First-time Portrait Photography Tips?

Darg

Darg

Darg

Soldato
Joined
6 Sep 2006
Posts
6,302
Location
London
Hi, first time to post in these forums.

I consider myself an amateur photographer and I enjoy it quite a lot. Apparently I have quite a good view and can usually get good photos.

My camera is a Sony DSC-H2 that I got for my 21st last year. I really love this camera and it's served me well. Very quick at saving 6M photos to memory. I have had the chance to use the Fuji Finepix S602z and it takes about 10 seconds to save the image after it's taken. Not good. Mine takes probably less then a second. The only "professional" use I've had for it is in my current job taking photographs for a local furniture stores online brochure. I really can't fault the quality of the photographs. Sometimes it gets a little noisy in low light but most of the shop is well lit so no problems there. There's a bit of colour noise as well at high contrast edges but nothing noticeable unless zoomed right in on the high res picture.

Anyway.. to get to the point. One of the women in the shop asked me if I could take portrait pictures of herself and her 6 year old son. She'll be sending the pictures of her son to modeling agencies so she wants professional quality photographs. She'll also be printing out both her pictures and her sons on A4 for a photo-book for herself and friends. Now I know my camera is up to the task of taking quality pictures especially in good lighting.

I don't have lighting myself but we'll be borrowing some lights from the shop that should provide a nice warm light. If it's sunny we may just go to the nearby lake and take pictures in the sunlight.

This is my first actual professional contract. I was quite conservative I think and quoted her just €100 (£66) for roughly 2 hours photographing and a couple of hours photoshop work at home. That includes the cost of 10-15 A4 photographic sheets. Does that seem like a reasonable price to you guys?

I made this thread to try and get tips off you guys before I go out there. Would you recommend bringing lighting even if we aim to take pictures in the sun? What angles and lighting do you guys generally use for portrait shots? Where would you position the lights assuming that the subject is standing or sitting directly in front of the camera?

Really any tips are welcome.
Thanks =)
 
Not much in the way of portraits apart from the usual collection of girlfriend and family pictures. My girlfriend instantly dislikes any picture she's involved in but she's said that I have a good eye with regards to family pictures and grudgingly her own as well.

What I would like to know most is what lighting is generally considered best for portraits? Should the light be coming from above, below, from the left or from the right. Or does it depend on the surroundings?

I've only considered myself an amateur photographer until now. I doubt I'll do much in the way of professional shoots but it would be a nice side income if I could get a few going.
 
Well any photographer will tell you that soft light is the best as it provides a base for smooth skin tones in your models.

For this you are going to require 1. Powerful light source with a softbox attached.

That would be one light you would use slightly above/direct of your subject. The error this generates is that this is going to be casting a shadow behind your subject. To get around this you really want a 2. Secondary light source to come from above/downwards to blend in or fully fill in those shadows.
You could however use a flash gun pointed upwards to bounce and fill in those shadows but its going to be a touch and go in regards to it working everytime. If you're moving around with your subjects its going to be a lot more complicated in controlling light as it would if you were just using them stationary.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom