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ince its invention over 160 years ago,
photographys most popular subject has always
been people by a long way. While a relatively
small band of enthusiasts have specialist interests such as
landscape, still life or natural history, the majority of pictures
taken are of family and friends. Whether were out having a
wonderful time or simply relaxing at home, we like nothing
more than to record the occasion for posterity.
But all too often the results disappoint failing to
capture the magic of the moment or the personalities of
those present. Even people you know really well can get
tense and nervous when a camera is pointed at them,resulting in awkward poses and cheesy grins that ruin the
shot. Other images are let down by technical considerations
such as poor composition, ghoulish red-eye, inaccurate
focus, wrong exposure or unflattering lighting.
Of course, one of the great advantages of using a digital
camera is that you can review the pictures immediately, and
shoot them again if theyre not quite right or even salvage
them later on a computer.
Getting it rightBut sometimes the opportunity has gone and there is no
second chance such as blowing out the candles on a
birthday cake. So it makes sense to get it right first time. At
the heart of the problem is the fact that many
photographers just pick up the camera and snap away
without thinking about what they are trying to achieve orhow to get the best from the situation.
However, with the right approach, a picture can be a true
and lasting portrait that reveals something of the real
people or a treasured memento of a precious moment not
just a superficial snapshot. The bad
news about taking pictures of
people this time of year is that it
gets dark so early, and if youre
shooting after late afternoon the
only option is to use the cameras
built-in flashgun. The good news is
that over the next couple of months there will be loads of
parties, school plays and so forth, and you wont find
yourself short of subjects.
The problem with using flash is that its not subtle.
Because it blasts light directly at your subject, youre not
going to get the best shots in the world. All too often you
end up with white, over-exposed faces staring out from a m
018 DIGITALCAMERAMAGAZINE
People are easily the most popular subject, but you need to think carefully about what you aretrying to achieve, says Steve Bavister, if you want to produce pictures with lasting appeal
FEATURE
YOUR GUIDE STEVE BAVISTER
Steve is a photographic journalist and freelance photographer. He is editor of ThePhotographer, a leading magazine for pro photographers, and author of ten bookson photography including Digital Photography and Take Better Family Photos
PHOTOGRAPHINGPEOPLE
PORTFOLIOSTEVEBAVISTER
S
Shallow depth of field isolates thesubject from the background
Direct eye contact with the cameraengages the viewer
Muted background colours dontdistract from the main subject
The models hair and arm posehelp to frame the face
WHYWE CHOSEOUR COVER PICTURE4
Even people you know really wellcan get tense and nervous whena camera is pointed at them
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FEATURE
020 DIGITAL CAMERAMAGAZINE
PHOTOGRAPHINGPEOPLE
black background. Worse still, your subjects may suffer
from red-eye, caused by the flash reflecting back fromthe blood vessels at the back of the eye.
While red-eye is not difficult to correct using an
image-editing program, why make work for yourself
when it can often be avoided?
Dealing with flashMany cameras feature a red-eye reduction facility that
will diminish and sometimes eliminate red-eye in the
majority of situations. If you dont have such an option
you could try switching on the room light the pupil of
the person youre photographing will close down,
reducing the risk of their eyes ending up red.
You can minimise the likelihood of over-exposure
when using flash by not getting too close to your
subject. Around two metres is a good working distance
with most built-in guns.
If you have children, though, and want to photograph
them in the Christmas play, you may need to increase
the sensitivity setting on your camera, from ISO 100 to
400 or even 800. The quality wont be quite as good,
but it will increase the effective range, and reduce thepossibility of under-exposure. Getting there early and
bagging a front row seat is also a good idea.
Sometimes youll have to use flash, and its ideal for
party pictures, but if you aspire to more than that
perhaps taking portraits with style and quality its to
the many moods of daylight you should turn.
Making the most of natural lightIf, like many photographers, you associate taking pictures
outside with sunlight and blue skies, you might not be
inclined to step through your front door with your
camera in your hand at this time of year. But, in fact, the
gentle light you get in autumn and early winter is a
lot more attractive than the fierce light of summer.
