The Complete Portrait Manual

A trusted reference for beginners looking to master the portrait or lifelong photographers looking to try a new twist on the classic genre. The editors of Popular Photography pooled all their knowledge from their 70+ years of experience to bring you the most comprehensive guide to portraits on the market: The Complete Portrait Manual. Whether you’re after snapshots of loved ones laughing, impressive studio headshots, fun yet tasteful selfies, or lightning-fast captures of athletes doing the thing they love, this guide will help you produce the perfect portrait. In chapters on how to flatter your subjects with poses and angles, light them just right, and retouch your photos in post-production, you’ll learn how to: · Get to Know Your Subjects · Pick Props that Show Personality · Snap a Nice Selfie · Craft Environmental Portraits · Hide Flaws with Clever Angles · Take Candid Street Shots · Pick Poses that Flatter · Zoom In on Telling Details · Shoot Truly Joyful Holiday Portraits · Freeze a Subject’s Fleeting Reflection · Set Up Avedon Lighting · Know Your Light Sources · Flatter with a Ring Light · Mimic Film Noir Shadows · Slow a Spinning Ballerina with Long Exposure · Combine Natural and Studio Light · Select Light Modifiers · Capture Musicians with Limited Lighting · Make Nostalgic Portraits with Film · Understand Retouching Tools · Go Classic with Black and White Conversion · Craft Whimsical Composites · Repair Old Photos of Loved Ones · Minimize Lines and Skin Flaws · Whiten Teeth and Eyes · Make Cautious Use of the Liquify Tool · Brighten Exposure for Breezier Snapshots

MEET YOUR DSLR There are tons of camera types on the market today—from cheap point-and-shoots to mirrorless interchangeable-lens (ILC) models, from tiny action cams to the camera on your smartphone. But for many dedicated shooters, the obvious first choice in equipment is still a digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera. Why? First, DSLRs allow a shooter to frame pictures with precision fairly easily. Second, the sheer number of lens types available lets one camera perform many functions. Like any new piece of equipment, function and controls can take some getting used to. Here’s an overview of the main controls, as well as a quick peak at what’s going on inside the camera itself. MANUAL FOCUS RING Don’t want your camera to decide where to focus? Turn this ring. Want to make fine manual focus adjustments while using autofocus? Again, turn this ring. ZOOM RING When your DSLR is fitted with a zoom lens, use this ring to adjust for desired focal length—and determine how close or far away a subject in your shot appears. IMAGE STABILIZATION SWITCH Located on your lens or the body of your camera, this switch kicks image stabilization on and off. This function allows you to get sharper images of static objects without a tripod or in lower light than might be possible without it. HOTSHOE While it sounds like a dated dance move, it’s actually where you attach a flash or other accessory to your camera. A lot of times, DSLRs come with covers to shield the hotshoe when it’s not in use. MODE DIAL Use this dial to pick a shooting mode. Cede control of exposure settings to the camera in fully automatic mode, be a control freak in fully manual, or try one of the many preset program modes. ISO BUTTON This button controls the light sensitivity of your camera’s image sensor. If you’re shooting in ultrabright light, use a low ISO (50–200), and increase ISO in lower light. FYI, the higher the ISO in use, the more noise—visual distortion, often in the form of grainy or blotchy appearance—your image may have. AUTOFOCUS BUTTON Press this button to tell your DSLR to pick which elements in your shot should appear the sharpest. VIEWFINDER Peek through the viewfinder to make choices about how to compose and frame your shot. Through it, you’ll see a corrected (read: right side up) version of the image that reflects off your camera’s reflex mirror. SHUTTER Essentially a mechanical curtain, the shutter serves as a movable barrier between a camera’s image sensor and its lens. Open the shutter, and your camera’s reflex mirror pivots up, allowing an image to hit the image sensor. PENTAPRISM Not unlike the brain’s visual cortex—the part of your brain that converts images your eyes see as upside down—this pentagon-shape prism flips an image out of reverse before sending it the viewfinder’s way. IMAGE SENSOR A device covered with pixels (light-sensitive cells), an image sensor measures the intensity and color of an image that has passed through the shutter. Last, the image sensor converts these measurements into digital form—ultimately capturing your shot. REFLEX MIRROR When an image enters a lens, it’s upside down. The reflex mirror reflects that image through a focusing screen, in the direction of the pentaprism. LENS Detachable lenses change your camera’s capabilities by narrowing or widening a circular opening—the size of which is called the aperture—to control the amount of light that enters. Light passes through the lens on its way to the reflex mirror.

