basically, the photographer-subject distance should be less than the background-subject distance
- Shoot at a focal length of 50mm.
- Shoot at the lowest possible f-stop.. This is the widest possible aperture your lens can have while shooting at 50mm.
All of the above will help establish a shallow depth of field. This will blur your background and make your subject more prominent. Other tips:
- Shoot vertically (the human body, when standing, is vertical)
- Don't use open windows as backgrounds! This is known as backlighting, and will make your subject much too dark.
- Keep an uncluttered background! Less is more.
- Shoot lots! Facial expressions can change multiple times per second, so the more shots you get the better chance you have of landing the "perfect' portrait!
2) PRACTICE SHOOT
You have the remainder of the first class to move around the school (please use multiple locations) and take vertical portraits of your camera partner.
Ensure that you are shooting in "A" mode! Set your aperture to as low an F-stop value as possible. This will facilitate shallow depth of field, which will help negate the background.
Your ISO should be 3200 for indoor shooting or 200-800 for outdoor shooting (200 for bright sunshine, 800 for darker cloud cover).
Be prepared to add one or two of your practice shots into a shared folder on Classroom so that we can have some teaching examples for next class.
3) PROJECT: VERTICAL PORTRAITS
For this project, you must submit THREE different vertical portraits of your camera partner, each shot in a DIFFERENT location.
Camera settings:
- Shooting Mode: A (set your aperture to F/5.6)
- ISO: 3200 if inside, 1600 if inside near large windows, 800 if outside under thick cloud cover or in shade, 400 if outside under light cloud or sunshine, 200 if under bright sunshine.
- Focal Length: 50 mm
Project Criteria:
- Stand 2-6 feet from your subject
- Shoot vertically (i.e. hold camera sideways)
- Keep background uncluttered
- Pull your subject away from the background
- Ensure that the space between photographer & subject is less than the space between subject & background
- Shoot in many locations and take more shots than you need. Submit the best three
- Ensure that your subject is striking a professional pose.
- Each portrait should be framed with the face, shoulders, and torso taking up the majority of the frame. No full-body-length photos, please.
Be sure to create a new folder called "Vertical Portraits" inside your Pictures\Photo 10\Composition folder. All of the images you take today should be stored there.
(See below for hand-in instructions)
HAND-IN INSTRUCTIONS:
1) Go to CLASSROOM and upload the three images directly there.
2) Complete the self-evaluation rubric (copy-paste your settings from your website).
3) TURN IN your project in Classroom.
4) STUDENT EXAMPLES - VERTICAL PORTRAITS