Portrait Photography

Tips for Portrait Photography – Camera Settings

Camera settings play a crucial role in the success of your photography, whether you’re shooting portraits, landscapes, or other genres. Each type of photography requires different settings. For instance, your camera settings for sport or action photography will differ from those used in landscape photography. This article will provide five essential camera settings tips for natural or constant light portraits.

ISO Settings for Portrait Photography

For natural light portraits, I recommend using the lowest possible ISO setting. Lower ISO settings (100-400) provide a clean and sharp image with a better dynamic range, which allows for more detailed photo retouching later on.

Shutter Speed in Portrait Photography

While shutter speed may seem more relevant in portrait photography, it is crucial to select the shutter speed wisely. Even though the subject in portrait photography does not move, people can move, especially in front of a camera. This can cause blurred photos, so choosing the correct shutter speed is essential when taking pictures of kids or people who are uncomfortable in front of the camera. A fast shutter speed may force you to use a higher ISO. As a general rule, a shutter speed between 1/100s to 1/400s will serve you well as it is fast enough to freeze slight movements of your subject without pushing the ISO too high.

Aperture Settings

Depth of field is another essential factor in portrait photography. Although a shallow depth of field is often desirable for portraits, you must be careful when selecting the f-stop. Look at the focal length of your lens and set an aperture that provides some depth of field. For example, if you’re using an 85mm lens with f1.4, you don’t want to open the aperture all the way to f1.4 because the depth of field is so shallow that the eyes may be in focus, but the nose and ears wouldn’t be in focus (unless, of course, you’re going for this effect). As a rule of thumb, usually, f4.5 to 5.6 will provide excellent overall depth of field.

White Balance Settings

Our camera’s auto white balance can sometimes confuse and create a massive colour cast. For example, when you shoot portraits in the shade, but there is sunshine in the background, you usually end up with an unwanted colour cast. Always try to use a custom white balance. If you cannot set the custom white balance, I recommend using one of the white balance presets. Using presets allows for faster and better post-processing.

Continuous Drive Mode

Continuous shooting mode is helpful, especially if you’re taking group portraits of people. Set your camera’s drive for 3 to 4 frames per second and capture multiple photos simultaneously. Continuous shooting allows for more wiggle room for those people who close their eyes or make funny faces when you release the shutter. Having various images offers more choices for picking the best one!

Do You Want to Take Better Pictures?

Omnilargess Photography workshops focus on many hidden features in digital cameras and editing software that can help you take your photography skills to the next level. We dedicate a good portion of our digital camera workshops and editing classes to discussing these hidden features. The Digital Camera Photography Bootcamp is one of our most popular photography courses. This three-part program consists of three classroom sessions with theories and hands-on practices. And three field trips to practice new skills.

That is all for now. Stay tuned for my following photography Tips. We love to hear from you. Let us know if you have any questions; feel free to send us your questions, and we will gladly answer them. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for more Free Tutorials and Tips.

Ted and the Omnilargess Team