Photographers must have a clear understanding of how the human body, from head to toe, should be posed and adjusted in order to look good—and natural—to the camera. Learning effective strategies to flatter the face, arms and legs, torso, and hands and feet will allow us not only to flatter our subjects but also effectively tell the subject’s story. Regardless of your photographic style, the tips and techniques outlined in this book will allow you to better control what the camera sees and the mood or message you want to convey. Whether you are a portrait or lifestyle photographer, photojournalist, fashion or commercial photographer, this book is designed to help you learn skills that you can apply to your specific style and method of shooting. Stephenson maintains that you should first identify the intent of your portrait before you begin to analyze the way in which you will pose your subject or subjects. How will the client use the image? Does he or she need a business portrait, which will require an air of authority and confidence, with a traditional vibe? Is the couple who booked the session deeply in love, and would a pose that speaks to their emotional closeness be appropriate? The author then moves into a discussion on body language. The way that an individual holds himself says much about his mind-set, mood, and motivations. Image viewers subconsciously read the cues that the subject’s body conveys. It is important to ensure that the body language that is summoned through posing suits the mood/theme /intent of the portrait. There are traditions of posing that have been in play in the visual arts for eons. Many photographers fall into using the same pose for every subject. When this happens, all of the images that leave the studio begin to look the same. This can have dire consequences when it comes to the public perception of the photographer’s work—and can squelch the joy photographers feel when creating. Stephenson offers simple approaches to flattering every body part when photographing individual clients and also teaches readers how to create artful images of couples and groups, as in multi-subject portraits, each individual must look great and relate logically and aesthetically to other subjects in the frame. With tips for posing the young and old, males and females, singles, couples, and groups in both indoor and locations—and in reclining, seated, and standing poses, from full-length to close-up, this book will walk you through all aspects of posing and balance with examples and easy to follow instructions. It’s time to stop guessing and learn the art and science of posing.

Photographers are guided through every aspect of posing—beginning with the consultation and continuing with specific tips for posing children, high school seniors, wedding parties, families, events, teams, groups, and pets—in this comprehensive manual. Maintaining that good posing is 80 percent mental and only 20 percent technical, this guide stresses the importance of communication between photographer and subject to creating a portrait that not only captures the subject’s personality but also makes the subject comfortable, fostering repeat business.

Providing readers with a study of learning how to turn poorly lit images into finely crafted, masterfully lit photographs, this guidebook instills photographers with the self-confidence to think on their feet and photograph any portrait subject anywhere. Acclaimed photographer Neil van Niekirk presents seven distinctly different lighting scenarios—available light, exposure metering, a touch of flash, bounced on-camera flash, off-camera flash, video light, and hard sunlight—to show readers how to manipulate the direction and quality of light, the subject’s and photographer’s position, and numerous other variables so as to turn a bad image into a stunning, professional-level portrait. Packed with dozens of instructional, full-color photos, this work also features 10 sample photo sessions, allowing readers the opportunity to see the seven lighting scenarios put to practice.

Teaches the steps involved in creating portraits by discussing tips on poses, lighting, makeup, framing, and equipment purchasing and maintenance.

When photographing people, you can have a great composition, perfect light, and the right camera settings, but if your subject doesn’t look right—if the pose is off—the shot will not be a keeper. Posing is truly a crucial skill that photographers need to have in order to create great photographs. If you’re looking to improve your ability to pose your subjects—whether they’re men, women, couples, or groups—best-selling author and photographer Lindsay Adler’s The Photographer’s Guide to Posing: Techniques to Flatter Everyone is the perfect resource for you. In the first half of The Photographer’s Guide to Posing, Lindsay discusses how the camera sees, and thus how camera angle, lens choice, and perspective all affect the appearance of your subject. Lindsay then covers things that ruin a pose—such as placement of the hands, and your subject’s expression and posture. Next, Lindsay dives into “posing essentials,” outlining her approach to start with a “base pose,” then build on that to create endless posing opportunities. She also discusses posing the face—with specific sections dedicated to the chin, jaw, eyes, and forehead—as well as posing hands. In the second half of the book, Lindsay dedicates entire chapters to posing specific subject matter: women, men, couples, curvy women, families and small groups, and large groups. In each chapter, Lindsay addresses that subject matter’s specific challenges, provides “go-to poses” you can always use, and covers how to train the eye to determine the best pose for your subject(s). Lindsay also teaches you how to analyze a pose so that you can create endless posing opportunities and continuously improve your work.