Beginner Portrait photography tips and tricks

Portrait photography is one of the most sought after photography by photographers after landscape photography. In daily life, portrait photography may be more popular than other type of photography. If we check out social networks website like facebook and myspace, we see millions of portrait photographs circulated and growing with exponential speed.

Thus, knowing a good portrait photograph in my opinion is very important, especially to capture the important moments.

Here are some portrait photos with a variety of tips and tricks

Problem with the image above is from the back light overpowers the front light. As a result, the person’s face was dark, while the background is bright.

The practical solution is to use the flash to illuminate the face. If you wear a pocket camera, find and activate fill in flash. If the DSLR camera, you usually stay open the flash.

In addition to using the flash, changing the lens focal range (zoom length) is also very influential in portrait photography. In the photo above, I am using D3000 with Nikon 18-55mm lens, at 35mm zoom length or it’s equivalent to 52mm on film cameras. 52mm has almost the same perspective or field of view with our eyes.

Photo above is shot by using a range of 24mm lens (equivalent to 35mm). There is noticeable distortion effect on the face.

Photo above was taken with a range of 24mm lens (equivalent to 35mm). We can see a little distortion on the face, in addition, there is a problem with light, especially the left side of the face. The image is very harsh. The solution of the above problem is to find another position or use reflectors to illuminate the shadows in the left side of his face

Photo above is still having problem with harsh light. But now I use the 55mm focal range (82mm equivalent). The face looks more attractive because the face is not distorted.

In addition, the background also becomes more blurred, and objects in the background looks more closer than the reality.

Photo above was taken with 85mm f/1.4 lens. Using a maximum opening of 1.4, I can make the background becomes very blurred. Focal length of 85mm (equivalent to 135mm) is ideal for portrait photography, especially if you are going after glamour or fashion photography.

Often times, candid photo is more interesting than if the model looks directly into the lens. In addition, I also show how editing the photo can significantly alter the mood, color, intensity of color. With editing the photo, you can show the audience how you see the world.

Same as No.8, by using the image editing tool, you can turn ordinary photo into classic photo. Portrait need not always be sharp down to the pores, especially images of women.

Hopefully this guide and the examples above can help you produce good portrait photo, for professional, hobby or family purposes.

Thanks for Oana Peterca, my lovely friend.