More often than not, it’s the people you meet that make travel truly memorable. It’s also the photographs of people that usually get the best reaction from family and friends when you return home. So without further ado – 10 tips for better people photography.
Bonus Intro Tip – Common to all genres of photography are three things. Correct exposure, correct white balance and sharp focus. Getting these right is essential. No amount of Photoshop trickery can replace these three basic points. Ensure you’re competent in these before you learn anything else.
Modern digital cameras have a number of focus points that helps the autofocus lock on to the subject. For portrait photography, having a large number of points can be more a hindrance than a help. When using all the points, the camera will make a guesstimate based on the average of all the points. Sometimes this will work well, sometimes it won’t and you’ll be left with your subject out of focus and something in the background/foreground in focus. Not what you want. Instead, select one focus point only – usually done with a dial on the camera, check your manual for how to set it. The center point is the strongest, so use that one to lock your focus on what you want, not what the camera thinks you want.
I’ve mentioned this before – the eyes are the most important part of a portrait. If they are sharp and in focus, the rest of the picture can be out of focus and it’ll still look good. Point the center focus point from 1. at the eyes, lock the focus and then recompose as necessary.
The aperture or f-stop is what controls the amount of light reaching the sensor. A large aperture is, sometimes confusingly, the smallest f-number. F2.8 is a larger f-stop than f16. It lets more light in, and has a shallower depth-of-field. When we set the aperture to its widest (eg f2.8), it’s known as shooting wide open. It gives a pleasing out-of-focus effect (bokeh) in the background away from the critical point, which results in pleasing portraits. The viewers’ eye is directed to the subject not the background.
At shorter focal lengths than 70mm, distortion starts to occur. It’s not really noticeable until you are below 50mm so you have a bit of leeway. If you shoot a frame-filling portrait with a wide-angle lens, your subject’s head is going to look strangely large due to the distortion. The classic portrait lengths are between 80mm and 135mm but anything from 70mm to 200mm will look good.
There’s really no point buying a DSLR or high-end digicam if you then go and do all your shooting in JPG. Shooting in RAW captures all the image data. Shooting in JPG means you are throwing away all but the basic data. If you make any kind of error while shooting, you can often still get usable images out of a RAW file. If you try and edit a JPG, you’ll just make things worse. If your white balance is off (or you want to creatively change it), you can with RAW. You can’t with JPG. A RAW file will be 12 or 14 bit. JPG is 8 bit. And so on.
The last place you want to be shooting is in direct sunlight. It’s harsh, it creates hard, directional shadows and it’s not at all flattering to your subject. Move into the shade and you’ll get smooth, even shadows and softer light.
Professional studio photography spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on softboxes, umbrellas and other light modifiers in an effort to create soft, even light. Nature also provides soft light and best of all, it’s free. Cloudy, overcast days are the people photographers best friend. Cloud cover can help enrich the colors and create smooth, flattering shadows.
Sunny 16 is a rule of thumb for determining exposure. It’ll give you a baseline to work with. Sunny 16 simply says that on a sunny day, with your aperture value set to ƒ16, your shutter speed will be the inverse of the current ISO speed. For example, if your camera is set to ISO 100, and your aperture value is ƒ16, your shutter speed will be 1/100th of a second. On a cloudy day (or when in the shade) you simply use ƒ8 instead.
Pay attention to what’s going on around the edges of the frame. The last thing you want is trees or power poles appearing to grow out of your subjects head, or power lines coming from their ears. The internet is full of funny picture websites that show people in the background making funny faces, mooning or giving the finger behind the subject. Don’t let your photo turn into something like that.
Probably the worst possible thing you can do when taking a photo of a person (or anything for that matter) is to use on-camera flash. This can not be repeated enough. National Geographic photographer Joe McNally says it best, “Straight flash is disaster light. Use it at 3:00am, with bodies on the highway and nothing to bounce off”. It is the most unflattering light – you are literally throwing light at the subject and instead of making a photograph, you’re making a copy. Doing something as simple as holding the flash at arms length in your left hand while holding the camera in your right hand can make all the difference.
