What setup do you use on people?

Most specifically do you use filters? I don't have any filters yet, but
I'm looking at some polorazing filters for landscapes, etc. I'm just
wondering if filters work when taking posed and candid shots of people.

Also any good books or info on shooting people in general: posing,
lighting, etc. Not just studio but candids and posed indoor & outdoor
photos.

I want to take some outdoor posed family photos in the next month or
two. I have a Nikon D70 kit, SB800. Looking at the Nikor 50mm f/1.4D.
Also wondering about a B+W Kaesemann Circular Polarizer Glass Filter (or
B+W Warm Circular Polarizer Skylight KR-1.5 Glass Filter?). Just not
sure about mixing filters and people since I have no experience with
filters.

Thanks,
Randy.

 

There are lots of books on portraits, and everybody seems to have their own
favorite techniques. I like to use an 85mm 1.8 focused on the eyes but
fairly wide open to blur the background. I also like to use natural window
light and shoot indoors, although I'm getting the hang of using a fill flash
for outdoor work. No filters or gimmicks of any kind. No multiple lighting
systems.

The SB800 will do a great job outdoors, even in daylight, and I doubt you
will need anything more than the kit lens, unless you want a shallow depth
of field. Can't see why you would want any filters, although a polarizer is
great for landscapes.

 

I don't really use any filters anymore, with the exception of
polarizers and UV/Haze, because Photoshop can do all those fancy tricks
for me. I do portraits with my 50mm 1.8 II, usually at 2.5 or below.

What I did invest in were some brushed silver and gold reflectors and a
huge diffuser, so I can shoot anywhere at pretty much any time of day
and still get the right amount of sun that I want. They do require
having an assistant though, so if you're on your own, maybe they're not
the best choice just uet.

 

I use my patio as an outdoor studio, and old tripods and other
skyhooks to hang or position reflectors and diffusers. I'm looking
forward to using actual "stands" designed to do that work, but it
looks like a couple hundred dollars away at the moment.

 

Skyhooks? isn't that one of those imaginary things teachers would send
kids off to the supply office to ask for:

"TRENTON!, Stop mucking about, go to supplies and ask for a 2 medium
weights or one long weight."

After 20 minutes, supplies office would tell him he's waited long
enough and could return to the class looking very stupid.

Another favorite:

"BISHOP!, Stop doing that, it's a FIRE HAZARD!"

"Fire hazard Sir?" looking up from busily kicking the chair in
front...

"Yes, coz if you don't stop it, I'll SET FIRE TO YOU!"

 

I'm no pro, but generally, I don't think you'll need special filters
for this. Do use the SB800 for fill-flash, even in bright sunny
conditions - practice first and check the EXIF data when you review
the results to see what works. Keep the lens towards the 70mm end and
step-back for portrait work.

Usually, I'd set the flash EV to -0.7 or -1.0 when filling in
otherwise good light. Drop it further based on the LCD preview results
- your distance has a large affect on this. Also if using direct-flash
to fill (eg, no bouncing) use the diffuser that comes with it.

Buy a large white foam-core board and use it as a reflector,
positioned somewhere in the lower arc of the subject. Position it so
it illuminates some of the worst shadow areas.

The SB800 works well in bounce-flash mode if indoors and either a
white wall or ceiling is available. If bouncing from the ceiling, pull
out the little white catch-light card, so it throws some light
forwards for the eyes to reflect.

Only use slow sync mode if you are trying to capture ambient light in
low-light conditions (or some movement, such as a kid waving a
sparkler) - I'd suggest rear-slow for this. This does bring it's own
set of problems for good results, the need to keep the subject and
camera still is one of them.

Do some shots with a tripod, and others where you get onto the floor
or onto a short ladder to add some intersest/dynamics to the photo.

There is no one right-way. Lots of things work, some things work for
some faces, and not for others. Harsh single-source lighting can be
good for men, soft multi-source lighting better for women. But one's
own opinion has the greatest impact to which is the best way for a
given subject/situation.

Girls with long hair can be backlight (eg, at sunset put their head so
it obscures the sun, now hit them with some fill-flash and dial it
down until the balance looks good on the LCD). I took some cool
portraits of my kid yesterday at the fireworks pre-show by laying down
on the floor and shooting directly up towards the sky. Evening
lighting plus some flash is cool.

For really moody lighting, use a fairly dark room and put the SB800
into slave mode, off to one side of the subject, either bouncing on a
wall or small white card - or even facing directly at the subject. The
closer you put the SB800 and the less diffused/bouncing the source of
light, the harsher the shadows will be on the face.