Cloudy days in particular are perfect for people
photography of all kinds. Shadows are much softer
and more flattering, minimising lines on more mature
faces. And even when the sun is shining, the fact that
its lower in the sky means you dont get ugly, dark
areas under the eyes, nose and chin as you do in
brighter weather conditions.In fact, the position of your subject in relation to the
sun is of prime importance and different results will be
achieved at different times of the day, as the sun rises,
circles the heavens, and then sets.
Of all the kinds of lighting available to the
photographer, top lighting is probably the least
satisfactory. You get it in the middle of the day, when
the sun is at its highest. Because shadows are point
down and relatively dense, it really is best avoided
whenever possible.
The best times for portrait photography
outside are morning and afternoon, when the sun is
1 Touching heads together creates a sense of
intimacy and avoids the camera sensor focusing onthe background
2 Shooting into the light puts a halo of light around
the girls hair and back
3 Setting the built-in flashgun to give a burst of fill-
in flash ensures that the faces are fully illuminated
and theres an attractive catchlight in the eye
4 Using the top end of the
camera's zoom range and
placing the girls some
distance from the
background gives a three-
dimensional effect
IMAGE EXPLAINED3
1
2
3
4
An increasing number of digitalcameras allow you to select theaperture and shutter speed settings
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closer to the horizon. Place the sun behind you and
your subjects will be evenly lit, with a catchlight (a point
of light thats a reflection from the sun) in their eyes,
bringing them to life.A simple way to make the light even more appealing
is to improvise a reflector of the type widely used by
professional photographers. Any white or reflective
material will do a white piece of card, an old sheet or
a square of polystyrene. Simply ask the person to hold it
at waist height, so its not seen in the picture, and youll
be astonished how much it improves the lighting.
If you have a friend on hand who can act as an
assistant, try positioning your subject so theyre lit
from the side, with the reflector held vertically on
the opposite side to bounce light back into the
shaded areas.
Reflectors are also valuable when taking pictures intothe sun or contre-jour, as its also known. The
backlighting from this arrangement can be attractive
because of the Ready-Brek glow it gives to hair and
body, but if you just shoot away you may end up with a
silhouette. Setting your cameras flash menu to provide
fill flash can be an effective, but less controllable, way
of making sure people are fully illuminated.
When taking pictures outdoors in autumn and
winter its a good idea whenever you can to get your
If your camera enables you to select the aperture, you have direct control over howmuch of the finished picture appears sharp. There is a zone, technically called the
depth of field, in front of and behind the point on which the camera lens is focused,
which varies according to the size of the aperture. When you set a small aperture
(confusingly, a big number such as f/11 or f/16), theres a large zone of sharpness,
with most things appearing in focus. When you set a large aperture (a smaller
number, such as f/5.6 or f/8), the zone is much narrower, and only the main subject
sharp. Choosing a small aperture is ideal where you want to show your subjects in
their natural environment. Selecting a large aperture is preferable where you want
to concentrate attention on the person.
APERTURE CONTROL2
By focusing on an area in
front of the subject and
choosing a large aperture
setting, the subject is
outside the shallow area of
depth of field. This creates
the unusual effect here
By selecting a small aperture,
more of the subjects in the
shot remain in focus.
Unlike their traditional
film equivalents, digital
cameras rarely offer a depth
of field preview, so some
experimentation may be
required to get the result
you want
1
1
Extreme depth of field
effects can be enhanced
in an image-editing
program. Here, the effect
of shallow depth of field
has been greatly
exaggerated by digitally
blurring the background
Learn more about depth of
field in our camera
techniques feature on
page 86
1
You can make people look thinner byasking them to stand at 45 to thecamera, rather than square on to it
As well as photographing people standing andsitting, try out shots of them lying on the floor orleaning against a walla
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FACIAL EXPRESSIONSThe best way to get an interesting facial
expression is to be unobtrusive. Dont ask your
subject to say cheese instead, lie low and snap
off a few shots when theyre least expecting it
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subjects to wear bright clothes, to stop them blending
into their surroundings.
