Digital Camera World » Portraits

Family Portraits at Home: tips for taking contemporary family photos on a budget

jmeyer — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:00:57 +0000

Taking family portraits in unfamiliar surroundings, such as a studio, can make them feel nervous – and you don’t want this to come across in your images. By shooting family portraits at home, you’ll be able to get more relaxed poses and happy expressions.

For this family portrait shoot, we decided to use a simple set-up without expensive and complicated studio lighting. We used three regular flashguns to create our home photo studio.

We placed two of them on lighting stands with umbrellas to reflect a soft and more flattering light back onto our subject. We then positioned each light at a 45 degree angle about 6 feet away from the subject and made sure they were switched to manual mode.

The third flash was mounted on our camera and tilted it towards the ceiling to bounce the light, but it also worked as a remote trigger firing all three flashguns simultaneously.

What gear we used

Flashguns
We used three Nikon Speedlights: one on the camera and the other two on stands. However, you can still get creative results using only one or two flashguns.

Two light stands
Jessops Portaflash lighting stands with adjustable tilting brolly brackets. These are easy to use, light and a good size at over two metres tall when fully extended.

Two umbrellas
A silver umbrella for a good coverage of light and a clear white umbrella, which creates a soft, diffused light.

PAGE 1: Great budget gear for shooting family portraits at home
PAGE 2: Best camera settings for shooting family portraits at home
PAGE 3: 5 tips to give your family portraits an edge
PAGE 4: Correcting family portraits post-capture

How to use an iPad or laptop as a light source for portraits, still lifes and more

jmeyer — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 23:01:10 +0000

In our most creative DIY Photography Hacks series post yet we show you how to use your iPad, tablet or laptop as a light source for illuminating portraits, still life set-ups, create shapes in catchlights, painting with light, making backgrounds in macro photography and even cross polarisation.

Did you know that you’re carrying around a brilliantly versatile little softbox in your backpack? Your tablet or laptop isn’t just useful for editing and sharing photos, it’s also easily converted into a light for illuminating portraits and still lifes. Plus, it’s a lot cheaper and more portable than expensive, heavy lighting systems.

Laptops put out a lot of light, especially in a darkened room, and using a program like Microsoft Paint or our favourite lighting app, Softbox Pro (£1.99/$0.99), you can open up a white screen that will act as a light source in the same way as a softbox does.

The great thing about a digital lighting system is that you can choose new backgrounds, colours and shapes to instantly customise the effect.

In this guide we’ll look at six different lighting set ups that use just your tablet as a light source. We’re shooting portrait photos of our model, Charlotte, using iPads as softboxes to light her face, and experimenting with shapes to create unusual catchlights in her eyes for a really striking look.

We’ll also look at how to use your tablet to light a simple still life for better food and product shots. Plus, we’ll show you how to add patterned backgrounds to your macro shots, play with cross-polarisation effects and even paint with light for really creative photos.

Using an iPad to light a portrait

Set your tablet up next to your model’s face like we did at the top of this page, or have them hold it so the light falls where you need it

For this technique, you’ll need to shoot in a darkened room so that the tablet’s light is the only thing illuminating your model.

Use a tripod for stability and pick a high ISO to compensate for the low light. We used a shutter speed of 1/15 sec and created a shallow depth of field with an aperture of f/5.6.

Set your tablet at an angle to the model’s face and adjust the angle until you get an effect you like. This technique works just as well with a laptop screen.

Proper support
Tablets and laptops produce a lovely soft light, but there’s not very much of it, so you need to choose your settings carefully.

Start by mounting the camera on a tripod – this will enable you to choose whatever lens aperture you need to make the photo composition work without having to worry about the shutter speed.

If you’re shooting portraits, though, you’ll need to increase the ISO because your subject won’t be able to stay still enough for long exposures.

We were using our 18-55mm kit lens at its maximum aperture of f/5.6 at its maximum zoom setting, and ISO1600 gave us shutter speeds in the region of 1/15 sec to 1/30 sec at f/5.6.