So there we have it. Ten simple tips for improving your people shots while you are traveling. Get out there and give these tips a go and you’ll see a marked improvement in your pictures in no time at all. Happy shooting.
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Craig Ferguson Images | Cultural Photography. One of the key aspects of life that we humans identify with is culture. We label people, places and events according to our ideas of what they are, ranging from the broader scale defined by tradition and place down to the small scale subcultures and tribes. Craig Ferguson Images is consistantly creating new visions in the field of cultural photography. From traditional festives and customs to modern, urban subcultures, Craig Ferguson Images is in touch with the changing world. From our base in Taipei, Taiwan we are perfectly positioned at the crossroads of the ancient and the modern.
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I've heard that you shouldn't use the on camera flash, but i didn't know it was the worst light out there. wow. i guess you learn something new every day
Avoiding on-camera flash is one of the simplest ways to improve your photos without needing to spend lots of money or learning a whole bunch of technical stuff.
I've learned something very useful today. This is a great resource and this is really beneficial for me being new to photography. I wish one of these days I can do the same thing as given in the tips. Right now, I am still learning the basics.
Thanks for stopping by Galang. I'm glad you found some useful tips here. Good luck with your photography.
What a great post, Craig. I never thought about using cloudy days to my advantage. These are all really great tips! Another page of yours bookmarked and stumbled. Thank you!
Cloudy days are great – they really are a people photographers best friend. Thanks for the stumble and I'm happy you learned something new.
Hi Craig, a good post, with some really nice photos as well. In the sense of open discussion being a big part of learning, maybe I will play devil's advocate on some of your points. These are not to say you are wrong (you are not), just to maybe widen the view on the points. For the bonus; you are correct, especially about focus and exposure. White balance is not so important if you are shooting RAW, which you cover later. Also "Correct" exposure is different if you are shooting RAW than if you are shooting jpeg. I aim for overexposure on every photo, and dial it back on conversion; my photos often look way overexposed at first glance. Just so that people understand that "correct" exposure can be off at first glance. (a great explanation is here: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expos... ) 1. I am with you on this, but not exactly. Certainly, I would never recommend the mode where your camera chooses the focus point. However, I am a huge advocate of manually selecting the correct focus point, rather than using focus recompose. One reason for this is pretty well covered here, http://visual-vacations.com/Photography/focus-rec... . Another, more important to me, reason is that if the light is dim and your subject is moving, by the time you have recomposed, your subject might have mHi Craig, a good post, with some really nice photos as well. In the sense of open discussion being a big part of learning, maybe I will play devil's advocate on some of your points. These are not to say you are wrong (you are not), just to maybe widen the view on the points. For the bonus; you are correct, especially about focus and exposure. White balance is not so important if you are shooting RAW, which you cover later. Also "Correct" exposure is different if you are shooting RAW than if you are shooting jpeg. I aim for overexposure on every photo, and dial it back on conversion; my photos often look way overexposed at first glance. Just so that people understand that "correct" exposure can be off at first glance. (a great explanation is here: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expos... )
1. I am with you on this, but not exactly. Certainly, I would never recommend the mode where your camera chooses the focus point. However, I am a huge advocate of manually selecting the correct focus point, rather than using focus recompose. One reason for this is pretty well covered here, http://visual-vacations.com/Photography/focus-rec... . Another, more important to me, reason is that if the light is dim and your subject is moving, by the time you have recomposed, your subject might have moved enough to be out of the plane of focus. You mention that the center point is the better focus point, but that is true for Canon below the 1series, but for Pentax (which I shoot), I have 9 cross type AF points, not just one. I believe that with Nikon, you don't have to get to their top end to get multiple cross type sensors. I guess it just depends on the brand, but like I said, I am a big advocate of using all the tools and user selectable points is a big tool for me.
2. Absolutely, unless you are intentionally shooting something like the hands for a particular artistic reason. Most often it is the eyes which count and even a slight misfocus on the eyes can ruin an otherwise good photo IMO.
