video episode 27, outdoor portraits #3
This is the third and final video in the outdoor portrait series. We’ll take a little different approach this week, observing as a 15 minute family portrait shoot takes place. Rather than explaining technical details in this installment I thought it might be helpful to watch as I work with the subjects, getting to know them and helping them to be comfortable in front of the camera. After the jump below the video I’ll explain some of my thought process when photographing families and groups.
Subscribers view video here
Some further thoughts and link to the gallery:
View the gallery of final images from the shoot here.
No two photographers have the exact same approach to photographing people (or any subject, for that matter). Here’s how I like to approach portraits:
- For casual portraits I like to “build” the photo. There’s no pressure on any of us to get things right on the first exposure. I like to take a photo, check exposure, take another, check poses, and continue to warm up the subjects so they’re comfortable, talking with them and letting them know there’s no pressure. ***Business portraits are the exception to this rule. If someone is in a hurry I concentrate on making the first shot as perfect as possible.
- A tendency is to concentrate on the baby right off the bat, trying to get a good expression. I prefer to get the adults composed and settled before asking anything of the little ones. We don’t want to wear the little ones out before the basic pose is sorted out.
- Take breaks every once in awhile. If you’re going to be distracted for a moment let your subjects know it’s okay to relax for a bit. Even if you’re not behind the camera, some subjects stay focused on it.
- I use my hands a lot to point out what direction I would like the subject to turn or how to pose. Many times I jump into the picture and show someone exactly how I would like them to stand or sit. This helps them see what I’m talking about and it also helps me make sure that what I have in mind is not too uncomfortable or difficult to do.
- As I’ve mentioned before, I first like to see how people naturally stand and then try to guide them. It’s important to remember that, in family photos like these, we’re working with real people and not models. It’s okay to mold and bend models into your personal vision of a photograph, but in family portraits something of the person should be retained. Make sure they’re happy and comfortable with how the shoot is proceeding and with what you’re asking them to do. Unlike supermodels, if they’re not comfortable it will show through.
Hey, that’s it for this outdoor portrait video series! I want to give a huge “thank you” to my friends Kelly K., Bob S., Jason P. and Melodie J. for helping put it together, it wouldn’t have been possible without them.
And thank you for tuning in. If you’ve enjoyed watching the videos and they’ve been a help, I hope you’ll consider shopping at Calumet Photographic for your future photo needs, large or small. Not only do they have a great selection, prices and service, it also helps out prophotolife when you link through us to Shop Calumet Photographic - It’s Where the Pros Go.
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Hi Jim,
thank you for the video´s publishing here on your website. They are very helpful for me.
The last two days I´ve enjoy a lot by seeing them all.
kind regards
Torsten
Braunschweig /Germany
Helpful and adorable
Nice Vid!
Hi Jim
When using say f/8 or f/11 for group shots with people at different depths from the camera, where is it generally best to focus, on the people in front or behind?
Cheers
Dave
Hiya,
Love the site and I really enjoy all your videos, they are really clear and easy to follow and a great resource.
I was wondering about your shutter speeds for this shoot. It looks on the video that the group is in shade, which is obviously a nice diffuse lighting but I sometimes have problems with shutter speeds being fast enough for portraits when not using flash. Did you use a high ISO for this?
Cheers
Ian
The general rule of focus is that 1/3 of your depth of field is in front of the point of focus and 2/3 falls behind the point of focus. On the first group shot I focused on the young fellow sitting down since he was about 1/3 of the way deep in the composition. That gives me the best shot at getting everything sharp.
The rule of thumb: depth of field is twice as deep behind the point of focus as in front of it.
I don’t have the images with me so from memory I believe the shutter speed was around 1/80 second. It’s important that everyone hold pretty still, which wasn’t a problem here, and I used a tripod since we were dealing with a number of elements. With the Canon 5D I like to shoot at as low an ISO as possible, going up to 400 if necessary. These were shot at ISO 200.
Hi Jim!
Thank you for your very interesting video posts. I think it is great fun watching how you work. It is also very nice to see the actual pictures afterwards.
Keep up the good work!
Greetings from Sweden
/Daniel
Thank you for the generous and well detailed presentation on how to do things properly and professionally in doing portraits and in handling models/clients in a portrait sessions.
More power to you and prophotolife.
Hello Jim,
thanks for the lessons..
I would like to ask how you choose your perspective, how do you choose to position your camera on the left side?
As for me I only react to where the light is coming, hope to learn more from you.
Good day!
