subject: Digital Photography Guide - Getting Up Close And Personal For Better Portraits! [print this page] You'd prefer to see your subject clearly, wouldn't you? Just about every photo looks more desirable if you move nearer to your subject. Filling the frame makes a difference; your pictures look more professional. This Digital Photography Guide 'focuses' on the benefits of getting up close and personal with your subject!
You don't even have to take steps toward your subject. Instead of actually getting closer, you can use your camera's zoom to produce a close up shot. Portraits actually look superior when they are totally zoomed in. That's because the longer lens has the effect of flattening facial elements, reducing any unsightly features, for example if your subject possesses a large nose.
When taking pictures of friends (or family) many beginner photographers insist on including the subject's complete body (or head as well as arms) in the shot. Instead, why not fill the frame by having your subject's face only, especially if they are caught in a moment of reflection. Why move in closer? Well, by having less clutter, there is simply less to draw the eye away from your main interest. If there's anything included in the photo that distracts from your main subject, the viewer will likely be drawn towards it, and the resulting image can be dull and uninteresting. Truly, close up human faces are simply something we gain great pleasure from studying.
If you just can't get close enough when you 're taking the photo, don't forget that you can reproduce the effect of zoom later in Photoshop, or similar application. Try cropping out everything except the subject's face and just see the impact it has - a much more powerful image. The good thing about today's digital cameras is simply that they have numerous megapixels. Even if you crop out an enormous part of the image, you should still be able to produce a decent quality portrait.
If using a compact camera, a word of caution. Since the viewfinder is not in an equal position with the lens, centering the topic in the viewfinder can result in an ultimately off-centre image. You can easily counter this by way of using the LCD screen rather than the viewfinder. Some point-and-shoots actually have a workaround built into the viewfinder. If, in your viewfinder, you see what looks like a dashed box, that's simply the same section that the lens sees. You can then make use of the viewfinder - as long as you also make use of the little dashed box to frame your shot.
