Foundation Course: Portrait Photography: The Essential Beginner's Guide - Softcover

Plater, Sarah; Macgregor, Hannah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1781450897 ISBN 13: 9781781450895

Verlag: Guild of Master Craftsman Publications Ltd, 2015

Inhaltsangabe

Authoritative, concise course on successfully shooting arresting portraits, perfect for the novice photographer

Portrait photography aims to capture the expression, personality, and mood of a person or group of people. Like other types of portraiture, the focus of the photograph is usually the person's face, although the entire body and the background or context may also be included. With clear, concise, and jargon-free text, Portrait Photography guides the novice photographer through the various styles of portraiture to capture subjects from babies, toddlers, and children to teenagers and adults, and couples to families. The book begins with information on how to set up a small portrait studio in the home, including the use of appropriate backgrounds, flash equipment, and other accessories, in addition to assembling a portable kit of equipment for shooting in the field. As a guide to the technical aspects of photography, the authors cover the essentials of correct exposure, white balance settings, and shooting in natural light, along with hints and tips on pre-shoot preparations such as make-up, hair, and clothing for the subject of the portrait. Post-production techniques such as skin retouching and color correction are explained, as are printing options for portraits. The main content of the book is structured as a tutorial that explains the basic skills and techniques of photography in relation to the specific subject area it covers. This allows the reader to progress at his or her own pace. An informative lesson is followed by an easy revision guide, which leads on to a specific practical project. A section on analysis encourages the reader to critique his or her own work by pointing out the likely pitfalls.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Hannah MacGregor has run Funky Photographers for more than seven years. Sarah Plater began experimenting with film photography more than 15 years ago, transitioning to digital as it became more affordable. She then spent three years working at a high street photography studio, before leaving to concentrate on natural light portraiture. She has written for several popular photography magazines.

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Portrait Photography

The Essential Beginner's Guide

By Sarah Plater, Hannah MacGregor, Chris Gatcum

AE Publications Ltd

Copyright © 2014 Sarah Plater & Hannah MacGregor
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-78145-089-5

Contents

PART ONE: GETTING STARTED, 6, 
Equipment, 8, 
Basics, 18, 
PART TWO: LIGHT & LOCATION, 38, 
Lesson Choosing locations, 40, 
Project Scouting locations, 54, 
Lesson Choosing locations, 60, 
Project Scouting locations, 70, 
PART THREE: PEOPLE & POSING, 76, 
Lesson Babies (0-12 months), 78, 
Project ISO settings, 88, 
Lesson Toddlers (1-3 years), 94, 
Project Shutter speeds, 102, 
Lesson Children (3-12 years), 108, 
Project Metering modes, 118, 
Lesson Teenagers & Adults, 124, 
Project Focusing, 130, 
Lesson Couples, 136, 
Project Composition, 146, 
Lesson Families, 152, 
Project Manual mode, 162, 
GLOSSARY, 170, 
USEFUL WEB SITES, 173, 
INDEX, 174, 

CHAPTER 1

GETTING STARTED

When shown a great photograph, it is still a common reaction for people to say, "Wow, you have a good camera!" Yet the equipment you use Is only a contributing factor. Just as you would never credit the oven for the skills of a chef, there's more than decent camera kit behind a great shot — especially when working with people.

Our formula for successful portraiture looks like this: Camera settings + flattering light + appropriate background + good rapport = great portrait

We'll cover camera equipment and settings in Part One, followed by light and location in Part Two. Part Three will give practical advice for approaching different age groups, with hundreds of tips and techniques for getting those all-important expressions. We will also give you some practical "lessons" that you can follow for yourself to hone your skills.

Once you've read Part One, set your camera to Aperture Priority mode, select ISO 100, dial in the widest aperture available, and head outside and start shooting. Get to grips with these starter settings, taking photos of everything around you. Experiment using exposure compensation (see page 18) to lighten or darken your images, practice using different metering modes (see page 24), play around with different ways of composing your shots (see page 28), and learn to focus accurately (see page 26).

After that, move on to Part Two. Start looking for potential locations and notice how the light affects your images. Increase your ISO and try some indoor shots, but above all keep practicing!

