Family Portrait?
Cypher
I am an amature photographer and I have been asked to shoot a family
portrait for my fathers secratary.
My question is what equipment do I need to do a good job. I have never
done portrait photo before.
I have a Nikon F60 w/28-80 lens, also a 135mm Vivitar lens. I have a
flash (not sure about the brand) and some softening filters.
Any ideas??
Please respond to:
uf...@hotmail.com
or this group.
Thx.
Cy.
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zeitgeist
Cypher wrote:
>
> Hi,
> I am an amature photographer and I have been asked to shoot a family
> portrait for my fathers secratary.
> My question is what equipment do I need to do a good job. I have never
> done portrait photo before.
> I have a Nikon F60 w/28-80 lens, also a 135mm Vivitar lens. I have a
> flash (not sure about the brand) and some softening filters.
> Any ideas??
>
depends on where you shoot it. Since quality lighting is
difficult and/or expensive to achieve in a studio but very
simple (if you know what to look for) in late afternoon
twilight soft light. Your camera, long lens, a tripod and a
vignette, don't forget a meter. go to a park with a hill to
block the direct sun, a row of trees or a building, I love
stream beds lined with trees and big rocks and boulders,
look for a break in the tree row so the subject area is
exposed to an arc of light from the open sky.
some public buildings have huge picture windows, or over
hangs lined with columns or pillars with way cool light.
museums churches, courthouses, etc.
TCAA
with solving problems that wouldn't even be perceived as problems by anyone
else. Because you did tell _where_ you were going to do your shoot, getting
to the nitty gritty is a little difficult, but to play it safe, here are
some things I would be thinking about given your tool set:
Problem: strobe shadow: If you're shooting the family on the couch in the
living room in front of the fireplace thing, or any variation thereof, you
may be able to limit background shadow by 1) shooting during the time of day
when there's a lot of indirect light in the room, 2) posing the family
against a dark background (e.g., a full bookcase), 3) shooting with the
family either very close to the background (so the cast shadow can't
enlarge) or very far from it.
Problem: red eye. If I could add three pieces of gear to your kit, they
would a light stand, mounting bracket, and pc cord (or SC-17 if that's the
spec. for the F60); if I could add only one, it would be a bracket. What
you want to avoid is banging the light into the back of someone's retina,
and you can do that by _slightly_ elevating the flash and shooting _a
little_ downward at the group. I emphasize the diminutives because if you
set the light high, you stand a chance of creating cavernous shadows beneath
eye lids, noses, and lips.
But going with what you've already got--if you can bounce the flash of a
warm white ceiling, that might do it.
You may even go with Zeitgeist's suggestion of using ambient natural light.
That could make it an old fashioned shoot with a 1/2 to two second pose, but
you would be surprised how well that method still works.
Here's a trick to save for another day: if you have enough light to get in
your exposure at, say, four seconds with a small aperture (remember, we're
working on an environmental portrait--it's okay to show some telling detail
in the background), you may be able to set your flash at about 1 stop less
powerful than the small aperture, slow speed ambient requirement (if ambient
F16/4 sec., then auto flash F5.6-8), reduce your exposure by half (4 sec.
becomes F16/2 sec.), and come up with a nicely balanced flash fill. If your
flash cooperates with your camera's matrix metering computer and offers
rear-synch and you can bounce the flash, the naturalness of that lighting
can be stunning. (If you flash first while taking a long exposures, your
subjects are apt to move--they've been trained to think that when the flash
goes off, the picture has been taken).
For an indoor shoot, you have to use the 28-80. For film (this can be a
tough call), an ASA 100 will give you nice print quality, a 200 or 400 may
give you a little more flexibility. If you have a good shop in your
neighborhood, PortraNC 400 has great general "people picture"
attributes--i.e., good tonality and fine enough grain to pass muster with an
increasing share of the wedding photog. culture.
