Review Digital Camera World 07-09-2013

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Digital Camera World

Portrait Composition: how to compose a portrait that is classic and timeless Jul 8th 2013, 23:01, by jmeyer Want to know how to apply the rules of photo composition to real-life subjects? Some have more relevance than others when it comes to portrait composition, depending on who you're photographing. We'll start by looking at how to compose a portrait in both formal and informal styles , then explain how a little visual savvy can make a big difference to your results. Portrait Composition Tips: where should your subject look? Traditionally, portrait photography is shot with the camera held vertically or, reflecting how standardised this has become, in the so-called portrait format. We tend to do this instinctively. The vertical format suits the proportions of the human face and allows a little extra space for the hair and the neckline. This shot has much more character than a formally staged portrait, and the composition is actually improved by the horizontal format But it doesn't have to be this way. Shooting in horizontal (landscape) format can produce equally interesting portrait shots, and although we naturally try not to crop off any of our subject's faces, it doesn't really matter if you do miss a bit of the chin, or the ears or the hairline. In fact, by cropping in close you often improve the shot because you're squeezing out a potentially cluttered background. Your subject will still remain instantly recognisable and the result can look a lot more spontaneous and interesting. Formal vertically shot portraits adorn a million mantelpieces, but they can look a bit staged and many of us like to have characterful snaps as well. That's not to say that your photographic technique should look rushed, but that it's nice to have people actively doing something (the horizontal format allows extra space for the surroundings), or caught apparently off-guard and wearing a natural expression. Whether you're shooting formal or candid portraits, try varying your position. It's better to have your subject looking slightly upwards at the camera, which emphasises their eyes. Don't shoot below, unless your subject is particularly proud of the contents of their nostrils… Using a home photo studio It's not difficult to set up a mini-studio in your own home, and it doesn't need to be a permanent installation, either. All you need is a selection of backdrops you can hang behind your sitters (curtains are easier and cheaper than proper studio backdrops) and a single lamp. This can be a tungsten lamp or a flash. Two lamps are better still, but they need a little more experience to set up. Then just use a reflector to shine light into the shadowed side of your subject's face. Specially designed reflective discs are easier, but a big sheet of white card is just as effective. In controlled conditions like these, you can now fully explore different compositional arrangements, and in particular how lines (arms, lines of sight, etc) affect the results. PAGE 1: Portrait Composition Tips – where should your subject look? PAGE 2: Portrait Composition Tips – using virtual lines and framing for eye contact PAGE 3: Portrait Composition Tips – how to compose people and objects PAGE 4: Portrait Composition Tips – how to avoid background clutter PAGE 5: Portrait Composition Tips: using the sky as a background PAGE 6: Portrait Composition Tips – how and when to use contrast in your people photography READ MORE 10 portrait photography mistakes every photographer makes (and how to avoid them) 14 portrait photography tips you’ll never want to forget Free family portrait photography cheat sheet Shoot Like A Pro: outdoor portrait photography made easy Master your home photo studio: settings, setup, accessories explained Lens distortion correction: improve lens performance with in-camera adjustments Jul 8th 2013, 10:00, by jmeyer Not all of us can afford expensive lenses, but that doesn’t mean we have to put up with poor quality images. In this quick tutorial we’ll show you how to make simple lens distortion corrections in-camera to fine-tune your lens’ performance and help eliminate imperfections like colour fringing and chromatic aberrations. Of course, there's no beating the quality of really good lenses, whatever camera body you are using. Even so, if you're limited to budget lenses, there are often various settings that you can change on your camera that will improve results. For quite a while now, Nikon cameras have had automatic corrections for chromatic aberrations, or colour fringing. Canon has also started offering this as a menu option in most of its recent cameras, including the new entry-level Canon EOS 100D / Rebel SL1. There's also automatic 'peripheral illumination' correction, to reduce vignetting. Automatic distortion corrections are available in some SLRs, which is particularly handy when you're using zoom lenses. However, one thing you do need to bear in mind is that all of these automatic corrections are only likely to be available when using the camera manufacturer's own lenses. Corrections also won't be applied if you shoot in raw quality mode and process your images in most independent editing programs, like Photoshop Elements, for example. How to apply lens distortion correction in-camera 1 Chromatic aberrations Colour fringing is usually most visible towards the corners of the image frame. Enabling automatic correction in recent Canon DSLRs works well but can slow down the shooting rate in continuous drive mode.   2 Peripheral illumination Vignetting is most common when combining wide apertures with wide-angle lenses or zoom lenses at their shortest focal length. Enable automatic correction to give better brightness levels in image corners.   3 Distortion Most zoom lenses suffer from barrel distortion at wide-angle settings, and from pincushion distortion towards the telephoto end. Automatic correction is based on specific models of lenses and helps to tune  out distortions.   4  Sharpness and contrast Editing the picture style (picture control for Nikon users) enables you to adjust image attributes like sharpness, contrast and saturation. It's safest to be fairly conservative with the adjustments and tweak the raw files when editing. READ MORE Lens Distortion: 3 ways to fine tune your lens’ performance How to find your lens’ sweet spot DO or Di? Your lens markings explained 11 common lens errors (and how you can avoid them)

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