Portrait Photography Class Notes

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY CLASS

 

When shooting in Manual this means that you are setting your ISO, White Balance, Aperture and Metering your light which picks your Shutter Speed.  You DO NOT move the switch that is on the side of your lens to M.  Leave it on M/A.  Also on the body of your camera (Nikon it is on left side at the bottom near where the lens removal button is) there is a switch/button that says AF/M.  Do not change that either.  Leave it on AF.  There are a few ways you can get a meter reading for the correct Shutter Speed.

 

1. Using a light meter (very expensive)
2. Using a new App for the iPhone or Droid called Exposure Pro Plus which was designed by      the instructors I am taking my classes from.  Capturing True Emotion is the name of their company.  This App is totally awesome!!! 
3. Metering from an 18% Gray Card (which is what we did today).
4. Or trying to find the neutral or medium tones/color of the subject you are shooting with your human eye…not easy to do.

 

Okay…the steps for taking a perfect Portrait photo are to:

 

1. Set your Focus Mode to Spot, your Metering Mode to Spot Metering and your AutofocusMode to AF-S (Single Servo).
2. Change your Dial to M
3. Pick your ISO trying the lower numbers first.  Usually 100 for sunny days and 400 for cloudy or shade but you need to play around with it.
4. Pick your White Balance.  Usually Sunny, Cloudy or Shade if outside.  White Balance is also a personal thing.  Some like the warm tones and others like the bluish colder tones.  This also is what starts to define your type of photographic signature.
5. Pick your Aperture.  This will depend on how much out of focus you want the background.  We used 5.6 all day.
6. Now you need to pull out a gray card.  They have these cool tiny little things that look like the window shades people put on their dashboards.  I am going to buy one.  It is small enough to fold up and put in your pocket.
7. Have your subject hold the gray card and get as close as you can if using a 50 mm prime or if you are further away, change your Exposure Metering from Spot to Center-Weighted and zoom in for a tight reading.  You then might try shooting with that setting or if not, switch back to Spot.  Fill your screen with the gray and tap your release button to activate your Exposure Meter which is the ruler looking thing across the bottom of your view finder.  Will read –lllll0lllll+.  Some Nikons read the opposite so make note where the + or – is.  My Nikon D7000 allows me to change it and I prefer it the way I typed it above which is the way Canons read.
8. Once you have your Meter activated then using your Shutter Speed dial bring the needle up or down until it is right on the -0-.  You do NOT need to hold down the release button while doing this nor do you take a picture.  Only if the screen turns off would you tap the release button to reactivate the screen.  After you have metered look at your Shutter Speed.  You should be shooting no lower than 1/80.  If the reading took your Shutter Speed too low then UP YOUR ISO. Re-meter the subject with the gray card and see if the Shutter Speed is higher.  Once you have achieved the higher Shutter Speed you are ready to shoot.  Now you have a perfect exposure reading for that particular setting.  If the lighting changes as sun comes in and out then you will need to re-meter from time to time.  VERY IMPORTANT…after you have metered for your exposure and you now are going to compose your photo you might notice that the meter is moving and is no longer on -0-…just ignore this.  You have already set the correct exposure with the gray card.  I don’t know how to explain it other than IGNORE IT!

 