At this stage you'll be ready to start getting other people involved, so read Part Three and arrange as many photo shoots of people of different ages as possible. Analyze your images critically — straight after you've taken them and again a few days later, with fresh eyes — and experiment with different postproduction techniques. Challenge yourself to continually improve the photos you take.

But don't stop there. Be brave and put your camera in Manual mode. Now you will be fully in control and, guess what? It's not as hard as it first appears.

Use your camera's histogram (see page 18) to tweak your settings and keep taking photos, as often as possible.

In a few days you can learn the basics.

In a few weeks you can become competent.

In a few months you will start to impress!

Let us know how you get on.

Hannah & Sarah

CHOOSING A CAMERA

You won't get far without the necessary kit, but which type of camera is best for portrait photography? There's more to it than just having a high pixel count — unless you're printing out huge enlargements of an image to go on the wall, a lot of the pixel detail will go to waste anyway. Instead, look for sensor size, lens quality, and the ability to take full control over the camera's settings.

CAMERA PHONES

Camera phones now boast huge numbers of megapixels, but don't be misled — these pixels are crammed onto tiny sensors in order to fit in amongst the phone's other electronics. This means that each pixel receives less light, so it won't necessarily produce better photos than a camera with fewer pixels, but a larger sensor. This is particularly evident in images taken in low light, which will have high levels of digital noise (random colored pixels appearing in areas that should be one solid color).

In addition, camera phones have a single, fixed lens, and the focal length is therefore not necessarily a flattering one, especially for close-ups. Many camera phones will not allow you to adjust the exposure settings, which will also curtail your creativity.

On the plus side, camera phones are portable and convenient, and as pro photographer Chase Jarvis once said: "The best camera is the one that's with you."

COMPACT CAMERAS

In general, compact cameras have larger lenses and sensors than camera phones, which allows more light to enter, and provides a larger area for it to be recorded on. This gives them superior image quality to camera phones, while offering similar levels of portability. The image quality of some of the latest compact cameras is more than enough for the average casual snapper, but in almost all models the sensor is smaller than those used in DSLRs.

The main limitation with this type of camera is that the lens is permanently attached, so you can only use the lens that comes with the camera. A compact camera's lens may have a good zoom range, but it won't have the ability to blur out the background on a portrait in the same way that a prime lens on a DSLR camera can.

Compact cameras still can't beat DSLRs for speed either — compacts are slower to start up and focus, and slower to take a shot Although this may only amount to fractions of a second, it can be the difference between capturing someone's expression and missing the moment.

You also need to make sure you can manually adjust the exposure settings. Some compact cameras have simplified "modes" (portraits, landscapes, sunsets, sports, and so on), but without full creative control over the exposure, your images are limited by the camera's decisions.

MIRRORLESS INTERCHANGEABLE LENS CAMERA

Mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras (or "MILCs") tend to be slightly larger than compact cameras, but as they don't contain a mirror, they are significantly smaller than DSLRs. However, they still allow you to change the lens and also have a sensor that is larger than those found in compact cameras, giving increased image quality. Indeed, some MILCs have sensors that are the same size as those in DSLRs, providing comparable image quality.

In use, the lack of a mirror system means that a MILC is much quieter than a DSLR. Many of them also function more like compact cameras than DSLRs, so they will feel more familiar to anyone who is used to a point-and-shoot camera. This makes them less daunting to budding photographers than dial- and button-covered DSLRs.

Some MILCs will accept DSLR lenses using an adapter, which is useful if you already have a range of lenses that you want to continue using. It is also beneficial because this is a relatively recent breed of digital camera, so there are currently fewer dedicated lenses to choose from.

Although the technology is rapidly improving, the autofocus system in most MILCs is not yet as good as those found in most DSLRs — some MILCs struggle to focus in low light, for example, while others fail to maintain focus on a moving subject....

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Guild of Master Craftsman Publications Ltd
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2015
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1781450897
• ISBN 13: 9781781450895
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 176
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: AC WORKS CONSULTING Srl; 39054729444; acworksltd@outlook.com; ; Via Vilfredo Pareto 125; CESENA (FC); 47521; Italien