Thanks for sharing the behind the scenes for your client session. I’ve always wanted to watch the pros at work. Great tips as usual.
I think you described me quite well when you pointed out that a lot of people compose their shots from where they’re already standing. I don’t always do that, but a lot of the times I do. I’ll have to concentrate on that more when I’m shooting various subjects…. I do this when shooting inanimate subjects as well.
One question… how have you been going about getting models for these shoots?
Thanks for another video they always make my Mondays better. How did you meter this setup?
Another good video. Working with the subjects is something that doesn’t get shown quite as often and thus can be harder to learn.
Lorbie, I’m not sure I understand your question about positioning the camera on the left side. Can you explain what you mean by “left side”? I’ll try to help…
John, the models for some of the videos come from a local talent agency (props to Heyman Talent) as an exchange for experience/images. This family volunteered when my friend Kelly asked if they’d be interested. People helping people!
Ryon, I just used natural light on this and, since there were no clouds, I knew the lighting would stay consistent. No hand-held meter was used, an exposure was taken using the in-camera meter (on manual) and then adjusted so the histogram was “pushed to the right”.
And thanks for the props, everyone! If you put any of these things to use I’d like to see your results.
I’m kind of new to your site, so if you answered this question before, I apologize. What is your gear set up? I read in another comment Canon 5d, what lens did you shoot with in this video? Is it the EF 70-200mm f/4 L you referred to in your first outdoor portrait video?
BTW, nice videos.
Jim, Jim, Jim. As always you did it again. Nice video, I can’t thank you enough for the time and effort you put into this site. Also, I am still anticipating the new metering video. On to business. You mention the apeture you want to shoot a portriat at prior to shooting. Do you have a system that you use to come up with that pre planed apeture or is it one that you are comfortalbe using and shoot with frequently.
Tracey
Yep, the lens is the least expensive of Canon’s four 70-200mm offerings, the EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM Lens
. I’m used to working from a tripod but using the IS version could have most likely eliminated the need.
As for apertures, that choice really comes from experience and learning from mistakes. Test, test, test different settings and really examine your photos at 100% magnification. I may try a risky setting but then try to back it up with something I’m sure will work. With people it’s all about capturing the right moment and I’d rather go with settings I feel are “safe”. Hope this helps!
Yes, it truly does help a great deal, thanks Jim. Also, I was trying to revisit your Histogram Video, however I can’t access it. Has it been removed is it a PC issue on my end? thanks again Jim.
Tracey, I checked the histogram video and it took a a few seconds to show up but eventually did. Another mysterious YouTube thing, I guess. Let me know how / if it finally starts working on your end.
Hi Jim,
I’ve been watching all your video tutorials since you started with this webpage and they are all just great! You give lots of information and the videos are really original.
It’s not easy to find such tutorials so well explained and on video, that’s the coolest part!
You are doing a fantastic job, keep that way!
Cheers,
Gabriel
Hi Jim, I’ve been following all your videos and they are all great. Thanks for sharing your useful information to us. btw, I don’t understand when photographers mention the terms of underexposing the background by 2 stops? isn’t that going to make the picture underexposed? how do you get the model well lit while you’re underexposing the background? how do they do that?
Thanks,
William
Good question, William. In the case you’ve mentioned the photographer is still exposing properly for the subject so it renders accurately. They may be using a flash to expose the subject properly, using a power setting that makes the flash exposure two stops brighter than the background. Then if they shoot at the flash exposure, the background will render 2 stops underexposed. Make sense?
Think of your subject exposure separately from your background exposure and compare the two. If you make the subject lighting brighter you can increase the amount of underexposure on the background. This also works in reverse, putting the subject in shade to overexpose the background (make it relatively brighter). I hope this is a help, feel free to float it in the discussion forum for more help!
Thanks Jim, now I understand, you explained it very clearly as usual! it’s a huge help. if you don’t mind, next time you could show us through your video series on how to do a double exposure on architectural shot where they usually well exposed on the sky as well as the lighting that we can see from the window. look forward to your next video
keep up the excellent work!
Hi and thank’s for the very detailed and useful videos !!!!
Just wonder about location lighting . . . using 2 Nikon SB 800.
How do I synk them properly together with my Nikon camer D80?
Also wonder if I need to purchase a better camer like the Nikon
D300 to be taken seriously as a professional photographer.
Have already a good protfolio and will now go out to try to find
potentioal customers.