The class I took today was for Portrait Photography and we did all our work outside.  There were only 10 people so we got tons of individual attention.  Every shot was checked by one of the two Professionals.  An absolutely amazing day.  We had a cloudy day with a burst of sun every now and then so we pretty much kept our White Balance in Cloudy or Shade or you could use Auto WB.  We put our subjects in shade and you want to stay away from any spots of sun breaking through on your subject.  If shadows appeared in the eye sockets then we used flashes.  Some only had the built in flash and most cameras have the ability to go into the menu settings and reduce the intensity.  You can also buy a little diffuser for your built-in flash. I have the “puffer” made by Gary Fong.  I used my external flash and added my big diffuser which looks like a lamp shade.  I reduced my light intensity through my flash settings on my flash and used -0.3.  I flipped my flash up and bounced the light off the overhang above us.  You can’t bounce off the sky.  External flashes also come with pull down lenses that lessen the intensity of the flash.  They are usually found tucked away right above the flash lens.  Pull out and down.  I didn’t know I had one for the first three years…duh!  In a few weeks they are holding a Kids Portrait class which I plan to attend and maybe kids will transfer to Doodles and I can learn something about things moving.  The one thing with Portrait photography is that you need to do your homework before you start shooting.  You need to get the right setting, lighting and then metering and set up your camera.  All while your subject is just sitting there.  Also, get creative and don’t just shoot them straight on.  Have them leaning against a wall, use the Rule of Thirds, shoot at angles and get in tight.  Make them look and feel relaxed.  Hands in pockets, leaning into the wall or other person and get them to tilt their heads.  When doing a group don’t line them up.  Put tall person in the middle and have the others lean into that person or lean their arm on the other’s shoulder.  It is amazing what you can do by just walking around the subject and turning your camera on an angle.  It will be interesting with kids in a few weeks.  I also want to ask questions about shooting inside.  I think everything still applies though probably a bit more fill-flash is involved.  Hope this helps everyone and I made it somewhat clear.  Oh, we never used a monopod or tripod for any of our photos!  Send me questions if you want me to ask them at the next class.

 

For the Puffer

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=706801&a...

 

These are the people I take classes from when they come to town.  Huge discount if you are a returning student.  Or, I got my first class on Groupon.  This is the same group that Gina (GBK) took from and told me about.  Thank you, Thank you!

http://www.capturingtrueemotion.com/

I used my Nikon 50 mm lens and shot with a Nikon D7000.  All of the photos below are right out of the camera.  I have not adjusted any lighting or color.  The one thing that you will notice if you were to zoom in...the eyes are always in focus and really pretty!  The lady with the long black hair is the instructor Stephanie.  The others are students who were in my class.

[Dori & Rua]

Thanks for posting Nancie!  Have to go to work (bummer) so I'll have to read it through tonight.  I know this is going to be help to many!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

What a great class!  Thanks for sharing all of this information...the pictures are wonderful.

[GBK]

Fabulous Nancie!!  I am glad the class was worth it.  I think I might try to incorporate a class when I take my next CA trip.  I haven't seen any advertised for LV.

My favorites are the close up of Stephanie and the close up of the lady with green eyes, really Wonderful!  Thanks for the instructions.

[Carol and Banjo]

Nancie.....You're a sweetheart for taking the time to pass on what you learned....it's very much appreciated!   Isn't it great to take these wonderful photos and post them "right out of the box"...no post-processing?!   They're wonderful.   I really love the one of your instructor sitting "framed" on that porch!  Thanks!

[F, Calla & Luca]

Wow, thanks for all the info which I will study at my leisure. It was so good of you to share all this with us! These portraits are great, especially to my eyes, the man, the blond and the last one of Stephanie. I wonder why the first photo in the series was so much less warm in tone than the rest. As to the light meter, I have no problem letting the camera do some of the work for me--Pixel is very smart! As an aside, the black hair does not look natural and it isn't : )

[Leslie and Halas]

Thanks for sharing this information!  Great photos, too!

[Ann Kendig]

Great job on your photos and thanks for posting. Mike

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

You are right F...her hair is dyed!!!!  As to the warmth of one photo over another that is due to the choice of White Balance.  We were playing around with different settings.  I tend to like the warmer tones whereas the instructor with the "black" hair likes the cooler blue tones.  We were using the Auto White Balance, Sunny but mostly Cloudy and Shade.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I know, it looked unnatural so I looked at a higher mag. and the truth was apparent : ) I prefer the somewhat warmer myself but in general I prefer whatever is most like what the colors actually are.

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

Uh oh...that is scarey F.  Is there going to be a discussion on who has natural hair and who doesn't??  lol  Your magnification can get a lot of us in big trouble...ha ha

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Thanks for sharing, Nancie.

[Susie Vetter]

Fabulous Nancie. I bought a 60mm yesterday and can't wait to use it. Great tips. Great pics. Merry Christmas fellow doodle mama!