Portraits |
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| Michael Collins |
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Portraits taken by a home CCD camera -- at home. 1. Control the area of focus. For portraits the area needs to small. If the camera has a "Portrait" setting, as this will set the area of focus to a small area. If not, learn how to control your camera's area of focus manually. 2. Portraits need to have a small depth of focus. This is accomplished by using a large aperture setting (small f-stop). This is automatic with a "Portrait" setting. Otherwise, set the aperture to as small of an f-stop as the camera allows. 3. Focus on the eyes and let everything else go blurry. 4. If the ambient light is bright enough, do not use flash. When professionals use flash for portraits, it is off-axis and diffused. Home cameras typically do not have this capability. 5. Pick an uncluttered background. On the above indoor example, the picture on the wall was taken down and the subjects head hid the picture hook from view. On the outdoor example, an uncluttered background was found between the yard plantings. 6. Have the subject stand several feet in front of the background. This helps to throw the background out of focus. 7. Notice how a high background light (the Sun) livens up the hair in the outdoor picture. 8. If the camera has telephoto capability, use a moderate telephoto setting. Wide-angle settings make the nose look large and the cheeks bloated. 9. Pictures taken indoors without a flash will have a yellow cast. This can be corrected by a photo processing program. Color balance is measured in degrees Kelvin. This is the temperature of a body that radiates that color balance. Light bulbs are 2500K, fluorescent tubes are 4200K and the Sun is 6500K degrees. Mother Nature has decided for us that 6500K looks "white." Good portraits are created by attention to details. [Top]
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