Constructing a Portrait

When you buy a camera, what are you mostly expecting to take pictures of? I would say it is to take pictures of other people. Portraits are an easy thing to master in photography and in the DSLR handbook, it tells you all the things that you need to make portraits easy.






The biggest part of making a perfect portrait is having good lighting. If you don't have the best lighting there are ways to work around it. You can use a reflector which comes in many shapes but mainly looks like a big shiny disc. "A reflector can turn dull people snaps into professional looking portraits" (Byng 68). The light will bounce off and warm the face of the subject.


another way to create good lighting for a great portrait is a flash diffuser. a diffuser is what does on a flash gun so you can "spread and soften the flashlight for more subtle shadows, smoother skin tones and altogether more flattering light" (Byng 70).






You might ask, what if we don't have any of those tools. it is ok, you will have to do it the harder way. And when I say the hard way, I mean setting the aperture and shutter speed yourself and angling the natural lighting so you get the glow that you want. When you are doing this you want to make sure that you have a wide aperture. "A wide aperture means you'll be able to use faster shutter speeds- which will reduce the risk of blur caused by camera shake or subject movement" (Byng 66). Using all of this information I took some portraits myself