Camera settingsThe lens setting you use and where people arepositioned in respect to the background are important
factors. If you want people to stand out, so the
emphasis is on them rather than the surroundings, you
should use the top end of your zoom range and get
them to stand well away from the background. What
this does at a technical level is reduce the depth of
field the amount of the scene that appears sharp in
the finished picture. If you have a powerful zoom and
the backdrop is some way behind, your subject will
stand out almost three dimensionally.
When you want to shoot an environmental portrait,showing people in their surroundings, you should do
the opposite go for a wide-angle setting and position
people close to the background.
An increasing number of digital cameras allow you to
select the aperture and shutter speed settings, rather
than leave it to the cameras exposure system. If you
have this option, you can control the depth of field in a
direct and creative way.
Taking candid photosWhether you shoot indoors or outside, getting your
subjects to relax while youre photographing them cansometimes be a challenge. As soon as you pick up your
camera and point it in their direction many people get
tense and nervous with stiff body language and
frozen smiles ruining the shot. Or worse, they start
acting up and pulling silly faces.
But theres a simple way to avoid these problems
by shooting candid pictures. Instead of asking people to
pose, you photograph them when theyre unaware of
you. This allows you capture them as they really are, at
their most natural, enabling you to get a glimpse of
their real character.
And shooting candid pictures isnt hard to do. Yousimply have to develop a different way of working.
Instead of getting people to Say Cheese, you stand at
a distance using a telephoto lens setting, waiting for the
right moment to release the shutter. Expressions change
in a fleeting second, and opportunities can arise and be
gone before you know it blink and you miss them. So
you need to concentrate on your subject completely,
anticipating the right moment and acting decisively
when everything falls into place.
Of course, if youre shooting candids indoors using
flash, the first picture you take will give the game away.
Outside, though, you may be able to take a sequenceof pictures, especially if the person is immersed in
some kind of activity or chatting to someone else.
The downside of candids is that you have little
control over things such as lighting or background, and
for that reason you will almost certainly want to control
the two approaches.
Taking posed photosIf you do go the posed route, be prepared to offer
direction rather than leave people to their own devices.
The more you tell them what to do, within reason, the
more confident they will be in your abilities. Its best to
have some idea how you would like to start things in
terms of location, pose, lighting and composition,and then make changes as you go along.
The best way to put people at their ease is to chat to
them about things that interest them, such as their
hobbies or work taking pictures as they grow more
animated and lost in the conversation.
Photographing childrenThis works particularly well with children, who often
have a short attention span, and get bored with posing
quickly. Subjects such as pop music and TV programmes
are a good place to start, and a fund of knock-knock
jokes or amusing stories can help break the ice with
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Experimenting with wide-angle lens settings can produce some interesting effects whenshooting people. Wide angle lenses cause some interesting, if at times unflattering
distortion of the facial features, and the wider the lens you use the more this will be
apparent. You can also try experimenting with the Spherize filter in Adobe
Photoshop/Elements on a normal picture to recreate the effect of a wide-angle lens.
WIDE-ANGLE CONSIDERATIONS2Only gloomy days it's a good idea to set yourcamera's flashgun to fire a burst of fill-in flash
balanced to the existing lighting to make sure that
your subject is fully illuminated.
FILL-INFLASH2
8
Before you take a picture, look aroundthe frame to see if there's anythingmessy or potentially distracting
When shooting indoors using room lighting,switch off ceiling lighting, which causes uglyshadows, and use table lamps insteadg
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youngsters. As any parent knows, if youre bossy theyll
start to rebel. Encourage them to try different posesrather than telling them to perhaps by getting them to
play with a favourite pet or toy, or asking them to
pretend theyre a princess or king.
One of the key things when photographing children
is to get down to their level, both literally and
metaphorically. Crouching so youre the same height as
them means you dont get awkward expressions as
they strain to look up at you.
Babies are easy to photograph, because they stay
where you put them, but toddlers can be tricky because
they tend to be in perpetual motion rushing towards
you when you try to photograph them. For that reason acandid approach is more likely to be successful.
Improving compositionAs with other areas of photography, composition plays
an important part in portraiture. How big you make the
person in the frame, and where you place them is, to a
large degree, a matter of personal preference. And
while you will obviously want to enhance images once
you get them on a computer, you dont want to lose
quality by throwing too many pixels away and its a
good idea to get your composition as right as possible in
the first place.