PAGE 1 – DIY Photography Hacks: using an iPad to light a portrait
PAGE 2 – DIY Photography Hacks: use your tablet to create cool catchlights
PAGE 3 – DIY Photography Hacks: use your iPad to light your still life photography
PAGE 4 – DIY Photography Hacks: use your tablet to create a background for macro photography
PAGE 5 – DIY Photography Hacks: create rainbow cross-polarisation effects using your iPad
PAGE 6 – DIY Photography Hacks: use your iPad to paint with light

Off Camera Flash Photography: tips from Damien Lovegrove for shooting outdoors

jmeyer — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 23:01:45 +0000

In our latest Professional Photographer to the Rescue post, famous portrait photographer Damien Lovegrove shares his best off camera flash photography tips for coping with difficult lighting when shooting portraits outdoors.

Meet our professional photographer

Damien Lovegrove is one of the UK’s most sought-after wedding and portrait photographers. Having learned his trade as a cameraman and lighting director at the BBC, he swapped moving imagery for stills ten years ago and has since built up a hugely successful photography business. He now shares his knowledge through workshops and seminars. See www.lovegroveconsulting.com.

Meet our apprentice

Richard Twiner works in a civilian role for the police and recently completed an A-level in Photography. His course taught him all the ins and outs of studio flash, but outdoor and off camera flash still puzzles him. He’d like advice on perfecting his photo composition and lighting skills outside of the studio environment.

Technique Assessment

Is Richard using his camera and flash gear in the best possible way?

Lock and load
So Richard could use the flashgun away from his DSLR, he attached the Canon Speedlite Transmitter to his 40D’s hotshoe. Damien told Richard to use the lock switch to stop it slipping off mid shoot.

“When you turn it on, the red pilot light should come on,” says Damien. “If it’s taking a while then it usually means the batteries are going flat, so always make sure you carry spares.” The ST-E2 Transmitter takes a 2CR5 Lithium battery. We set the transmitter to channel 1.

Switch to slave
For Richard’s flashgun to work off camera, he was told to switch it to ‘slave’ mode. On the Speedlite 580EX II, Damien told him to hold down the zoom button for a few seconds until a sub menu appeared. Richard then moved the select dial to turn the ‘slave’ on and pressed Set on the dial.

He then clicked twice on the zoom button until the channel selector (CH.) started flashing, and set the channel to 1. With flash and transmitter in sight of each other, Richard pressed the pilot light on the transmitter and the flash fired.

PAGE 1: Meet our professional photographer and apprentice
PAGE 2: Setting up to shoot off camera flash photography
PAGE 3: Final off camera flash tips from our professional photographer
PAGE 4: Our professional photographer’s recommended gear
PAGE 5: Shot of the Day

How to photograph anything: best camera settings for perfect portrait photography

jmeyer — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 23:01:25 +0000

In the second part of our Shoot Like A Pro series on how to photograph any subject you want we take a closer look at the best camera settings for portrait photography. Our guide takes you through blurring backgrounds, setting up your camera for moving subjects, indoors vs outdoor portraits, and more.

Best camera settings for outdoor portrait photography

Blurring the background is the key to classic portrait shots, to direct attention to the main subject. Using a standard zoom lens, set the focal length to between 50 and 100mm. Set your camera to Aperture Priority and select the largest aperture available on your lens, such as f/4 or f/5.6.

While the aperture and the depth of field are important, you also need to watch the shutter speed. Make sure you’re using a shutter speed of at least 1/125sec to freeze any camera shake or subject movement. You also need to set the Autofocus mode to single or one shot, and select the focus point so that it’s over the eye of the subject.

How to set up your camera for outdoor portraits

Exposure mode Aperture Priority (A or Av)
To take control over the depth of field, select Aperture Priority. Use the input dial to select the largest aperture available on your lens.

Autofocus point Single point
Set to single point autofocus, then select the AF point closest to the subject’s eye. Half-press the shutter release to focus on the eye.

Shutter speed Set by camera

Aperture f/4

ISO 100

Lens 50 to 100mm

Focus mode Single or one shot

Drive mode Single shot

White balance The preset to suit the light source

PAGE 1: Best camera settings for outdoor portrait photography
PAGE 2: Best camera settings for indoor portrait photography
PAGE 3: Best camera settings for portraits of moving subjects

Fashion photography tips: Lara Jade on perfect lighting and simple compositions

jmeyer — Thu, 23 May 2013 23:01:23 +0000

In our latest Professional Photographer to the Rescue, world famous photographer Lara Jade steps in to share her best fashion photography tips with our apprentice.

Meet our professional photographer

Lara Jade began her photography career aged 14, taking fine art and self-portrait images. At just 22 years old, she has an mpressive client list including Elle, Harper Collins, BBC and Schwarzkopf. Her unique romantic, gothic style of imagery has built a strong following and earned her a place in the fashion photography elite. See more of her work at www.larajade.co.uk, or book a photography workshop at www.larajadeworkshops.com.

Meet our apprentice

Nicki Fairall is the owner of Uber Beauty Rooms in Marlow, Buckinghamshire. As well as being a talented beautician and businesswoman, she’s also a keen photographer with a love of portraits. As she is coming to the end of her photography diploma course, she’d love to add some high-fashion images to her portfolio, but is unsure how to get the right lighting and find a willing model.

Technique Assessment

Manual mode for models
“Like many people, Nicki had been using Av mode for her portraits, but Manual mode gives so much more control,” explains Lara.

“Being able to set both the shutter speed and aperture means your exposures will always remain consistent, highly important when using studio lights. It also enables you  to maintain your depth of field, so everything from the tip of the nose to the final strands of stylishly coiffured hair is in focus.”

Maximise detail with raw format
“I always shoot in raw format – it gives me the best quality images. I love using Photoshop to manipulate my shots and add a fantasy element, so I have to ensure I have as much colour and luminance data to play with as possible,” says Lara. “I got Nicki to shoot in raw too, so she won’t be losing important detail and introducing artefacts when she edits her shots later.”

PAGE 1: Meet our professional photographer and apprentice
PAGE 2: Fashion photography tips for during the shoot
PAGE 3: Final fashion photography tips from Lara Jade
PAGE 4: Lara Jade’s recommended gear
PAGE 5: Shot of the Day

READ MORE

Headshots: how to shoot passport photos social media profiles and other informal portraits

crutter — Tue, 21 May 2013 23:01:28 +0000

In this ultimate guide to taking headshots, we explain how to shoot passport photos, profile pictures for social media and dating sites, and other types of informal portrait photography.

First impressions count, and the headshot that accompanies an online profile can be as important as the words. A blurred shot taken on a night out won’t create the right impression for many sites, so we’re going to show you how you can produce headshots for a variety of uses.

Taking control of the lighting is the key to taking really effective portraits. This control also enables you to produce shots in a similar style time after time. We’ll demonstrate how to use a basic flashgun plus some simple accessories.

Once you’ve mastered the basics of taking headshots, we’ll use backgrounds and a second flash to give your headshots extra impact. Finally we’ll run through how to shoot passport photos that can be used for many types of documentation.

Remember that you should use a pose and style of lighting that suits the type of site, medium and purpose that the portrait photograph is going to be used for.

How to set up your home studio to shoot headshots

You don’t need all this kit to shoot the most basic headshots, but with it you have more versatility

01 Radio trigger
A radio trigger is the most convenient and reliable way to fire your flashgun off-camera. It gives you complete freedom to move around without having to worry about the length of cables.

02 Softbox
A softbox is an easy way to soften the light from your flashgun without losing too much light. Even with the softbox attached, you need to position the flash as close as possible to the subject.

03 Reflector
A silver or white reflector is useful for lightening the shadows on your subject. Position one on the opposite side of the subject to the flash. If necessary you can get the subject to hold one under their face.

04 Background
A coloured wall is perfectly okay as a background, but you can also use card or cloth for brighter-coloured backgrounds. Stick these to the wall or use a tripod or lighting stand to hold them in place.

05 Seat
Your subject will probably be more comfortable sitting down than standing up. When seated they are also much less likely to change position, making it easier to get consistent lighting.

06 Tripod or stand
Most radio triggers have a socket underneath to allow you to attach an off-camera flash to a standard tripod. If you are using an umbrella attachment bracket you’ll need to use a lighting stand.

07 Get close
When firing a flash directly at the subject, the light gets softer the closer the flash is to the subject and harsher the further it is away from them. For the most flattering results, position the flash as close as possible to the model.

