As far as I concern, there are no rules in portrait photography. It is up to you how you want the shots to be. But there is a composition guideline how you wanna make the portrait shots give more impact or we say catchy. If you are taking picture for other people be sure to know who you doing a favor. Some people especially Chinese don't like their picture taken cropped on the leg or cropped on the forehead.
Using Flash 
Often there will be a time when you need your flash to take picture. In a low light condition flash is very essential for portrait photos. But when using a flash for a portrait, it can be harsh form of illumination and often creating a result of shiny on the face and red eyes. Some camera now a day had a TTL function which will make the camera assessing the amount of light available and decide the amount of light to be produce from the flash to balance to exposure. Sometime this does not always help. If you are using a flashgun or speedlight, you can bounce the flash off the ceiling or wall to softening the effect of the flash. This is by putting your flash to the ceiling or wall and not directly to your subject. So this means that you are using the ceiling or wall as a diffuser to spread the light evenly. If you have a diffuser for your flash that is even better.
A Stofen diffuser usually put on the front of the flash.
This is one of the best way to avoid the harsh light created
by the flash from creating the shiny part on the face.
If you are using a build in flash or fixed type then you could try taping a piece of white paper in front of the flash tube to diffuse the effect.
The soft effect is the key for a good portrait.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Portrait With Flash
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Learn From The Pro
I find the way to improve your photography skills is by learning from th pros. I have followed some pro photographers and most of them are willing to share their knowledge about photography. I find that is the best to on the field with the pros you'll gain more from it.
Read photography magazines
There are many photography magazines out there you can read and most of them have some photo
tips and tricks that you can learn, few magazine that I usually buy is the Digital Camera Magazine, Practical Photography, Outdoor photographer and I even buy National Geographic magazine because now National Geographic most likely concentrate more on photography than long articles. These are some of the magazines that I find it very helpful in giving you inspiration and new ideas by just looking at the images taken by pro photographers.
Camera Handling
It is essential for a photographer to know how to handle a camera properly.
I stated here some proper way of handling your camera.
Holding The Camera
finger over the lens and also creating camera shake because of bad posture.
When using a Dslr camera, a photographer usually make a good grip with their
right hand on the camera and make sure their pointer finger can move freely
where the other fingers getting a good grip on the camera. The other hand
holding the base of the camera on the lens where the thumb finger on the left
of the lens. Draw both elbows toward the body and shoot. By doing a proper
holding of the camera doesn't make it a good posture. Remember to stand
properly with the two legs having a good stand like a tripod base.
Using a Tripod
Tripod is one of the useful tools that used by most photographers. It comes with
many different sizes and weight. Now a day, there many tripod has been design
for certain type of shot. Most common one is the pan and tilt head but most landscape photographer prefer using the ball head tripod because of easy
fix of its tilt. But ball head tripod are not suitable for holding zoom lenses. For zoom lenses that normally used for sport photography and also wildlife
photographer is the Wimberley head. By using a tripod, it can keep the camera steady under slow shutter speed. A tripod prevent blurred and out of focus result.
Wimberley Head Tripod for sport and wildlife -->