One option is to include all of the person. This works
well if you want to show them in context, but can lackimpact because they often seem far away. For general
picture-taking a three-quarters crop, typically from just
above the knees, is a good choice the face isnt so
small in the frame but you can still see the background.
For maximum impact, try cropping even tighter, to a
head and shoulders. You get lots of eye contact, and the
only real downside is you dont see any of the setting.
If your camera has a zoom lens, its better to use that
to fill the frame with the subject, rather than move
physically closer. Avoid taking tightly cropped pictures of
people at the wide-angle end of your range the
distortion that results is far from flattering.As you go closer you need to make sure you focus on
the eyes because the depth of field is greatly reduced,
and if the eyes are unsharp it tends to make the whole
picture look wrong.
When photographing one person, youll often want to
place them at the centre of the frame though its
worth experimenting with other positions, such as to the
side, or even dynamic compositions such as at a
diagonal, by tilting the camera.
When photographing two people together, you
should aim to capture something of the relationship
between them. If theyre related in some way, getting
them to put their arms around each other and tip their
heads together is a simple way to create a sense
of intimacy. It also avoids the common problem of the
focusing sensor going between the heads and focusing
on the background with both people ending up out
of focus.
With groups, try to avoid lining them up like a firingsquad. The key to success lies in making sure you can
see everyones face and that theres some kind of shape
or structure. One simple technique is to create a
triangle, with the tallest person in the middle, and
others slightly in front and to the side.
Whoever you photograph, and however you
photograph them, one of the great advantages of using
a digital camera is that you can show your subjects the
results straight away, giving them immediate feedback
on how theyre coming across. And once they see they
look okay, theyll noticeably relax, paving the way for
even better images.
Some digital cameras may give you the option toshoot in black and white, but for greater flexibility
shoot in colour and then convert the image on your
PC. Contrasty images work best when converting to
black and white but this can also be tweaked in your
contrast settings in your image editor. Here we see
various colour alternatives, as well as black and white,
try experimenting with duo, trio and quadtones.
1 Monochrome variation
2 Sepia toned image
3 Duotone image (black + yellow)
4 Duotone image (black + magenta)
01
02
03 04
EXPERIMENTING WITHCOLOUR2
One of the great advantages of usinga digital camera is that you can showyour subjects the results straight away
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Flatter people and make them look younger by using the flash whatever the weather.This softens shadows and bleaches lines. To reduce any potential harshness, secure apiece of tissue over the flash this diffuses the lightf
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FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHINGPEOPLE
DESATURATE TO GREY
Shift the reds to greys. Under the Imagemenu, go to Adjustments and choose
Desaturate. This turns the red in the eyes to grey. In the
Layers palette, click on the Create New Fill or Adjustment
Layer button and pick Hue/Saturation.
02
COLORIZE THE LAYERApply a new colour to the selected grey eyes.
The Hue/Saturation dialog window appears
automatically. Add a tick next to Colorize, drag the
Saturation slider to the centre (50%) and drag the Hue
slider until you find the eye colour you want. Click OK.
03 REDUCE THELAYER OPACITYArtificially applied colour can look fake so toneit down with layer transparency. Tone it down
by dragging on the Opacity slider in the Layers window.
This allows some of the grey in the Background layer to
temper the hue you chose.
04
ne of the most basic problems when
photographing people, is red eye whenusing a flash. Red eye happens when the
bright light from a cameras flash unit reflects off the
the subjects retina. Some cameras have red eye
reduction features built-in but even then, you may
still have this problem
Luckily, its something easily fixed. Many low-end
photo editing programs feature dedicated red-eye
removal tools and wizards. The latest versions of
Paint Shop Pro, PhotoImpact and Photoshop elements
all do but surprisingly the gorilla of the bunch,
Photoshop, expects you to do it all manually.
Weve used Photoshop to show you how to fix it
without recourse to fancy tools, but if you have
Elements 2, take a look at our tip opposite.
