Portrait Photography Part II

The initial segment of this article, which was published last month, delved into the intricacies of portrait photography, providing in-depth insights. Now, it is time to apply that knowledge in practice.

- Ashok Kandimalla

This concluding section of the article will guide you through the step-by-step process of creating a portrait using the classic Rembrandt approach to lighting.

Before you start, make sure of the following:

• Use a lens with a focal length between 85 mm and 100 mm (for a full-frame camera). If you are using an APS -C sensor D-SLR/Mirrorless, use a focal length of 50 mm at least. 

• Switch on the histogram and highlight warning tools. These will be in the Playback menu.

• Set your camera to Manual exposure mode using the mode dial.

• The metering mode (matrix or center-weighted, etc.) is not relevant since you will be determining the exposure with the help of the histogram display.

• Set the aperture to around f/5.6 for adequate depth of field (DOF). You can use a wider aperture if you want a shallower DOF.

• Set your camera to the base ISO (usually ISO 100) for the best picture quality.

• Use the RAW format for best quality. If you do not want to use RAW for whatever reason, use JPEG with the highest pixel count (large setting) with the least compression (fine setting).

• If you are using JPEG format, set saturation, contrast, and sharpness to minimum levels. It is easy to enhance any of these in postprocessing but difficult to reduce them in a JPEG. If you are not going to do any post-processing, set the camera Picture Controls (or Picture Styles) to “Portrait”. This will help in getting good skin tones.