Case Study - DaveK on Portraiture

Another excellent article on Portraiture - this one from DaveK examines his approach to photographing people. Thanks to Dave for sharing his knowledge and Rich (Ricardovaste) for arranging this article with Dave. I hope you all enjoy it and learn a little more. Frank

Hi all, Rich (Ricardovaste) asked me how I do my portraiture work. Although I’m no pro at all, I’d like to share the way I do it. This will not be a technical piece, but a personal one.

Models:
I photograph mainly my kids, wife, family, friends. So, all models are individuals that I know well (some very well). I think that makes it a lot easier to shoot. They know me, so they are becoming faster and easier at ease.

This is Lucca, who had just eaten a sandwich with chocolate butter:



How I want to photograph them:
I always like to photograph them the way they are in real life. I’m happy when I capture their character well in a picture. I think that’s the hardest part.

This is Aniek, very shy when she’s being photographed…



Light:
I always shoot in natural light. Mostly outside. I try to catch the sun in the models eyes. So I mainly shoot the models with the sun in my back. I use a bouncer to reflect the sun on the shadow side of the face when I have the change, but since I almost always work alone, this occasions are rare

Gear:
I use the magnificent A700 with several lenses for portraits. The reason is that I like the possibility of the shallow DOF. These lenses have a very nice bokeh too. These are my favorite lenses by far for portraits :

Minolta 85 RS F/1.4
Beautiful bokeh, colors

Minolta 100mm /F2
Beautiful bokeh, colors

Zeiss 135 F/1.8
Awesome lens. Faster than the 85mm. Masterpiece

Minolta 200G F/2.8 (or 70200SSM @ 200mm)
I use this lens when I have to take some distance. Photographing kids may be easier this way, because I don’t disturb them doing the things they are doing.

Shallow DOF:
I always use the lens wide open (I set the camera at ‘A’perture).The reason I like a shallow DOF in portraits is that the eyes automatically catch the attention when they are sharp, while the rest of the face (head) is not.Can it get shallower than this? Zoe wondering what is going on:



Technique:
I keep some things in mind:

How do I want to portray my model?
Happy, sad, smart (that kind of things). I talk to the models a lot while I’m shooting them. Correcting them, making them smile, let them think or talk about something sad.

What do I want to show in my picture?
The real person...

Is there something distracting in the background?
Because I shoot wide open it’s not very important what it is in the background (it will be fade in the picture), but a lightspot (for instance a light bouncing window) can be very distracting

How is the light shining the face?
Is there not too much shadow in the face? For BW shadow is necessary.

Is the sun visible in the eyes (is a plus)?
I think it’s nice to see the sun in the models eye. The same with softboxe(s) in a studio shoot. I personally dislike the light of a ringflash in the eyes of a model.

Focus on the eyes:
Unless you want to focus on something else ( on an earring maybe, or a smile) the safest focus spot is definitely one of the eyes. I almost immediately ditch a shot when the eye(s) is not very sharp. And shooting with a shallow DOF handheld, means also a lot of soft (on the eyes) photos, unless I hold my camera perfectly still (on the same spot) and the model doesn’t move. When I focus from a side, I focus on the eye that is the most nearby. When I focus from the front, both eyes will be sharp.

Position of the camera:
I always try to get at the same height with my camera as they are with their face. Perhaps others have other experiences, but I do it that way. But there is a lot of room, playing with this angle (or to shoot from close by with a 16mm fisheye...) I sure must try that ones.

Background:
Although my lenses provide me a great blurry background shooting wide open, the model has to take some distance from the background. If the model is close to a wall (or something like that) then the background might get too much attention. Sometimes that’s on purpose, but mostly I like portraits to be isolated from their background.

Henrik is not always a very nice kid J



Post processing (I’m no master in PP):

Contrast:
I adjust the contrasts just a little bit, because heavier contrast mostly means more character. But females don’t like this for obvious reasons. Sometimes I adjust the contrast heavy as in this portrait. Mark is a long time Stones fan, riding a Harley Davidson (Night Rider). I tried to show a friendly face together with a sometimes tough life.

Mark enjoys his life which has been hard to him



B&W Conversion:              
Some photos (like the one of Mark above) long for a contrast full BW conversion, mostly when there is a lot of shadow or light in the photo.

Sharpness:
I just sharpen a little bit

Cropping:
Cropping can make an average picture great. I can’t explain what I do precisely, but I try to get a nice strong crop. If I don’t crop, the I is exactly in the middle (like my wife’s picture and the picture of Storm)

This is no crop. Photo of Saskia (my wife) as close as I could get with the 135mm 1.8



This is a crop (and I rotated the picture a bit):




Shoot a lot of pictures during a shoot!
In this digital area you can shoot a lot. That is what I do, knowing there must be a nice shot between the loads of pictures I took.

This is Storm ( his name suits his character…)



That’s it folks! I hope little note helps you a little bit doing portraits. Good luck and happy shooting!

Dave


Edited by brettania - 20 April 2010 at 00:29

Dave.

I also use my 50 and 85mm wide open (partly dictated by the environment I shoot in) with my A700. I have seen some people complain about getting only one eye in focus (i.e. the first picture above), but I personally like the effect.
-Serdar

wimski99 wrote: Maybe you want to substitute 'ringflits' with 'ringflash'

Change made.

thanks Dave K I'm thinking about doing some portrait work to supplement my landscape work and the techniques are very different. Your article has been very useful
I have taken a number of portraits using my min 28 - 135mm zoom at F4 and I get a nice shallow DOF with a blurred background and the face all in focus. Do you find that at F1.4 the DOF is too shallow for peoples tastes ie eyes may be in focus but parts of the face is now burred?
Ultimate sharpness is not always what people are looking for in a portrait unlike landscapes
thanks again

Dave

Thanks for sharing your techniques Dave, hope to try them out!

Thanks for sharing, DaveK. Some of these I'm familiar with, some I don't know and some I know but ignore!!
Especially planning the light. That's where I really need to focus. I rarely plan the light and just take shots as they happen. I'll try to remember that for future.
Another excellent portrait artist among us is (drumroll) aarif!!
Aarif, if you're around and notice this message, I would absolutely love if you could share some of your techniques.
Regards,
Sashi

Thanks all for your nice words! Couldn't be around much, but I hope this will change soon. Very busy at work (and away for vacation).

Dave18 wrote: Do you find that at F1.4 the DOF is too shallow for peoples tastes ie eyes may be in focus but parts of the face is now burred? Ultimate sharpness is not always what people are looking for in a portrait unlike landscapes thanks again

I think that's a matter of taste (and style). I like to work with a very shallow DOF myself (85 1.4, 135 1.8) but others do it differently. Because I have a frontfocusproblem I have to send my A700 back for repair, but when it's back I love to do that style again.

thanks again folks! Here's one more:


Mark:

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