There are none. The more you shoot in manual mode, the more you will understand that each lighting situation, mood, and art style you seek will require you to change your settings to achieve a specific look. So the only way for you to understand how to take better portraits is to understand what each situation means and how it affects your final product.
Similar Articles you may like to read –
Choose the right camera and lenses for portrait photography
What is the best focal length for portraits?
Rule Of Thirds In Portrait Photography
What color looks best in portraits?
How do you get super sharp portraits?
How can I tweak my settings to capture better portrait photos?
Before we dive in, you will have to understand your camera settings and how each one of them affects your image. These are the pillars of photography: Aperture, Shutter speed, and ISO.
Aperture
Aperture is the opening in your lens that allows light to pass through. The larger the hole, the more light travels through it; the smaller that opening is, less light will pass through a darker image as a result. Much similar to a human eye that opens its pupils in the dark to capture light, stretching the pupil when looking directly at the sun.
How does the aperture affect my photos?
Aperture controls how bright and dark your images will be. The more you open the diaphragm of your lens, the more light comes in, thus a more brilliant picture in the end. The more you close it, less light comes in, and thus a darker image in the end.
It also controls your depth of field. When you are on the large side of your lens’s diaphragm, that will separate your subject from their background, achieving a shallow depth of field—also known as the bokeh effect. But, if you are on the small side of your diaphragm, you will have the entire subject and its background in focus.
example of shallow depth of field. This is an image taken at f1.4
Shutter speed
If aperture controls how much light enters your sensor, shutter speed controls for how long. It is a small door that slams shut right after taking the picture. Aside from that, faster speeds will allow you to freeze fast-moving objects, even a water droplet or a fast car. Slower speeds will help you capture more light in your photos if a large aperture isn’t sufficient.
Portrait photography aims at capturing the personality, character, and emotions. It can either be candid or artistic. Portrait photography requires more than just the ability to understand your camera settings, lighting, and composition.
You must also possess the ability to connect with your subjects and capture their unique qualities. So, it is a difficult but rewarding genre of photography.
Click Below to read a comprehensive guide to learning and mastering the art of portrait photography.
How does shutter speed affect my photos?
Shutter speeds’ are represented by fractions of a second (1/100, 1/2500) or even by full seconds (1 second, 30 seconds), which will have a different impact on your final product. Faster speeds (1/2500) will freeze fast-moving subjects, but there’s a tradeoff, as the amount of light it will capture is limited. That is fine if you take sports photography outside where there’s plenty of sunlight. However, if you are in a poorly lit environment, that will cause your pictures to be underexposed.
If you take a picture at 1/60 in a moderately lit indoor space, you might be able to take a sharp picture depending on your aperture settings and lens quality. But on the flip side of that, you might introduce some motion blur and camera shake into your pictures. The sacrifice here is quality. The solution here would be to either increase your ISO or use an external light source such as a strobe light or flash.
ISO
ISO is another ingredient to cook a perfect image, but be careful as it can ruin your pictures just as well. By increasing its number, you will be adding brightness to your photo digitally. That means, if you are unable to find the correct exposure by only using Aperture and Shutter Speed, you will be obliged to add brightness manually by increasing ISO.
How does ISO affect my pictures?
ISO digitally adds light into your picture. That being said, when you can’t get a nice sharp image with the lighting scenario you’re at, you can crank a little bit of ISO to balance it out, so the exposure comes out correct. But bear in mind that you’re trying to use as little of ISO as possible. If you do it too much, your images will look grainy and unprofessional.
Tips to take better portraits:
Shoot in Manual Mode
Always shoot manually. As a beginner photographer, if you feel unprepared to do so, try to do it gradually by using shutter speed priority (TV or S in your camera-top dial). In this mode, your camera will do everything else automatically, and you will be in control of your shutter speed. That will help you understand how it affects your images. Similarly, I’d encourage you to use aperture priority (often abbreviated A or AV on your camera’s top dial). It will allow you to control the aperture in your camera and learn how it affects the final product.
You will soon have enough knowledge and ease to control those settings with that bit of exercise done entirely. I will tell you that you won’t be changing your ISO very much, and that’s okay.
Why shoot in manual mode?
Shooting in manual mode helps you achieve the look you want almost 100% of the time. Automatic settings will often miss it, and you will have a ruined picture.
You can learn more about ” Long Exposure Photography With Light Trails, How To Do It? And Tips ” in our article:
White Balance Setting
What is white balance?
Suppose you’ve wondered, “why do my pictures look yellow?” or “why does this skin tone look blue?” that is the result of an unbalanced lighting scenario. White balance controls how colors will appear in your final image. In photography, we have two types of light: Warm and cold.
