I’m looking for help again! Yesterday, I took some portrait shots for a family with two little children, ages 1 & 3. There was no getting them to sit still so I generally followed them around while they played in the leaves. It was a little after 4 pm. and the day was pretty grungy and dark. When I returned home and was able to look at the pics, I was a bit disappointed. Too many blurry and dark pics.
I had the f-stop down as low as I could to provide more light but my depth of field was too shallow. I also had my shutter speed down as low as I dared to provide more light but with them moving around so much that really didn’t work out too well. I didn’t want to bring my ISO up since they were portraits and they would be enlarged.
What would be some other options? Should I have still raised my ISO up anyway? How far up can you raise the ISO and get away with it for enlargements. What’s the ideal f-stop for portraits? Any tips or hints would be most appreciated especially since I have more friends that would like me to take their children’s portraits!
Thank-you!!!
~Ann
Here are the best ones. I worked with them a bit in Lightroom. Upped the exposure, reduced the clarity ( I like to do that with children for their skin), played with some of the eyes. Tell me what you think. Also I’m wondering how much can be seen in enlargements, of the details.
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Shelly Wickens
Hey Ann :) Could you post a couple of them on here? It would be nice to see what you are talking about. Perhaps you are just being too hard on yourself? Have you tried messing with them in pp at all?
Appel:
Thanks shelly! Here are a few of the best for you to take a look at. Hopefully, i did the links correctly!
Vikram Franklin
Animals and children!!! The toughest to take pics of!!
Shoot in bursts – Set camera on continuous focus and use the 5 fps your camera allows you.
Upto ISO 400 shouldn’t be any problem either.
Post a link to your pics like Shelly said – maybe you are being too tough on yourself.
Appel:
Thanks, Vikram! Here are a few of the best for you to take a look at. hopefully, I did the links correctly!
Shaun Whiteman
It depends on the camera how much you can raise your ISO up, some mid range Cameras such as the Canon 50D or Nikon D300 handle ISO 1600 without a problem. As for F stop keep it as low as possible because you want to have a shallow depth of field to ensure focus is on the subject. Try using your built in flash but this can create over exposure…..I would suggest just experiment with lots of settings and lots of photos and then look at your EXIF data from your camera to see which combination you are happy with.
Appel:
Thanks! I think I’m finding out that I could have raised my ISO up at least a little bit more. I’m using my sister-in-law’s camera while mine is being fixed so I don’t know it as well as I know my own, although it is very similar. Mine is a NIkon D70, hers a Nikon D80. I did have my Fstop as low as it would go but I think it was a bit too low as portions of their faces would be out of focus, especially when shooting from the side or when they both were in the shot.
I will have to do more experimenting, thankfully, I have a couple of daughters who are willing subjects for the most part. I don’t like to experiment too much with other people. Thanks for all of your suggestions and info., it’s a great help!!!
Matt Adamik
Shooting in bursts is a good plan! Also I think cranking the ISO up to 800 when outside will work on most dslr’s.
I have been using a 1.8 50mm lens for the low light shots I’ve been doing in night clubs & it’s working pretty good!
I usually pick one focus point in my camera (usually whichever point is closest to the subjects face, or eye depending on how close you are) If you can get that point to lock on a moving targets face, your subject will be in focus.
Appel:
Ok., another question for you. Can you do bursts with a focus lock? I had my camera set on bursts but it didn’t always work, quite often it was still trying to focus as they were moving around so much. I guess, it’s possible I wasn’t using it correctly, I’m not sure. I do have, probably the same or similar, 50mm lens but I really wanted to get closer in, maybe I should have tried it. It definitely would have helped as far as lighting goes!
I’m still learning how to do the focus lock. I think I just about had if figured out with my camera, and then my camera breaks so now I’m using someone else’s. Any hints on that would be most helpful too! :-D Oh, and the camera I’m using is a Nikon D80 and mine, when I get if fixed, is a Nikon D70.
Thank-you so much for your help!!! Its hugely appreciated!
Shelly Wickens
Ummm….Ann……I think you might be being a bit harsh on yourself! Those are beautiful photos! 3 and 4 are may be a bit soft but you can play that up more in processing and quite frankly that is just my opinion so it’s not necessarily right! They are all composed very nicely and are wonderful captures. One suggestion might be, and again just a thought, but maybe uping the contrast a bit in a couple of them might make them stand out a bit more and look a bit more sharp? Just a thought, but they really are a great bunch of portraits :)
Now as far as technical stuff goes….it is great to see that Vikram jumped in on this. He is MY technical guy but I will let you borrow him this one time lol :D It will be interesting to see what other feedback you get on this :)
Appel:
Aaaww, Shelly, you’re too kind! I think it did help though, once I got rid of all the really bad ones and then just focused on the best ones, I felt better about it. I just didn’t feel like there were any that were – “Oh, look at this one, it’s awesome!” shots. When I do shots for others that’s what I want!
