Anyone have any good advice on type of equipment and settings and times for outdoor portrait photography?

 

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Crank dial to "A" (well, Av for you)

Set aperture to a suitable size. (for tele around 5.6 or smaller, for normal lenses, like 50mm 2.8 or less (don't use full aperture, as that often makes it hard to get the eyes sharp.))

Forget what your mom tought you, and aim for the eyes.

Wait for light

Shoot.

 

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This, for instance, is shot with a 50mm @ f/2.8, ISO 200 Aparture pri. mode


Shot on a sunny day, in the shade.

 

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Sadly my 28-105 is F 3.5/4.5 I have a 70-200 f 2.8 heh.

What about group photos?

 

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Sorry was driving by and saw this, so heres my 2 cents.
Here's just a few that were all shot outdoors (And many more if you wanna go to my site), using natural light. I prefer to shoot in the sun, not always direct sun (Unless its a very artistic B&W) and I prefer to shoot in the evenings for the light.
I use my 2.8 L 70-200 IS for 90% of my portraits for the extreme DOF.

http://www.frommyhandphotography.com/portraits307.htm

http://www.frommyhandphotography.com/portraits347.htm

http://www.frommyhandphotography.com/portraits349.htm

http://www.frommyhandphotography.com/portraits276.htm

http://www.frommyhandphotography.com/portraits273.htm

http://www.frommyhandphotography.com/portraits267.htm

http://www.frommyhandphotography.com/portraits260.htm

http://www.frommyhandphotography.com/portraits254.htm

http://www.frommyhandphotography.com/portraits252.htm

http://www.frommyhandphotography.com/portraits243.htm

http://www.frommyhandphotography.com/portraits242.htm

http://www.frommyhandphotography.com/portraits241.htm

http://www.frommyhandphotography.com/portraits238.htm

 

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Oooh, thats the lens I have, well the non IS version, but it should produce similar results!

As always Kash, your photography amazes me. I couldnt imagine how many photos we would see if you had broadband


THanks again everyone

 

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Your quite welcome bro, but if I had broadband I would never post due to PvPing in wow all the time, and or CoD MW2 lol.

 

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As Kash said, a 70-200 is a very nice portrait lens, especially for outdoor photography. (since you can step back a bit)


You just have to be careful at the long end, since if you're @200mm and shoot a very close up shot, the eyes tend to be a bit close to eachother.

 

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Oh, for group shots there are a few things to keep in mind.


1. Stay out of direct sunlight, it's more or less impossible to get even slightly even light with that harsh light. Stay in the shadow, of shoot on an overcast day. (Clouds are wonderful softboxes)

2. Make sure everyones eyes are open. A tip to make that a bit easyer for yourself, is having everyone close their eyes and then open them on your count to 3.


If we're talking composition, I'm afraid I can't help you much, since I suck at it myself. My best tip would be to check out other group portraits and print some of the ones you like and bring them along as workprints

 

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