Warm tones are geared towards the orange side of the spectrum, while cold tones are blue. Sometimes during a photography session, those two scenarios will appear seconds apart. Sometimes you will have warm tones from the sun and an artificial light source (light bulb or neon light), resulting in a mixed-light type of picture.
As the name suggests, it will correct any excessive color temperature. If your picture is too orange, it will add a little bit of blue, so your colors look more uniform; if your images are blue, it will warm it up slightly. To avoid inaccurate color, you will have to use white balance.
How to change my white balance setting?
Changing the white balance setting is simple. You will often find a “WB” button in Nikon and Canon cameras. You will be shown different presets for each lighting scenario by pressing it. If you don’t have the “WB” button, go to your settings, and it should be under the “shooting menu.” You will find the options as follows:
- Auto (A) – Your camera will choose the correct white balance setting depending on your lighting scenario as it changes. This setting is what I use most of the time as it chooses correctly in most cases, and if it doesn’t, I can quickly change color in post-production.
- Incandescent (Light bulb) – To be used under tungsten light bulbs and only under them. Using this setting in any other lighting scenario will cause your pictures to look blue.
- Direct sunlight (Sun) – Use it when shooting under the sun.
- Fluorescent (glowing lightbulb) – To be used under fluorescent lights.
- Flash (lightning) – To use when you have a flash mounted on a camera or strobe.
- Cloudy (Cloud) – Shooting under clouds often makes your images look blue. By choosing this setting, it will bring out those warmer light tones.
- Choose color temperature (K) – You will choose manually.
- Preset (PRE) – Will require a white balance card for matching.
More articles you may like to read –
What is F-Stop? How Camera Aperture Work?
Best Camera Settings for Portrait Photography?
How can I make my clear portraits crisp?
Is f4 good for portraits?
The best aperture for portraits
Everything in photography is about decision-making. Choosing every setting shouldn’t be by accident but an act of intent. However, portrait photography has a standard aperture all photographers use. Set the aperture as broad as your lenses support (f1.2, f1.4, f1.8). That will produce a sharp and shallow depth of field. And that’s what you want.
One exception for this is, when shooting fashion portraits with a backdrop, the rule is to set your aperture to 1.6 to 1.8 or tighter. The entire subject must be in focus and as contrasty as possible in fashion portraits.
Fast Shutter Speed
As said before, in portrait photography, you want your subject to look as sharp and contrasty as possible. To achieve that, you must freeze your subject entirely. Using faster shutter speeds will achieve that. The exact number will depend on your lighting case, but it will be above 1/200. Have that in mind; you want your pictures as sharp as possible.
Set low ISO to avoid noise
Be careful with this feature. Using your ISO button without concern can ruin great photos. Increase your ISO only when you can’t get a good picture by aperture and shutter speed settings.
Having a picture with grain in it won’t look good. Set your ISO to the lowest.
Set focus to eye-detect
When taking a picture, you want the eyes—nothing else. Your portrait won’t be good if you have a tremendous posed shot, but the eyes are out of focus. Especially if we are talking about apertures of 1.2, at that point, it is tough to nail the focus manually or even AI Focus. So, having a feature that detects and locks in the subject’s eyes comes in handy. Most cameras now have this feature, and they work exceptionally well.
Never try to shoot in manual focus. Don’t risk losing a great picture because you couldn’t focus in time. In this day and age, technology has made a tremendous leap forward in that regard.
Why is the 50mm lens considered excellent for portrait Photography?
Why should you buy a 50mm prime lens? Commonly known as the nifty-fifty, this is an all-in-all great lens for various styles of photography. It makes it a great choice if you want to shoot portraits and shoot landscapes, streets, weddings, and more.
At the 50mm range, the human facial features are preserved, demonstrating a true-to-life kind of picture. This lens is mandatory for every portrait photographer to have, and I recommend being the first one in your kit, even before the 18-55mm that comes natively.
When should I use Flash for portrait photography?
The answer is: it depends. Is it a priority? No. If you are beginning in photography, try to stick with the fundamentals first, then slowly add peripherals. Most cameras can do great in most light scenarios, making it unnecessary to use flash. Now, suppose you’re talking about professional portraits, yes. In that case, you will need a flash and a light diffuser such as a softbox or an umbrella.
A quick tip: One pro tip is if you are shooting indoors with, maybe a wedding, with lots of white walls around, don’t be afraid to turn your flash towards the walls. That will naturally diffuse and bring out a complimentary light in the photo. Sometimes flash can look too harsh on the skin, and that’s a way to circumvent that.