Taking Better Informal Portraits

Taking Better Informal Portraits

Taking Better Informal Portraits

Don't use the wide-angle setting of your camera - zoom in a little bit first. You might also want to try not putting them in the middle of the frame. That way you can see a little more of the background, which gives the image a little more colour.

If your subject is not in the middle of the frame you are going to have to make sure that the camera focuses on the person and not the background. Here's how you do it.

Your camera will usually focus on whatever is in the centre of the frame. To beat this we need to cheat. If you point your camera at something and half depress the shutter button you will probably notice that it beeps and/or a green light comes on. This confirms that it has focused. Now if you keep your finger half depressed on the button and move the camera you will see that it doesn't refocus, as long as your finger remains in that position.

So now we can use this technique to our advantage.

So if your subject is not in the middle:

1. Point the camera at them and half depress the shutter release. The camera will now beep or a green focus light will come on.

2. Now, keeping your finger in that position recompose the shot so that the person is now over to one side.

3. Now depress the shutter button fully to take the picture.

You may have to practice this technique a little, but it does work. If you have a more complex digital SLR make sure that you have the focussing set up as "one-shot" and not "continuous" otherwise it will try and refocus each time.

So now let's try a technique for informal portraits that you can use.

Get your subject to sit at their desk and place their elbows on the table. Now you can sit opposite and at an angle with them, but at the same height. Use bounce flash if you can, or direct if that is all you've got. If it is bright you can also try available light (switch the flash off as outlined earlier) but USE A TRIPOD AND GET YOUR SUBJECT TO SIT STILL.

Now all you have to do is ask your subject to look at and talk to the far wall about their career or what they had for breakfast. You, meanwhile, can shoot away as they do this. Get them to use their hands too, making sure they are in shot. They can count on their fingers or wave them around in front of their face.

If you are not using flash get them to "freeze" what they are doing for a second while you shoot, otherwise they will be blurred.

If you have got this right you should end up with about 20 shots of them in action. Of these about four or five will be excellent and be very useful informal portraits.

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