The shots that you mentioned, really are out of focus, I don’t know how much I can fix that. Any ideas?
Question – I like to soften the clarity a touch for portraits so the skin is soft looking, especially when they have a bit of a ruddy complexion. It seems as if when I up the contrast that I lose that smoothness of the skin again. Is there a way of doing it differently without losing that? There are definitely areas where I think the contrast could be upped, I’ve just never figured out how to do it properly, I guess.
I have another question for you, hopefully you can help. When I try to brighten the eyes in a portrait, I usually will up the exposure a bit the iris separate from the white and maybe play with the brightness a bit. I notice when I do this, when the image is magnified that although the white is overall brighter there are dark specks and it’s not uniform. You don’t notice it when the image is at the regular size only when magnified. Is this something that will show up if they have the photo enlarged? I don’t think I have ever enlarged a print that I’ve done with photoshop, so I really don’t know how it comes out. Makes me a bit nervous, since this is for others people!
Thanks so much, Shelly, for all of your help and encouragement!!!
BTW, Vikram is not YOUR technical guy, unless he’s straying on the side! LOL! He is great and a huge help!!! Good thing he’s so willing to share all of his expertise with the rest of us!!! :-D
Mike Weeks
I have done two portrait shoots of children in the last two days, both of children in the 18 month/2yr range. You have some good advice here from Vikram et al. You defintely need to go with your camera on Av setting with the f stop as low as you can manage for the right DoF you wish to achieve, I shoot a lot of mine at f/4.0 for this age group on a Canon 5DMkII and an L series lens (their top end) but would go lower down to 1.8 if the light was so poor. Don’t be scared of using flash out doors either if it is going to help you get the right shutter value and definitely shoot in RAW if your camera supports it so you have the flexibility to adjust WB and use the sharpening and noise reduction in lightroom for fine tuning if you have had to up the ISO – also you can do some final sharpening as you export the image (look at the options in the export box)
Appel:
O.k., this is probably a dumb question, but what do you mean by Av setting? Do you mean an Aperature priority setting? At a 1.8 setting, don’t you find that only parts of the face are in sharp focus? Especially when you do a side shot?
What is the best way of going about using a flash outdoors? I’m always nervous about flash, I avoid it usually! I only have the incamera one, should I place some type of diffuser on it to soften it or if I stay far enough way will it not make a difference? Since, I’ve not done much with flash – I don’t really know how to use it properly.
I do always shoot in RAW, I have not checked out how to do the final sharpening when you export; I’ll have to look into that!
Thanks so much for your help! There’s been a lot of info provided and yet I still have questions! LOL! Thanks again!!
Shelly Wickens
Check your bmail :)
Mike Weeks
OK to try and address some of the supplemental questions from my experience and a little research. First, here is a copy of your D70 manual in case you need to refer to it. If the child is prone to movement then you may wish to set the AF mode to continuous (AF-C) so that when the shutter release is pressed halfway down then the focus will continuously change based on what is happening on the AF point you have selected.
I use a Canon,so Av is the same as A on your Nikon (aperature priority).
Yes 1.8 can be a little soft but I usually find I have enough depth of field for a childs face. It is of course always a balance – photographs need light, so we have three things to play with:
1. Aperature – risk shallow depth of field and out of focus content
2. Shutter Speed – risks of blurring action
3. Sensitivity (ISO) – risks of “noise” or “grainy” images
of course there is a 4th and that is the light itself (flash or other)
and therefore every image is a compromise of these things. This image for example is shot at night with very little ambient light, no flash, ISO1600,f/1.8 and I managed 1/50sec hand held so it can be done but it is practice, not all of them turn out the way I would like either.
By the way, I think your images are very good so don’t be too harsh on yourself. Finally have you downloaded the right camera profiles for LR and there are also some great LR presets out there from people like Matt Koslowski
Vikram Franklin
Hey Ann – I was expecting to see a lot, lot worse – the only place I see a little noise is in number 5 (though at 100% it might be more obvious).
Mike’s advice is spot on and I’d agree on upping the contrast a little (you want it so that the face ‘pops’ from the background – so there’s clear separation between the two).
One thing though – I’d also suggest you make friends with the onboard flash – during the day it works a charm and you don’t have to worry about that ‘flash’ look at all as long as you’re not overly close. The added advantage is that it will also provide a nice spark in their eyes.
Set flash exposure to -1 (press the little button on the left of the flash and use the rear scroll to set that on the D80) and set Camera on ‘A’ and Matrix metering and you should be good to go on daytime outdoor photography.
Night work and indoor work would require more practise with the flash. Try some shots – you’ll be surprised at how good the onboard flash is. Works especially nicely when shooting against the light as it provides great fill and separation.
Cheers
Vikram