PAGE 1: How to set up your home studio to shoot headshots
PAGE 2: How to set up your flash to shoot headshots
PAGE 3: Shooting headshots with a one flash setup
PAGE 4: Shooting headshots with two flashguns
PAGE 5: How to shoot passport photos
PAGE 6: Capturing informal looks for social media profile pictures

Baby photography tips for the ‘newborn-again’ photographer

jmeyer — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 23:01:59 +0000

In our latest Professional Photographer to the Rescue post our professional photographer helps our apprentice take her first steps taking infant portraits. Find out her baby photography tips for taking classic, timeless images.

Our professional photographer

Tracy Willis has only been photographing babies professionally for the past two-and-a-half years, but has won many prestigious awards and has just been named People Photographer of the Year 2012 and Overall Photographer of the Year 2012 by The Guild of Photographers. In addition to photographing infants in her Bournemouth studio, she trains others in the art of baby portraiture. See www.maternity2mischief.co.uk

Our apprentice

Originally from South Africa, Carmen Furlonger now lives in Bedfordshire with her husband and seven-month-old daughter Ava. She has built up an extensive portfolio of photos of Ava as she grows up, but feels her baby portraits lack the pro touch and came to us for help…

Technique Assessment

Tracy asked Carmen to get set up to shoot some babies, then suggested these changes…

Exposure settings
“Carmen set her camera to Av mode and a wide f/3.2 aperture for a shallow depth of field, but I find that this can be a little too shallow, with vital detail dropping out of focus. My go-to aperture is f/5.6 as this ensures that baby’s features are sharp while allowing the background to blur.

“I also advised Carmen to shoot in Manual mode at around 1/100 sec to sync with the studio lights, and at ISO100 for best quality. Most important of all is to shoot in raw format so you can get the very best from your shots in Photoshop.”

Manual AF point selection
“Carmen set the camera to Single AF point selection, but was using the central AF point to focus, and recomposing. I explained that when shooting up close, even the small movement of swinging the camera for a more pleasing composition can be enough to shift the focus plane, meaning that details aren’t as pin-sharp as you’d like.

“I showed her that, by pressing the + zoom button, she could easily scroll through her AF points to place a point on the baby’s eye for pin-sharp focus, without taking her eye away from the viewfinder.”

PAGE 1: Meet our professional photographer and apprentice
PAGE 2: Baby photography tips for during the shoot
PAGE 3: Final baby photography tips from our professional photographer
PAGE 4: Our professional photographer’s recommended gear
PAGE 5: Shot of the Day

DIY Photography Hacks: get cool soft focus effects using a pair of tights

jmeyer — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 10:00:19 +0000

There’s no need to spend hours on the computer creating soft focus Photoshop effects when it’s so easy to do it in-camera. In our latest DIY Photography Hacks post we show you how to use a simple pair of tights to create a wonderful soft-focus effect in your portraits.

It’s possible to buy all manner of soft-focus filter attachments for your camera. Nikon even makes a lens that allows you to defocus areas of a shot. But for this project we’re using a cheeky old-fashioned technique which works amazingly well.

All you need is a pair of tights. You could use ones that the owner doesn’t want any more, though they cost so little to buy that we’d recommend you go out and shop for a new pair.

Take a pair of scissors, and carefully cut out an area large enough to cover the lens and extend down onto the barrel. Fix it down with an elastic band and start shooting.

You’ll need to get tights of the right thickness and take the colour into account, and be careful not to ladder the fabric, but that really is all there is to it.

The fine net pattern of the fabric produces the soft-focus effect, as the image is formed from the light that passes through the tiny gaps between the threads.

This may be related to the diffraction (softening) effects you get when shooting with extremely small lens apertures, but if there are any experts in optics out there who know better, please let us know!

There are two reasons why we really like this effect. First, there’s no need to make any special adjustments to the camera settings – you can just fit the tights and shoot normally. The only settings we changed were the sort you’d use for portrait photography anyway.

Second, you can see just how your pictures will come out in the viewfinder as you shoot, and on the LCD display immediately afterwards.

Photoshop has its advantages, of course, but it’s really useful to be able to see these effects as go along so that you can modify your settings and your composition to get the best possible results.

Make soft focus effects the DIY photography way

01 Advice from an expert
Our model Sam helped us pick out suitable hosiery for our soft-focus effect. The colour makes a difference, of course, but the key factor is the thickness, or the ‘denier’ value. We settled on 15-denier tights, which gave the perfect soft-focus look but still showed enough detail in Sam’s features.

