THP Tip #1: Portrait Photography

Hey,

So I decided since my blog has gotten enough views (+2000, thank you!) that you might actually care to hear my opinion and thoughts on some things.  So I will started doing some Tom Houston Photography Tips for things and Opinion pieces.  Just so that it is easier for me to write the tips in a timely fashion I am going to write them one at a time.  Since they are not my top ten tips since most of them would be the same with all the others you can read, I thought I would do the tips you might no see elsewhere.

There are many sources for finding tips for portraits and I encourage you to read those as well.  I don't know everything about portrait photography so this should just be one of the many resources you read to help you with your portraits.  

So here in no particular order, here is the first tip you might not see elsewhere. 

(As a quick disclaimer, most of the portraits I shoot are female so in some cases it might only apply to working with female subjects)

#1.  Bokeh, Bokeh, and more Bokeh.  

I love having bokeh in my portraits because it just makes your subject the only focus in the photo.  Personally I often, for outdoor portraits, stop my 50mm down to 1.4 or my 105mm to 2.8 and keep it there.  This makes the background into a lovely out of focus blur and makes your subject pop.  Sometimes I even do it in my studio because having such a narrow depth of field really helps focus the viewer on what you want.  

So as seen in the photo below, the background is almost indiscernible which makes the detail of the subject pop out.  It also brings the focus of the photo directly to their eyes.  This is obvious since it is really the main thing in focus, duh.  But that is also another tip mostly all photographers would say, focus on the eyes.  So write that down somewhere too.  Also another note with using wide apertures outside is be careful with blowing out your photo.  It is hard to keep your photos exposed well with using f/1.4 on the bright and lovely sunny day as seen below.  Her cheek bone might actually be blown out just a tad in this photo because of the sun.  On a quick side note I took this photo to just show what effect aperture has on the photo.  I am very glad I did since this is one of my favourite portrait shots I have.  

Portrait - 50mm

This photo below I took in my studio (however you can't really tell) and used my 50mm to get a really shallow depth of field so the eyes and rose were in focus.  I had to stand precariously on a stool to get to the right angle to do that but it was worth it.  

Portrait - 50mm 

Another reason (or amazing bonus) to shoot at a wide aperture is to get as little detail in the skin as possible.  This mostly comes into play for females however it still is a good thing to keep in mind.  Females tend to not want to see all the detail in their skin in photos.  Eye yes, skin no.

So if you have the ability to shoot wide open for portraits, give it a shot.  It is a very pleasing look I think.

I hope you try this and I will have Tip #2 coming on the weekend!