Aperture settings and headshots

My favourite combo these days is 135mm at 1.8 using Sony GM 135mm prime. Been getting what I consider some magical results. The model also plays a big part too as face shape can impact on your focus fall off.

Huw

Heaven knows then, I’m constantly picking up Stories from here & there, sometimes they get mixed up & sometimes they lose all sense. Lol

Richard Adams Studio 9 said

Huw

Heaven knows then, I’m constantly picking up Stories from here & there, sometimes they get mixed up & sometimes they lose all sense. Lol

It’s only because I have a Crown Graphic (essentially the same camera).

Quotations….   Tricky things.

I thought Tom Cruise said “Don’t think. Just do” in Top Gun Maverick. Turns out it was some guy called Horace in Ancient Rome ;)

OriginalSin said

My favourite combo these days is 135mm at 1.8 using Sony GM 135mm prime. Been getting what I consider some magical results. The model also plays a big part too as face shape can impact on your focus fall off.

Gorgeous, especially the top shot

Huw said

OriginalSin said

My favourite combo these days is 135mm at 1.8 using Sony GM 135mm prime. Been getting what I consider some magical results. The model also plays a big part too as face shape can impact on your focus fall off.

Gorgeous, especially the top shot

🫡 Thank you. The 135mm has overtaken my 85mm 1.4 as my favourite portrait lens. 

Gothic Image said

Glamourportraits said

Lovely image and perfect for showing the fall off of focus.

From this image, and few others I have seen, I realise it’s good to sometimes shoot a bit looser than just a headshot 👍

Agreed - unless it's a straight mugshot(!) I like to put the model in context.  It helps the image "breathe" a little, if that makes any sense?

It does yes. 

Some really good examples of what might be called ‘small format’ portraits (y)

I seem to recall that Greg Heisler’s book 50 Portraits has the technical settings for each image in an appendix, certainly worth a look.

Edited by The Ghost

Starglider Photography said

When I take a close up portrait, I usually shoot at f/2.8, using my 35mm prime lens. At the end of the day, I just fiddle with settings until I get a picture I like. I don't think about it too much, just shoot until I get a pic I like.

The casual approach and the 'fiddling' seems to have worked out quite well in this case. :-D

Timmee said

Starglider Photography said

When I take a close up portrait, I usually shoot at f/2.8, using my 35mm prime lens. At the end of the day, I just fiddle with settings until I get a picture I like. I don't think about it too much, just shoot until I get a pic I like.

The casual approach and the 'fiddling' seems to have worked out quite well in this case. :-D

It's how all my shoots go :D

Glamourportraits I fail to see how Youtube can help, or any posts here either, until you learn how cameras work, then quite specifically how your camera works. Not from a technical point of view but from a practical one.

You have three essential controls on a dlsr or mirrorless camera. Take a look into your camera's user documents. I promise you, they are online. Just search. And magic results from them.

Unless you balance shutter speed, focal distance and sensitivity (ISO) you will wonder what has gone wrong.

So start at whatever your camera gives you. Play with any of the three to get the hang of it. Then adjust one of the other two -  see where I'm going?

Here's the absolute, definitive and FINAL-FINAL answer to your question ... The aperture that *YOU* thinks looks best...

Not me, not him, or her, or it... Just "you, Elmo"... Adam Sandler - Sesame Street - YouTube - You can work the rest out I hope

If you're not sure, testy-TEST, McTest Face ... Will take you about 30 minutes in your hectic, time-poor life.

Just practice with the camera and lens and find out what works in the context in which you work. Forget the videos. Practice makes perfect!

MikesPix said

Glamourportraits I fail to see how Youtube can help, or any posts here either, until you learn how cameras work, then quite specifically how your camera works. Not from a technical point of view but from a practical one.

You have three essential controls on a dlsr or mirrorless camera. Take a look into your camera's user documents. I promise you, they are online. Just search. And magic results from them.

Unless you balance shutter speed, focal distance and sensitivity (ISO) you will wonder what has gone wrong.

So start at whatever your camera gives you. Play with any of the three to get the hang of it. Then adjust one of the other two -  see where I'm going?

Hi Mike. I would say that I have a fair understanding of how all my cameras work from both a technical and practical perspective. And for the last 20 years I have read my camera instruction manuals from cover to cover and often many times over.

I have also been on many training courses for wedding photography, events, family and nightclub. The main thing these training courses have taught me is that there is always something new to learn. And there are always several ways to do the same thing.

In addition there is the old adage of “If you always do what you always do, you always get what you always got” 

So now I have retired as a professional, and have been released from the shackles of shooting for the market, I am enjoying challenging my perceptions and going back to square one to expand my knowledge and techniques in different directions as well as doing what I already do better.

YouTube videos are mostly a disappointment, but I have found a couple of YouTubers that are excellent and I am learning lots from them. It’s just a lot are the complete opposite end of the scale too.

I also like to seek the views of fellow photographers and so I post a thread like this on here. And this one as with all the others has offered a wealth of new ideas, different approaches, benefit of passed on experience and some beautiful images to inspire my learning further as well as just appreciating art for arts sake. 

I get an impression that there are two slightly contrasting approaches being discussed.

There are images where the technique is more important that what the subject is doing and conversely, where what the subject is doing is more important than the photographic technique.

JPea said

I get an impression that there are two slightly contrasting approaches being discussed.

There are images where the technique is more important that what the subject is doing and conversely, where what the subject is doing is more important than the photographic technique.

This comment is very enlightening and observant and all the more powerful for its succinctness. 

When you think about it - it’s the same process with any photo of a human we take an image of. The process is often more involved than this, but your description distills it down to the ‘bottom line’

Definitely a point to remember. Interestingly, it is also a perfect Instagram caption.