How to Take the Perfect Portrait

Series Summary

Photography is an art of making pictures by exposing film or another medium to a timed flash of light. The basic equipment used for photography includes a digital or mechanical camera equipped with a flash and film or a memory card. Mastering the art of photography is a technical and challenging experience. One has to learn how to focus the lens, control the aperture of the lens, filter the light, adjust the focal length and set the exposure among other things. In this series of free videos on taking photos, learn how to produce pictures using the techniques of photography. An experienced photographer demonstrates examples of the many camera accessories. Learn about the filters, portable flash units and light meters used to capture the perfect picture. Get recommendations on film formats, camera lighting, reflectors and diffusers as well as tips on setting manual controls, loading film for 35 mm cameras and printing images in the darkroom. Taking pictures is a great hobby to explore. Get these tips and many more in these free video clips and start taking pictures today!

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Frank Anderson, and I'd like to talk to you about making the perfect portrait. Let's deal with indoors first, studio photography. This is a professional flash gun, and umbrella. The umbrella is to make the light source softer, so the shadow edges are not so hard. You can use only one light, and with the aid of a reflector, like this, you can fill in the shadows. If you watch the shadows on my face, you can see the reflector fill them in, and then I can deepen the shadows by taking the reflector away. Of course, you don't have to have, lighting which is this expensive or this sophisticated. You can use security lighting, and some surface which is white, a sheet, say a bed sheet or newspapers, and photograph in black and white. Outdoors, the situation is simpler, but always remember that generally speaking, the sun should be behind you, not in front of your subject.If the sun is in the subject's eyes, they will squint like this. It's very, very difficult not to do that, so always put the sun behind them. Be careful with your backgrounds. In a studio situation, make sure that your subject is three or four feet in front of the background, otherwise, the chances are that you have a strong shadow cast behind your subject. Outdoors, be very careful about spectrum reflections behind you, very, very bright areas in the background, and also be very, very careful about objects which are placed close to the outline of your subject. Look around the edge of your subject, very, very, carefully, and make sure that nothing is distracting from the portrait. Strongly shaped objects can be thrown out of focus, by choosing a very wide aperture, on the lens. Of course, the alternative is to be active. Very often, a distracting background can be completely altered, by simply moving yourself one or two or three feet, to either side, or by very slightly raising your camera, or lowering your camera. This is the simplest way to avoid distraction in the background. You should also think carefully about the actual portrait itself, the pose itself. You have to decide early on whether it's going to be head and shoulders,a half length portrait, three quarter length, or full length, because this will determine very largely, the background to your subject, and lastly, as far as skin tones are concerned, quite often it's flattering, especially in female portraiture, to consider filtration. These filters, these so called soft focus filters, will soften the lines in a person's face considerably, and they're very, very, well worth considering. Filtration is often very important for female subjects. It can soften lines on your face considerably. These are expensive, system filters, because not only soft focus filters can be used, but many other different types. If you want a cheaper alternative, you should consider taking an ordinary nylon stocking, and holding it in front of a lens. The second alternative would be just to simply breathe on the lens, and quickly take the picture. This is a very cheap alternative. Another aspect of your composition, is the height of the camera. Very high or very low angles, tend to produce very stilted and very unusual portraiture. It's probably better to experiment with the best side of your sitter, and bring the camera from side to side, to find out which of the possible views is the most successful, and lastly, try to decide the mood of your portrait ,and the appropriacy of your portrait. You generally speaking, it's inappropriate to have a laughing business portrait. It's usually quite sober. However, if you're photographing family and friends, then the connection between you and the sitter will become obvious, so try to make sure that they're relaxed, comfortable, and not even too hot or too cold."