A few things about going to someone else's home and taking a group picture:
1) you're the director--it will largely be your sense of art and moment that
will select the shooting background or setting and arrange the family in a
way that is both socially meaningful (who is placed next to who, who in
front, who in back, etc.) and aesthetically pleasing--you may also choose to
script the occasion, asking that the family groom and dress for its
portrait, for example, or, if you're daring and they're willing, asking each
family member to dress in a way and hold something that says what they most
want to say about who they were when then picture was taken. But caution:
while there's a lot of room for creativity and imagination whenever the work
is truly "custom", the chain portrait studio's bread and butter success
attests to the safety of planning for a pleasing coat and tie and woman's
wool suit and blouse kind of picture;
2) go in with two or three quickly implementable portrait schemes and then
be prepared for surprises--i.e., "prevision" the kind of picture you want
the family to have and have in mind one or two solid ways of getting it
(e.g., direct offset diffused flash; 45-degree bounced flash; ambient with
fill flash; etc.) before you go through the door--they'll think you know
what you're doing, and their confidence will show <g>;
3) before you shoot, look around and ask yourself what you do not want seen
in either the setting or the subjects--i.e., dress the set--get the junk
mail off of the coffee table, the empty orange juice glass off of the
mantlepiece, etc; and make a mental note, which is to be your secret
forever, to get Aunt Betsy to look forward just a bit [to unfold her double
chin and accentuate the charm of the dimple on her jaw];
4) do your best to pick up at least half a dozen exposures--timing is
everything, and even with a practiced lighting method, getting good
expressions from a number of people at one moment can be a mighty
undertaking.
If you're shooting out of doors, I would probably prefer the 80mm end of
your zoom than the 135mm to work close and get in the group. You might pick
up an 81A warming filter and pray for a cloudy day (overcast lighting has a
lot of blue in it: the use of a warming filter is partially correcting). If
you get stuck with sunlight, you have to plan on bouncing light back into
the shadowed sculpture of each face present or using offset flash fill.
Beware shooting under trees: in summer, they can color cast in green; in
winter or summer, the mix of shadow and light falling through them, which
you may not be able to see, such is the nature of human vision and
perception, may prove quite unpleasing.
Many centuries ago (I'm giving away my age), the woman on a hill with open
sky in the background portrait had some merit because of the simplicity of
the elements and the perfect suitability of open sky for a background, but I
haven't seen that utterly simple portrait approach in any publication in
years. The closest thing I've seen are very small family groups posed on
and against sand dunes, which is really a beach community thing.
Nonetheless, if the family has a favorite park or close by open space, and
you can get them out there and nicely grouped, you might get a nice result
(shoot close to open to blur the background; shoot on manual and meter off a
gray card or skin to keep those tones right on the money no matter what else
might distract your camera's meter).
Yes, I say, for use of a tripod even if exposure speed is well within hand
holding range--it will not only help you hold your arrangement together, but
you can use it to make sure you're shooting square and level.
Good luck.
//Jim
Patrick Bartek
> I am an amature photographer and I have been asked to shoot a family
> portrait for my fathers secratary.
> My question is what equipment do I need to do a good job. I have never
> done portrait photo before.
> I have a Nikon F60 w/28-80 lens, also a 135mm Vivitar lens. I have a
> flash (not sure about the brand) and some softening filters.
> Any ideas??
>
> Please respond to:
> uf...@hotmail.com
> or this group.
First, go to the library and check out every book they have on
portraiture, particularly any on Natural Light Portraiture. Then read
and study them.
Since you only have one flash, and indoor shot will produce poor
results. Do an outdoor shoot, if possible, backlit (so the people
won't be squinting) or open shade, and use the flash either on-camera
or slightly off-camera as fill and to add a catch light in the eye.
Use a slow (no faster than ISO 100) color negative film. If you can
find 50 or 25 speed use it. An 8x10 from 35mm is pushing it for
"portrait" quality.
For a large group shot, use minimal softening filters, if any.
Because of the shooting distances and size of the faces, you need
to have maximum sharpness. For small groups like 3 to 4, where you're
closer and the faces larger, use light to moderate softening,
particularly if there are middle age or older women in the shot.
For Head and Shoulders shots of 1 or 2 individuals use moderate
softening for women; light for men or children.
Good Luck...
--
Patrick Bartek
NoLife Polymath Group
bar...@access1.com
Cypher
That has pretty much exactly what I need.
I will be shooting indoors (It will be Feb here, lots of snow)so the
indoor suggestions are great.
Thank you again...
Cypher..
Shiloh
I am an amature as well and could only wish for this type of answer
when I ask a question. I usually get the "don't stick your finger
over the lens" type answers. Or, the "turn the camera off and sell it
because if you have to ask, you should not be taking pictures of
anything."
Your answer is EXTREEMLY informative and I really appreciate your
knowledge and also your willingness to share it.
Thanks,
Bob
M P Brennan
Thanks for the excellent primer. That one's going in my "save" folder...