Greatful for your answer
Marie
hi is so interesting..
my name is dewo, and i came from indonesia but right now i live in hamburg germany.. i have 15 years experience in photo but i still want to learn about some one who have so much experiences like you..
is nice site, love it that i can see how to take a nice photo
thank you
dewo
Hi,
For two days I’ve watched almost all of your videos, they are most instructive!!! Really good way of teaching (and I’ve been a teacher myself). As an amateur photographer, I’ll keep on coming back, Thank you!!!
Arturo
Hi Jim,
I just wanted to say thanks so much for all the information on your site, and especially for the videos and their explanations.
I’m totally blown away how you freely give of your knowledge, time and experience to help educate us mere mortals further. I’m definitely an ungifted amateur, but I’ve learned an immense amount from your videos, so thanks again and keep it up! Please!
cheers,
Tim
hey… i really love this whole website. it’s awesome to see people who are out there to help other people just because they can! question though… i’m still having issues getting a properly exposed photo utilizing strobes. is there a “best place to go” reference (even within this site) on how to figure out what shutter speed to use with what setting on the strobe. i have sp160 strobes from squareperfect photography. thanks a bunch!
justin m.
http://www.justinmphoto.com
I can not watch the video, blank when I hit the play button, also can not download the video using keepvid.com
Dear Mr.Talkington,
I’m writing from Bangkok Thailand. I really love your website and gave me the ideas to made a beautiful pics. Thank you for share your knowledges & experiences to new photographer like me.
PS.Hope Thai fans will have chance to meet you in our country.
Cheer
Natthapat W.(Aek)
Hi Jim,
I love the videos and to date I have been very impressed with them and have recommended them to members on the talk photography and photography on the net forums.
Having been a professional social and wedding photographer for a number of years I have had nothing to criticise about your videos and have learnt some useful and exciting tips from your videos on the genres I have little experience of, in fact video number 6 is my favourite to date, but in this video (No 27) I have to make a small exception and to call you to task for your asking your subjects to smile, this may well work if you are used to using professional models, but for the average sitter who has little if any modelling experience it will only result in a forced smile and this can often be unflattering as it can look more like a grimace.
It is much more successful to engage the sitter/s in genuine conversation and then to inject a light hearted feel into the discourse which should offer the most natural and relaxed smiles, this is doubly more important with children.
To be perfectly honest, whilst a smile is nice in a portrait, how important is it really, most famous portraits do not have smiling subjects, and these tend to show strength and character and whilst mummy and daddy may like a shot of their child smiling, they will also love shots taken of them looking at their most natural.
Keep up the good work, and I hope that you manage to see and respond to this message, I left a message earlier on another thread below episode 14, but I suppose this thread is no longer checked for messages.
Hi Eddie, it’s good to hear from you and thanks for reading.
I appreciate you sharing your informed perspective on capturing natural expressions and certainly know what you mean. It’s valuable for readers to hear your approach because it may well be the one that serves them best. I try to do what feels best for a particular situation and in this case, given limited time and a video to complete, I held no reservations in asking for the smiles. Yesterday we photographed nine lawyer portraits and each individual was a completely different study in personality and characteristics. I wish we could have had a video camera present to record that particular session, it was both fun and insightful.
And thanks for the message on episode 14, I appreciate you spreading the word on prophotolife.com!
Thanks alot for good videos. I’m making a transition from “television photography” to still photography. You’re videoes gives me the best transition I could ever want.
Kenneth / Norwy
Hey Jim,
Love the tips, thank you. I am a photojournalist who never has the opportunity to set up lighting with refectors and even tripods. However, I am constantly needing to shoot portraits in odd light situations. Do you have a video series or tips on how to use my flash (Canon 580EXII) without washing the subjects out but using the backgrounds appropriately, which normally are bright landscapes or even poorly lit rooms. It’s a challenge to say the least, and even though I practice all the time, I always feel the need to learn more. The reality, for me, is that I detest on-camera flashes but sometimes it is a necessary evil. Thanks for any tips you might have.
Mona
Hi Mona, I haven’t done any videos on balancing on-camera flash yet but it’s a subject I’d like to tackle in the future. I looked around the ‘net and didn’t turn up any videos to help you but Canon has some good articles on their site.
Forgive me if this is too basic but the Canon article titled Fill Flash Use with Canon EOS Cameras and Speedlites may be of some help. There are more tips and techniques at the Canon Digital Learning Center. And, of course, one of the definitive resources is at the Strobist site titled Lighting 101: Balancing Flash and Ambient.
I hope this helps a bit!
Thanks, guys. I definitely appreciate the direction…and if nothing else, practice makes perfect! Happy holidays.
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