Portraits: a lot of photographers make their living taking them but they are a subject I seem to not do very often, so I have set out to change that a bit. Part of my quest has also involved lighting and learning how to light without relying on natural light. I usually prefer natural light but it does not always cooperate when you need it. I think I am finally feeling a bit more comfortable about using flash and have a better understanding in how to use it and how to set it. I had a lot of previous misconceptions and always used to rely on the camera to set all the flash settings, and I often found out that was not optimal. Yes it did light the subject but often in a way I did not find appealing so I am slowly getting more familiar with how to control it. Manual control is your friend!

Portraits are hard for me, mostly because of lack of experience I think. I also am a relatively shy person especially with people I do not know. This last weekend I tried to take the hardest portrait of all…. the self-portrait. This is difficult for a lot of reasons, primarily the subject and the operator are on the same side of the lens, which makes controlling the camera a bit difficult. One option is to use a remote and a self timer and just start guessing. Or have a stand in to use for composing and framing and focusing and then do the footwork to take the image.  The option I chose was to use my Motorola Xoom tablet! There is a nicely done application from the Android Market called DSLR Controller and it works great for controlling the camera. I was able to hold the tablet in my hand while in front of the camera and see the live view of what the camera was seeing. This allowed me to focus, change exposure, take images and review them and either delete them or let them stay on the memory card. This setup actually made it fun and left me to play with the lighting and the exposure. Of course the subject matter I was stuck with and I did not have to entertain or relax the subject. Here is one of the attempts that I liked.

 I had my camera setup on a tripod and the Xoom tablet attached via the usb cable, so I was able to focus and control the exposure and camera settings from the tablet while I was staring into the camera lens, how cool is that? I used two speedlights, the first was off to my right and fairly high up, this 580exII had a Honl travel softbox with a warming gel, set at about 1/2 power. Behind me was another flash that had a small grid and a purple gel. The grid made for a small spotlight effect, I wanted to create some feel of separation from the background. A very simple and easily transportable setup.

Below are a few more examples of portraits that I have made using a similar setup, but I was behind the camera this time, this was from a class I took on using off camera flash.

So where does this leave me? Well I am getting the technical aspects down but what else is there? I am quite happy with these, but there is always room for improvement. That is the great and interesting thing about photography is that it is a constant challenge.

The team at Craft and Vision, who publish some really excellent ebooks, have come out with an ebook dealing with portraits. It is written by David duChemin, who takes some fabulous portraits. Here is a shot of the cover, and it is called “Forget Mugshots  10 steps to better portraits”

This book  is not meant to cover the technical aspects of taking a portrait, it gives you some insight in how to get a portrait that is attractive and has a sense of emotion.  This is all about how to make a compelling and natural looking portrait. Things like engaging your subject to make them relax, how to get the person to open up and act natural. There are some interesting and compelling things to try, exercises to help the photographer break out of the mold of standard cut and dry portraiture. He also shows some examples and talks about the methods he uses to break down the barriers. A lot of what he says will help you break out of the mold and step away from conventional thinking to apply creativity and create portraits that you and your subject will both enjoy. David duChemin has a really down to earth manner of writing and is really good at stimulating thinking about improving your own vision, I find him to be a good motivational author.

This ebook is available for the nominal price of $5 and if you order it before March 17 you can get it for $4 using the code: “Mugshots4” when you check out. Click here to visit Craft And Vision.  You will also find a lot more useful and informative ebooks there. Well worth checking out some of the titles. If you do decide to purchase 5 or more ebooks enter the code “Mugshots20” and save 20%. Remember these codes expire at midnight on March 17.

I hope that this will get others to look into doing portraits and I am always happy to answer questions, and if you want to have your portrait taken….please feel free to contact me. Thanks.