3. I understand, but only kind of agree. The problem with high magnification, wide aperture shooting is that it removes context from the shot. More and more, I want to see not just an attractive headshot, but I want to see the environment of the people in the photos too. Still, nothing wrong at all with a really attractive, low DOF image.
4. OK, I have to say that I disagree with you on this. Long lens shooting separates the viewer from the person, and even if the view of the photo doesn't know why, s/he can pic up on the perspective clues in the photo to subconsciously know that the photo was taken from a distance. It used to be that glamour photographers all shot from a distance with long lenses, because the distant perspective was slimming and made noses (especially) look smaller. This is not so much the case nowadays; even glamour photogs are moving in close and shooting wide. Robert Capa is famous for saying "If your photos aren't good enough, you aren't close enough". I agree with Capa a lot on this, even if we are not talking about war photos. This is not to say that you can't take good photos with a long lens, but if it is done right, you will take better, more intimate photos from in close with a wider lens. A good article, outlining some different points can be found here: http://www.prime-junta.net/pont/Pontification/n_T... Actually, I will be devoting an entire chapter of my Shooting People series to just this point.
cont'd.
I don't know what happened to my post above, somehow it got formatted oddly.
Anyways, continuing on.
5. I agree, no doubt. I will just mention that there are still some very highly regarded and highly skilled wedding photogs who shoot jpg. If you are shooting jpeg, you just leave yourself so much less room for error that I just couldn't justify that route, especially with the cost of memory nowadays.
6. I would both agree and disagree on this one. Midday, there is just no doubt that you are right. However, I will take very early morning and very late afternoon, direct, warm and diffuse light over shade any day of the week. The problem is, those "golden hours" happen too rarely and during the majority of the day, shade is where to look.
7. Mostly I agree here to, other than for the "golden hours" I mentioned for 6. Also, cloudy day light tends to eliminate shadows, which can be effective in helping to reveal texture and contours.
8. Yes, no doubt about it. Stuff like this is a lot more important than a lot of digital photographers realize. If you understand this, often you can make the correct exposure in very challenging conditions that would otherwise fool your camera's meter (think of a ray of sun hitting someone's face against an otherwise dark background.
9. Yes, yes, yes. Both incredibly important and incredibly difficult to do consistently. One thing I would recommend to help this is to suggest that newer photographers try to make a habit of counting to five before taking the shot; it is amazing how much more you can notice if you wait that time.
10. Can't argue this one at all. With the exception of Weegee, maybe my favourite photographer of all time, I can't think of anyone who made this work consistently. OK, maybe Martin Parr too, but I think that was due to aesthetic shock as opposed to appealing photos.
Again, don't mistake my playing devil's advocate for saying you are wrong. Even with number 4, which I don't agree with, I think that it is a great starting point for those who are not used to taking photos of strangers. I think your post is an excellent resource for starting out and I am sure that many others will think so too.
Thanks Darren. I can't seem to edit it into a more readable format (not changing any content). For some reason it repeats itself, no idea why. Let's address a few points you made.
1. Canon has cross-type points (I think my cameras have 9), but the center point is usually slightly more sensitive (with any brand). Manually selecting points as you mention works just as well, although it's a little slower for most people. Good points though.
3. I'm not really looking at environmental portraits here – the focus of the article is just on the people. Greater DOF is useful for showing the environment, but that's not what I'm addressing in this post.
4. Again, I'm not talking about capturing the surrounding environment, I'm not talking about candid photography and I'm not talking about hiding 100m away with a long lens. I'm talking about shooting frame-filling portraits from a couple of meters away. You make a good point, unfortunately it's got nothing to do with what I was saying.
6. I don't class "golden hour" light as direct. It is soft and diffuse already because it's being bounced off the atmosphere with the low angle.
Hope I don't seem to harsh
You make good points but some are not really related to what I was saying. Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment.