Just some ideas - the most important thing is to play a lot, and
investigate the successes as to why they worked.

 

The test shots I've taken so far have mostly had some sky showing;
Basically, lots of greenery in the bottom 2/3 and sky in the top 1/3,
but that is just avarage-not something I specifically framed for.
Usually, I don't like the results of the photos that I have taken that
have sky showing--everything looks hazy, very little or poor coloring of
the sky. I don't know if I need a polarizer to "clean up" the light, an
ND to compress the spectrum, a skylight to saturate the colors, or just
practice more to get better exposures. Or some combination. I also don't
know how filters affect skin tones, etc.

Thanks,
Randy.

 

Great stuff. Thanks.

The only thing I'm a little unclear on is the use of the foam-core
board. Are these what you are referring to:
<http://www.artgrafix.com/boards.htm> ? And can you describe their usage
a bit more.

Thanks,
Randy.

 

Now that's an image. I think your caution is justified. Mounting a
person on top of a filter is likely to cause severe vignetting.

 

Pirouetting. He means "pirouetting".

 

Randy W. Sims asked:

"Well, here I am, Baby. What were your other two wishes?"

oh...

 

Ok, so that is one of the worst subject lines I've come up with yet, and
I deserve what I get with the whacky answers...

Randy.

 

That's the stuff.

They are inexpensive (buy single sheets at your local office-supply
store), easy to get hold of, come in many colors (most useful are
white and black), lightweight, can be cut to size if needed and are
stiff (eg, better than a paper reflector).

Get an 'assistant' to hold the reflector (white foam board) so that it
bounces some of the ambient light back towards the subject, allowing
you to control the illumination of the face a lot better. The key to
photography is lighting, and this is part of lighting. The reflector's
job is to try and kill some of the darkest shadows (under eyes/chin
etc)

Ceilings and white walls and even some floors make good reflectors
too, but you can't easily grab them and move them around like you can
a piece of foam board.

Black foam board can be used to provide a background for shooting
single flowers against, or used to block unwanted direct light that is
hitting the subject (white foam board can also be used for the latter
- it will actually diffuse direct sunlight).

Of course, you can splash out $30-$100 on 'proper' photographic
reflectors, that come in silver, gold, white constructed a bit like
those amazing tents that set themselves up - and fold up again into a
little circle.

eg:
http://www.photography-lighting.com/reflectors.html

Or, $3 for a piece of foam board, $3 for a can of spray-paint and you
can make a reflector of any color..gold, silver, whatever. (BTW, spray
*both* sides of foam-board if you do this, otherwise it'll buckle as
the paint dries and become concave, which isn't much use...)

Bigger the better with the foam board. Here's an example of a pro
using a pro reflector:

http://www.geofflawrence.com/lighting_refletors.htm

and another (this one is at South Beach, Florida, the model is the
girl in yellow, long lenses and camera distance makes more flattering
portraits) :

http://www.photo.net/photo/pcd0161/photo-sneer-8.jpg

Check your local bookstore for books on lighting, they'll often have
diagrams like the one below showing you the placement of light
source(s) vs reflector vs subject vs camera.

http://www.thestudio-online.co.uk/tutorial.php?tutorial_id=5

....and some general lighting guides grabbed from google:
http://bermangraphics.com/coolpix/lighting_diagram.htm
http://www.greatdv.com/lighting/darkskin.htm
http://www.finetuning.com/articles/p0-484-tips-for-creating-expressive-portrait-photographs.html
http://www.photo.net/making-photographs/light
http://www.photographic.com/portraittips/lightingtechniques/204portrait/
http://www.dcmag.co.uk/news/article/mps/UAN/187/v/3/sp/332251698183342302338
http://www.dpchallenge.com/tutorial.php?TUTORIAL_ID=31

 

I can't think of a single reason to ever use a filter when shooting
people with a DSLR. Correcting colour casts is trivial to do when you're
processing your photos on your computer, & colour-correction is pretty
much the standard reason for using filters when shooting 'people shots'.
Just about any problem you're likely to run into when photographing
people is going to come down to lighting, & whole books have been
written on that topic. Spend some time reading some of the websites that
Owamanga recommended in his reply to you, & you'll probably find it a
lot easier to get good results.

 

You don't get instant good, or even better, pictures by buying filters,
anymore than you can run a filter in photoshop and get 'art.' OTOH, they
probably won't hurt much.

google joseph zeltsman for an excellent tutorial on posing and lighting,
though the samples are very dated looking the info is first rate as it
articulates quite well the WHY of posing and lighting a particular face this
way instead of that, it teaches you a logical system of making decisions.