Photographing People

There is much more to the subject of photographing people than just the technical aspects. There is the people factor. The old method of telling your subject to "say cheese" when the photo is snapped doesn't work very well. It produces a strained and artificial facial expression. To take natural photographs, your subject must be relaxed and comfortable otherwise there will be some muscle tension and the subject will appear stiff. The best shots are spontaneous shots of people being their natural selves.

Outdoor Shots

• Crowds
  Shooting an outdoor crowd is not easy. The human eye automatically seeks out some principal subject, focal point, or center of interest, or individual person. Crowds don't readily offer this because they are too homongenous. There are simply too many people, and too much going on for the eye to find a place to focus on. You can try choosing one interesting person in the crowd, and zooming in with that person in the center of the frame.
  
  
• Individuals
  Finding a frame (see the Shot Composition section) for your human subject is all important for outdoor shots. Any features of the surroundings that contrast with the background directly behind the subject can act as a frame. Often this will be darker colored objects or terrain or shadows on either side of the subject. If you absolutely cannot find a frame from any angle, try shooting facing the sun. This can produce a nice artistic effect.

Portraits and Indoor Shots

The lighting is the trickiest part of indoor shots. Artificial light (especially that produced by a flash) can produce many contrasts and shadows which may not be desirable. It can produce glare or reflection from glass or any other type of reflective surface. Flashes are especially bad about this. A flash can also turn the eyes of the subject red (red eye). These problems can be reduced by placing non-reflective coverings, such as white sheets, blankets, studio paper, etc. to cover reflective objects, Sometimes even a white wall can be too reflective (If it's dirty, it looks even worse!). Another problem with artificial lighting is that even if it appears white to the human eye, it may not appear white to the camera. This can a result in strange color hues and casts. This can be compensated for using white balance correction.

• Lighting
  The best way to take indoor shots is using ambient light, preferably natural light, using higher ISO settings and white balance correction as required. For portrait work you will probably want to employ additional artificial light souces in order to provide shades illumination to emphasize features of the face, and to eliminate shadows. Use a flash only when necessary due to the aforementioned problems.
  
  
• Posing
  The subject should sit at an angle to the camera. When posed square to the camera, people tend to sit with their shoulders square to the camera.This puts the shoulders straight across the picture. Such a pose exaggerates the width of the  shoulders. A woman probably wouldn't find this appealing. When your subject is a male, this could be good.s enhances those qualities. It is suggested that subjects sit with their shoulders turned slightly from the camera. With the shoulders turned slightly from the camera and the
  head turned back toward the camera, a sense of motion is created. An air of alertness can be suggested by having the subject lean slightly forward.
  To create an intimate portrait, the subject should appear to glance at the camera. The subject's eyes should look near the camera lens (just above or to the side of it). When the subject looks directly into the lens, a stare will result . When the eyes are looking too far away from the camera, a vague, faraway look results and the eyes lose their brilliance and sparkle.
  
  In every type of photograph there should be only one principal center of interest. When photographing people, it is the face. You can emphasize the face by shining a light source on it. and by applying the "Law of Thirds" (see the Composing the Shot section) and locating the face at one of the four intersection points.
  
  In portrait photography, you will ofter want to use a small aperture, maybe combined with a longer focal length lens, to narrow the depth of field so that the background is fuzzy behind the subject. This produces a nice artistic look and totally emphasizes the subject.
  
  In figure photography, the choice of a background is important. Ideally you want a background that adds interest to the scene without distracting from the subject. An example of this would be shots in a swimming pool. Imagination and trial and error are required to find the right combination of background, lighting, and depth of field.