Hi again Craig. As for number one, I just checked again on dpreview and I am pretty certain that other than in the 1-Series cameras from Canon, only the center focus point is cross or X type. That was as per the 5D2 specs they listed. This falls exactly in line with my memory back to the 10D (and us of that camera). I believe that with Nikon at even the mid level, they offer more than one cross type point and I know for a fact that with Pentax they offer 9 cross type sensors, all of equal performance/accuracy. Even with the non cross type sensors that Canon uses, the AF is good, of course, just not as good as the center.
3&4. My opinion is that for travel photos more than others, you should want environmental portraits, hence my thoughts. Not that they can't be good photos, of course, but travel photography is about people and places; were it just people, I would never leave Taipei. I realize that you are not talking about hiding or anything like that, but I still think that what I said is all about travel photography.
6. I think that I would consider "golden hour" light to be a hybrid. It is still relatively direct, as you will still have distinct shadows, yet it is certainly softer (and warmer toned) than the direct light that you are combating. I doubt that either of us really disagrees with the other here.
you don't come across as harsh at all, just as I hope I don't. LIke I said before, I consider debate an excellent learning/teaching tool. I am looking forward to more similar posts from you.
Thanks Darren. You're probably right on the cross sensor thing. I don't pay much attention to specs so it's wise to take what I say about specs with a grain of salt.
For 3/4, I was thinking more along the lines of Steve McCurry "Afghan Girl" type portraits. I have an article in the works specifically about env. portraiture and I'll look at that there. I originally wrote this article for a magazine and there was a 1000 word limit so there's much more I could have included.
6. Agreed.
More great tips, Craig. Thanks. Focus points are a bone of contention with me. A mate shot I wedding I was in (with my camera). He immediately turned off the center point and let the camera set the focus. Few of the photos were good.
As for direct sunlight: I would preface that by saying it's great to use early morning and late afternoon light. The colors add great tones to images.
Thanks Stevo. Early morning and late afternoon sunlight doesn't really count as direct, because it's already diffuse and softened due to the angle. But you're right, the color tone does add to the look.
This is good stuff, all of which I adhere to in most every instance. Especially number one. Personally, I ALWAYS get better results using one focal point for portraits, whether with Canon or Nikon.
I do sometimes get some pretty good results in direct sunlight, but it can be a bear to get the exposure dialed in, which of course is what you're saying here.
BTW, loving the new layout.
Thanks Michael, glad you're enjoying the new look. Thanks for the comment.
Great article, especially for beginners. I would just like to point out that tip #10 shouldn't always be followed blindly. Before I say anything else, getting an external flash is *a lot* better than using the on-camera flash, but there are times when using the latter isn't that bad of an idea.
For example I shot a few pictures of friends last week. They were in the shade and I had my back to the sun, but due to this, the light was pretty weak and I didn't have any detail in the shadow areas. If I would have cranked up the iso I would've blown up the sky. So instead of doing that, I popped up the on-camera flash, but before I shot anything, dialed down the flash to -1.7 (I'm not sure which camera's are able to do so, but I used a Nikon D90). This way, the flash would only fill up the darker bits of clothing and avoiding the ugly hard shadow lines and blown-up faces.
I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post links to my own photos, but here is a picture I shot with this in mind: http://www.flickr.com/photos/boogz/3500937452/
Again, not to piss on your parade, so to speak, but I just wanted to take this opportunity to point out that blindly following the rules isn't always a great idea. Nonetheless, I think a lot of beginners could learn some things from this article, thanks.
Thanks Ricardo. Nice shot of yours in the link. Thanks for the comment.
Great write up, some nice simple but effective tips!
Thanks. Glad you like them. Thanks for the comment.
Thanks for the tips!
Nice Hetalia cosplay, by the way.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Glad you like it.
Excuse me, may I ask who is the Asian girl holding the sunflower?
I\\'m not sure who she is – just a random cosplay performer. Thanks for the comment.
Thanks Teresa. There was a traffic surge due to Digg and you probably saw a stripped down page. The links should all be turned on again in the next few hours. Sorry about that.