Two steps to heavenThere are several ways to approach the problem
using paint brushes and alpha channels, but here
weve chosen the most popular method using an
easy two-step technique: first turn the red to grey,
then Colorize that grey to something else.
Using an adjustment layer also enables you to
temper unrealistically coloured eyes by making the
layer partly transparent. Now take a look opposite:
Red-eyeremoval
SELECT THE EYES
Mark up both eyes with a selection marqueeready to edit. Use any of the selection tools
with the Shift key held down to select both affected eyes
in the photo. For best accuracy, you should zoom in and
trace around the eyes with the Lasso.
01
QUICK TIPS
8Its a hoary old problem peoples eyesgoing demonic red when taking photosindoors with a flash. Its easily fixed
FIXING RED-EYE IN ADOBE
PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 2
1 Select the Red Eye brush
from the tools palette.
2 Choose a brush from the
pop-up palette and select an
appropriate brush size. You
can select the colour you
want to remove when you
click in the relevant part of
the image.
3 Choose a replacementcolour, either via Default
Colours or Replacement
colour. You will probably
want a good, deep black.
4 Choose a Tolerance (how
close in colour different pixels
must be to the ones they are
replacing). The lower the
tolerance, the closer the
colours need to be to those
they are replacing.
5 Click the pupils to change
their colour.
O
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FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHINGPEOPLE
TUG THE CONTRASTAdding more contrast will prevent dark
areas from colourising in subsequent steps.
In the Curves dialog window, tug the diagonal line
down slightly from the middle in order to turn it into a
gentle curve.
02
ADJUST THECOLOUR BALANCEUse sliders to swing the emphasis from greens
to reds in the photos midtones. Click OK, then
use the Add A New Fill or Adjustment Layer button to
create a Color Balance layer. Gently move the sliders to
compensate one channel colour against another. Click OK.
03 NUDGE LEVELSModerate the colour change by adjusting theLevels balance to finish. Create another
Adjustment Layer, this time choosing Levels from the
drop-down list. A tiny adjustment is required here. In our
case, a slight movement of the middle slider to the right.
04
aking skin look correct is very difficult because
people have an idea in their head what colourskin ought to look, regardless how the rest of
the image appears.
Another problem is certain kinds of lighting conditions
or a predominance of colours like blue (like outside on a
sunny day) can affect the balance of all the other
colours, deadening them or making skin tones look cold.
Luckily your image editor contains tools which enable
you either to replace these colour casts or add warm
colours to your image to offset them.
On the other hand, once you begin editing a photo
for skin tones, its easy to lose track and end up sending
everyones faces pink instead of buff.
Fixing it upThe quickest method is to experiment with Variations
under Photoshops Image8Adjustments menu or
Elements Enhance menu, but careful use of multiple
Adjustment Layers gives you more control. This is
especially important when youre trying to add colour to
skin (as shown here) rather than take it away. You can
do something similar in Paint Shop Pro 7 although the
tools here are less flexible.
Probably the best rule of thumb is: add reds, to warm
up an image. Take a look opposite:
ADD AN ADJUSTMENT LAYERStart with a new Adjustment Layer for each
action. Open the Layers palette, click on the
Add A New Fill or Adjustment Layer button and choose
Curves from the drop-down list. An Adjustment Layer is
created and the Curves dialog window appears.
01
8
Correctingskin tonesGet that skin colour right!
QUICK TIPSUSING PHOTOSHOP
The best tool for repairing
skin tones is Photoshop,
because it enables you to
work in CMYKmode (the four
colours that make up printed
colours Cyan, Magenta,
Yellow and Black). You can
precisely adjust the CMYK
values separately.
USING ELEMENTS 1 & 2The Variations tool (under
Enhance) enables you to add
more of certain colours.
USINGPAINTSHOP PRO 7
Do something similar using
the Manual Colour Tool to
remove a cold colour cast
and replace it with a warm
colour category like woods.
See www.jasc.com/tutorials/
robin/ for more information.
M
Correctingskin tonesGet that skin colour right!
http://www.jasc.com/tutorials/robinhttp://www.jasc.com/tutorials/robinhttp://www.jasc.com/tutorials/robinhttp://www.jasc.com/tutorials/robin