zen and the art of photography
A portrait is a photograph in which a person or persons are emphasized as the subject. The subject could be presented simply, static and extracted from any other elements or could be part of a much larger picture but given emphasis through composition or exposure.
There are no rules in portraiture other than to do unto others as you would have them do unto you; the camera can be made to lie quite easily here and the subject is in your hands. You may have to work the shot more with portraiture than any other genre in photography in order to faithfully portray someone. Good photographs of people are both of them and about them. Use your natural sense of body language and knowledge and/or appreciation of your subject combined with an intentional goal.
Focus on your subject’s eyes, both figuratively and literally. A photo may be doomed if everything but the subject’s eyes are in focus. A flat perspective (think telephoto lens) is generally better for portraits as body parts would look larger or smaller projecting or receding into the frame, something naturally heightened with a wide angle lens. A natural feeling “contrapposto” type pose adds an engaging believability with its tension in balance. Let the subject relax into their own comfort zone. Compositionally the portrait is one type of photograph that a simple straight and centered composition works very well and yet remains engaging.
Separate your subject from the background in a portrait to both simplify the composition and to separate the two in terms of exposure, lighting, and focus. Decrease your depth of field to further simplify. For the least depth of field use a telephoto lens, open your lens to its maximum aperture, ( hopefully f2.8, f2, f1.8, 1.4, or 1.2), and defocus your lens until the far limit of focus is at the subject thereby throwing away most of your depth of field in front of the subject. You can use your depth of field preview button and/or your lens may have markings for depth of focus at particular apertures to aid in this. You can also use a neutral density filter to enable you to use your maximum aperture by reducing the effective exposure. Lastly there are effects and settings in programs such as photoshop that will separate and blur the background in a portrait.
Use the two ingredients of light and time. Lighting is key in a portrait. Think of the size of a light source, (relative to the size of the subject) as the determining factor in the quality of the light; hard or soft. A larger light source will be softer, a smaller light source will be harder. Choose your lighting as a mixture of both to add depth to the tonal values. To change the effective size of the light source on a sunny day you would simply move into shade,(subtractive lighting). Be aware of the color shift in shade. Use a large light source to fill the subject and retain detail in the shadows. use a smaller light source directionally to emphasize three dimensional form. It’s helpful to pick one source as the “key” light if using more than one. If searching for a light source and not finding one remember; nothing beats a single large window.
What are you portraying? A subject in their environment? Beauty? Are you illustrating a personality? Do you want a candid or something posed? Do you want a natural pose or something contrived and dramatic? Where do you want to set the tonal values for mood, high key or low key?
Look at the effect your camera position has on the appearance of the subject. Viewpoint is important in portraits. Move the subject, lights, and/or yourself to effect large changes in the photograph. Look for significant details and focus in.