Portrait Photography Tips to Help you Become a Star Photographer

Every photographer desires to be the best in his domain, but very few can actually achieve success. As a professional photographer, you should be in the know of certain ideas that work like magic. Tips to click great portrait photographs can include everything from making the children stay still to changing your camera’s settings. Read on to know more.

Aperture Suggestion

Shooting portraits requires the camera to have a wide aperture of about f/2.8-f/5.6 so that it can capture a shallow field depth and the subject’s background is blurred, making the subject appear prominent. You should make it a point to shoot in aperture priority mode in order that you can control the field depth. If you own a DSLR, it will set the shutter speed for correct exposure in this mode. In case you are using specialist portrait lenses, you can enjoy a wider maximum apertures for a more blurred background.

Exposure Talk

The metering system of your camera plays a crucial role when it comes to capturing moments. It helps to understand the amount of light that should enter the camera to make an ideal exposure. However, multi-zone metering systems do come with their problems as they take an average reading, which is assumed to be a midtone, or somewhere between black and white. Even though the assumption is mostly correct, extreme darkness or brightness can get the metering system confused.

While you are shooting a portrait, a subject’s light skin tone can make the camera underexpose the shot. A great specimen of this type of problem is a bride on her wedding day.

To right the wrong, you can make use of the exposure compensation controls. Dial till +1 of exposure compensation, and ensure light tones on people’s face. When you are done, check the shots once, and in case you think that the faces need to be lightened more, increase it.

Enhance your ISO

Imagine a portrait photograph where your subject has his eyes closed or has a hand blurred. It is normal for people to move around when posing for photos and also change their facial expressions. And a photo, where the subject is half-blinking rather than smiling, is a complete disappointment. Fast shutter speed can help you to avoid such situations and also guarantee sharp shots, as well as, get rid of camera-shake as portraits are usually shot handheld.

When you are in the aperture priority mode and are maintaining a wide aperture, you can heighten the shutter speed by increasing the ISO. If the surroundings are not adequately illuminated, you may have to raise it to ISO 6,400.

With the above-mentioned knowledge in mind, it is time you start taking some more photos. The portrait photographs will astound your subjects like never before.