Thanks MJ.
Thanks Brent. I really should have known that seeing as I have a 40D
But like I said, it\\'s the results that I\\'m interested in not specs.
Some really great tips! We do Photography in Fort Myers http://leapyearphoto.com/blog/tag/fort-myers-phot... so tip # 8 is a must!
[...] Ten Tips For People Photography An article on craig ferguson images that provides ten tips for taking portraits. An interesting read, and the tips are pretty helpful. (tags: portrait portraits tips) « Previous Post blog comments powered by Disqus var disqus_url = ‘http://www.petapixel.com/2009/06/07/links-of-the-day/ ‘; var disqus_container_id = ‘disqus_thread’; var facebookXdReceiverPath = ‘http://www.petapixel.com/wp-content/plugins/disqus-comment-system/xd_receiver.htm’; var DsqLocal = { ‘trackbacks’: [ ], ‘trackback_url’: ‘http://www.petapixel.com/2009/06/07/links-of-the-day/trackback/’ }; Subscribe: Our Sponsors: Follow Us On Twitter: follow @petapixel on Twitter del.icio.us Bookmarks: Recent Comments: © 2009 PetaPixel var gaJsHost = ((“https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : “http://www.”); document.write(unescape(“%3Cscript src=’” + gaJsHost + “google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E”)); try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(“UA-664578-8″); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {} [...]
Wow.. great tips
Love #2 tip .. eyes it is… eyes describe a lot about pic
Free Ebook for Photographers
Cheers Vikas, happy to know it was useful to you. Many thanks for the comment.
Good tips, but don’t #3 and #8 contradict each other? Or rather, #8 isn’t a very helpful tip if you’re sticking to large apertures — how does the Sunny 16 rule apply when your aperture is way bigger than f/16 or even f/8?
Thanks Jase. Sunny 16 can still be used as a baseline for large apertures. If you open up 5 stops (for example) from f16, you can adjust the shutter speed to compensate. Hope that makes it a bit clearer.
Ten Tips For People Photography…
More often than not, it’s the people you meet that make travel truly memorable. It’s also the photographs of people that usually get the best reaction from family and friends when you return home. So without further ado – 10 tips for better people phot…
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Very helpfull… Thank you!!
My pleasure.
Wow I never knew that you shouldn't use the on-camera flash. I learn something new every day lol! Thanks for this helpful post.
Nice pictures too! Check out my website http://www.favoritememoriesphotography.com I've just started out with photography so my stuff isn't near as good as yours but I hope I'll get there someday!
Thanks for the comment Jim. I'll check your site out tomorrow. Thanks for sharing it.
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[...] across … they helped me back when i was starting hope they do the same 4 u tips for portraits Ten Tips For People Photography | Editorial music and travel images from Asia | CraigFergusonImages General 10 Easy Steps To Advanced Photography Skills – Smashing Magazine Photography | Rule of [...]
Of course very useful tips.
I'll also invite your attention to http://www.newbrightapples.ning.com
A fantastic site to Watch/Load Photographs & Videos, and Chat and Blog. All about awesome Photography! Free Registration to Online Photography Classroom! Do visit and load your photos or videos to taste a different flavor.
guda.
Of course very useful tips.
I'll also invite your attention to http://www.newbrightapples.ning.com
A fantastic site to Watch/Load Photographs & Videos, and Chat and Blog. All about awesome Photography! Free Registration to Online Photography Classroom! Do visit and load your photos or videos to taste a different flavor.
guda.
Craig,
This is a very good article, some sound tips. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience.
Respectfully
Laurence T. Konishi
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_konishi/
Thanks for the comment, I'm glad it was useful.
[...] sent me a link to some tips for photographing people, and while most of the 10 tips provided were great, some were [...]
Here is a comment – People who use on camera flash are morally bad people. (kidding…kinda)
Here's another comment – when photographing people, make sure they aren't bleeding. In general, this is a good idea.
With the exception of Joe McNally.