02 A bit of a stretch
You need to cut out a section from the tights which is at least twice the size of the lens, so that you can fold it back along the barrel and secure it with an elastic band. An extra pair of hands is useful! Once the elastic band is in place, pull on the edges to smooth out the wrinkles.

03 Shades of grey
Our tights are a charcoal grey colour. The shade of grey won’t make any difference to the pictures – darker tones will reduce the exposure, but the camera’s exposure meter will compensate automatically. Different-coloured tights will affect the colour balance, though.

04 Smile please
Now we just shoot as normal. These 15 denier tights are quite thin, and the autofocus on our D300s copes perfectly well even though the image is a lot hazier. Normal portrait photography rules still apply: use a longer lens for a more flattering perspective, and always focus on the eyes.

Best Camera Settings
To make the most of the hazy, soft-focus effect we set the camera to A, or aperture-priority, mode and set our 18-70mm lens to its longest focal length and maximum aperture (f/4.5 at 70mm). This gives shallow depth of field so that the background is thrown out of focus. We used Auto White Balance because our tights were a neutral colour. If you use coloured tights, set a  manual White Balance preset to stop the camera trying to ‘correct’ the tint.

Shooting in full sun: 3 ways to banish shadows shooting portraits outside

jmeyer — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:59:57 +0000

Are unflattering shadows spoiling your outdoor portrait photography? Here are three simple ways you can rescue your portraits when shooting in full sun.

Photographers are naturally drawn to shooting on sunny days. Everything appears bright and colourful, and these conditions often seem ideal for cheerful images.

But bright sunlight can create harsh, unflattering shadows and over-exposed hotspots, especially if you are shooting during the middle of the day.

Our before image

One way to improve your results is to limit your photography to times when the natural light is more appealing (earlier or later in the day), but this can be restricting and may not always be possible.

Instead, you can try these quick fixes to solve the problem and help bring your people pictures out of the shadows.

Three easy ways to take flattering portraits when shooting in full sun

01 Shoot in the shade
If possible, move your subject into the shade to avoid direct sunlight. Make sure that both the subject and the background are lit similarly to avoid problems with an unbalanced exposure. Deep shade can cause a blue cast, however, so adjust the white balance to compensate for this.

02 Use a reflector
Position your subject with their back to the sun so that there is no direct light falling onto their face. This creates an appealing rim-lit effect around the subject, but their face will be under-lit, so use a sliver or white reflector to bounce light back onto your subject’s face.

03 Fire some flash
Using a reflector can be awkward without help, so use your flash to do a similar job. With the subject looking away from the sun, light their face with fill-in flash. For a more subtle effect dial in around -2EV of flash compensation and check your results to ensure the flash light isn’t too obvious. Adjust the compensation if necessary.

Group Photography: 12 ways to make your portraits shine

jmeyer — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 23:01:29 +0000

Is your group photography stuck in a rut? If you’re bored of the formal group pictures there are some subtle and creative ways to make your group photos more engaging. In this tutorial we’ll start by showing you the basics to set up and shoot the traditional group shot… and then how to take your group photography one step beyond.

Anyone who’s tried to shoot group photography will know they can be a lot harder to pull off than individual portraits. First you have to get everyone together at the same time and wearing the right expressions, and then you have to figure out how to compose your image so that it doesn’t just look like a boring and predictable line-up.

There is a place for these, of course. Special family occasions are one example, where the main reason for taking the picture is to capture a record of the event. Prize-givings, awards and company group shots are other examples.

However, there are times when you want a more casual approach that captures the personalities of your subjects and their spontaneous reactions, or you may be asked to come up with something more creative, such as an album cover for a band.

This is when you need to explore some less formal photo opportunities, and get more adventurous with your shooting angles, lens choice and camera settings.

There are other secrets to great group photography, such as making the most of your surroundings. Your choice of lens and viewpoint will obviously affect what’s in the background of your group photography, but you can go further, using doorways to frame your subjects, for example, or making seats, steps and railings part of the composition.

The most important thing of all is to work on the interaction between yourself and your subjects, and use the group dynamics, working with obvious pairings and groups within the larger collective.

Professional models know how to pose, but most of your subjects will feel quite awkward, so explain what you’re trying to do as you go along. Best of all, find some activity for them to engage in, no matter how silly, to break the ice and get some great expressions.