Creating Pro looking home portraits

The capturing of portraits can be thought of as a a tricky business, and it is true that there are some skills require that may not be needed in other areas of photography. The most obvious difference is that you are dealing with a person, so personality has a part to play in creating a relaxed and happy atmosphere.

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If you are to shoot in a home studio, then the chances are you already know how your lighting works, the best angles, where to place the reflectors and set up the tripod, and of course all the equipment that is required will be close to hand. This is one of the few occasions when it is possible to control the elements needed to capture the best image possible.

What equipment does the amateur photographer need?

A good quality digital camera that has optical zoom and manual control over exposure, shutter speed and white balance. Most modern day digital cameras will offer these abilities. Also some form of lighting, a diffuser and a bounce board or reflector.

Does this sounds like a complicated, expensive list?

Most of these things can be fashioned from cheap easily available items you might already have in your home or can be found at any DIY Home store.

Here are three inexpensive items that can be used in a home studio. The first is a white cotton sheet. This has several uses and is cheap to buy. The first and probably the most obvious use is that it can be hung up and used as a back drop. For pictures of babies and toddlers it can be spread across the floor with the model wrapped in it or laid upon it. One of the good things about a simple white sheet is that it reflects a nice soft light, so if your subject is laid face down or on their side, any light added from the front will be reflected back up helping to fill dark shadow areas. The picture above is a good example of this, look how the shadow areas are soft gray rather than hard and dark. The second DIY item is a piece of white faced plywood. This is also great for reflecting soft light in to the shadows, but unlike the sheet it is stiff and offers the ability to direct light into specific areas.

Lastly there is a professional style 5 in 1 reflector and diffuser set. This particular one has a collapsible frame that springs open to a diameter of 80cm/31 inches. In this kit is a diffuser is attached within the collapsible frame, and to this four colored covers can be fitted, black, silver, gold and white. Just like the board it is stiff when expanded and can be angled to direct light into the required area. This style of diffuser has the advantage of being lightweight, which means the model can hold it themselves just out of shot, to shine light up into the shadows under the face area.

Use a tripod. When selecting a tripod, it is best to have one that is capable of tilting the camera 90 degrees to give the classic portrait look. The vertical shape helps to save any wasted space around the model and catches the viewers eye. The upright framing has been used by painters and artists for hundreds of years, and was adopted by photographers in the 1940’s during the rise of the wartime glamour models. It is possible to crop the image to create the portrait configuration, but this is throwing away a lot of pixels and detail, which could be better used within the photo. Even though the upright framing is a more agreeable look for portrait shots, never be afraid to take a few shots in landscape, especially if the model is reclined or laid down.

When shooting portraits keep a good distance between you and the subject, then use the zoom to fill the screen. This helps to de-emphasize the protruding features of the face, the nose, chin and forehead.

Setting the camera to aperture priority and adjusting the ISO to a low figure will leave the camera to work out the shutter speed. Keep an eye on the shutter speed the camera is giving you, as a low number like 1/30 or lower could result in motion blur and spoilt pictures.

Creating Mood

When shooting a portrait, hair and make up should be as natural as possible, so as not to steal the attention in the image, it is always better to ask the model to create the mood required by the way she/he poses. Having neutral make up also helps to create a clear canvas, ready for the image is to go through any retouching process that may be required.

Whether the shot is to be presented as natural, happy, sultry or serious, it is very important that this mood is created mostly with the eyes, a bright smile on the lips will be wasted if the eyes do not match. A more serious and intense look can only be achieved with the eyes.

The use of props is a delicate balance, they must not become the main focus. Some large props can be used as framing aids, it never hurts to experiment as long as the final objective is not forgotten, the session will be wasted if all the pictures taken are shots where the props take over.

Shoot in color.

Whether you want a finished image in color or black and white today’s editing software will make a better job of the conversion than your camera. This method also gives ultimate flexibility and choice.

There are a number of ways to convert color to black and white in most of today’s image editing app’s. Using the calculations method in Photoshop it is possible to choose the contrast data from the color channels (RGB - Red, Green and Blue) so there will always be a selection of black and white conversions to choose from. Black and white can make a quite ordinary color photo look stunning.

Check out Malcolm Boone’s excellent ebook on creating the right pose for portrait success.

Posing Secrets, The Photograhers Essential Guide, will give you the information and instruction you need to produce top quality professional portraits.