It is heartening to see that people are taking up portrait shooting a this is something that someone else and I want to see happening and hopefully get more people interested in this genre (for all the right reasons though :sweat
and hopefully there will be an Anne Lebowitz we can find in the rough.
There are some salient points and many others to note in taking portraits. So this is based on whatever limited knowledge I have.
When we shoot portraits, we need to know how and why are we shooting. Most of the time it is to capture a moment or an emotion to be encapsulated in that instant on film. A lot of it is based on human interpretation of the feelings of the subject or the photographer himself or herself at that moment. One such photographer is Dominic Khoo. A portrait can be simple or complex but yet the simpler the portrait, the more complex it is as there are many areas to note. This can be trained but not overnight. But enough of this. Let us get to the technicals.
Taking portraits, need to note the location. Will it be studio, indoor location or outdoor location. Each location has got a different play of light. In a studio, how you control the light is in your hands. But on location, not that easy as you have to balance the light. Which is why, as newbies, we go for day shoots first before embarking on the night. For example, indoor location at say Scarlet Hotel. One of the rooms I have shot before is dark, with ambient light through windows. By dark, I mean that as in the wallpaper and decor of the room is dark. So how do we balance the light? Of course, the organiser brought in portable studio lights but again, the exposure is a question: Shutter speed, ISO, Aperture. Which variables? What is level of noise acceptable to me? For most part, it is how the photographer wants to handle the picture.
Outdoor location. Light changes every minute, so understanding that in manual mode, you have greater control, but it can be daunting. So safer is to use AV/AP. But having said that. You do not have control of shutter, only ISO and aperture. Shutter is determined by camera. So even if you are in a location, you shoot your subject, you get one shutter speed. As the light changes, you shoot the subject on the SAME settings, you get another shutter number.
WB, quite subjective. It can be tweaked if shot in RAW. But to be safe, shoot a grey card or get an Expo if you can. Light can mess up the settings. So the safest bet is in AWB, adjusted in RAW PP.
Metering...spot, evaluative, center weighted all can work, depending on what and where you are shooting. For me 80% I use spot, 20% I use evaluative.
A lot of parameters can affect and work. But to what effect, that is dependent on you as the photographer. There is no hard and fast rule to settings. You can observe the work on the EXIF if there is any, but for the most part, by copying the settings, it will not do you much good as the light conditions changes. So you have to change and tweak the setting as you deem fit.
