Time for another weekend Video Tutorial.
This one is from Photography Author Erin Manning and contains 10 basic but solid Dos and Don’t for Portrait Photography. Probably a little too much in the way of promoting her book in the video but I post it because there’s some solid (basic… but solid) tips in it for portrait photography).
Enjoy Erin’s Tips? - Check out her book Portrait and Candid Photography: Photo Workshop
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41 Responses to “10 Portrait Tips [Video]”
March 29th, 2008 at 1:52 am
Love the video tutorial–it is a bit basic, but it’s nicely done. I do have to say that having a plug for the book between every single tip is a bit much, though.
March 29th, 2008 at 3:01 am
“You have to get the book”. Yeah, right.
“Don’t forget to flash your subjects.” Zing! :-D
March 29th, 2008 at 3:01 am
Great tips, for sure. I guess she has a book coming out, eh?
March 29th, 2008 at 3:05 am
Video editors just have to laugh at 5:37.
March 29th, 2008 at 5:21 am
Tips were good, but the video could be about 3 minutes shorter if you cut out all the unnecessary transitions in between each and every single tip :/
March 29th, 2008 at 6:02 am
I disagree with #4. You often don’t get real expressions from your subjects when you use Red Eye reduction. You often get that startled look, especially with young children and older adults. Don’t use the on camera flash. Use bounced flash. It gives better light on the face too.
March 29th, 2008 at 6:42 am
Pretty much the standard tips you hear all the time, but I guess its good to be reminded of them every once in a while.
March 29th, 2008 at 7:41 am
I loved this video and discovered all kinds of other tutorial videos by her all over youtube.
Great find, DPS.
March 29th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Erin just proved anybody can write a book. Her tips would fit on a 4X6 card — hey, I think I’ll try to sell that one! Look for my post next week!
March 29th, 2008 at 11:17 am
LOVED the straight forward and simplistic tips. Great tips for the beginner as well as a good refresher for the more experienced photographer to review.
I got the book as well and highly recommend it!!!
March 29th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
@ Tony Bullard,
I wondered if anyone else noticed that. hehe
March 29th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Loved it! Great tips, and if you do buy the book like I did, you would learn more. She makes it easy to understand as opposed to other dry, boring photography instruction books that are out there!
March 29th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
ok, this was pretty pointless… i mean, they are the very basic things you need to know for portraits (and most people already know them), but some tips were just nasty… anybody can write a book…
March 30th, 2008 at 1:09 am
That’s a whole lot to remember. Is there a book on this? ;-)
No, really
March 30th, 2008 at 1:12 am
That’s a whole lot to remember. Is there a book on this? ;-)
Really now, I loved the presentation. And, Erin is lovely!
March 30th, 2008 at 3:59 am
Great basic tips!! :)
March 30th, 2008 at 4:45 am
Good and simple tips, great for a beginner.
But the video looks like a brain-washing session “_buy_ _my_ _book_”. Make it 3 minutes as someone said, and the video will be much better.
March 30th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Thanks for the feedback. It’s true, in this format there could be a little less book flipping ;-> These were originally separate segments that were on Amazon and we strung them all together for YouTube. The tips and the book are geared towards beginners and the amateur enthusiast - all photographers have to start somewhere.
If you’d like more advanced info (tips and techniques for the beginner to more advanced photographer) check out my show on the DIY Network, it’s called The Whole Picture.
March 30th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
this ones okay, its annoying the parts where it keeps showing the book, and what her name and the name of her book is.. bah..
March 30th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
I forwarded this video to all my friends with children. The portraits they show me of their kids don’t compare to Erin’s! It’s obvious they don’t know these easy, yet important tips. They need to buy the book!
March 30th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Great tips, I have to second (third, fourth… ?) the transitions complaint. Good lord, promoting the book before and after the tips is fine, but in between every tip? Just annoying.
Eug - good point about bouncing light. Might not be a tip for her target audience who are probably using standard in-built flashes? They’d need something more flexible.
Bob - good idea about the card!
March 31st, 2008 at 7:57 am
How about some tips on Do’s and Don’ts for creating a video?
DO:
- Create a book/website to compile good tips
DON’T:
- Shamelessly plug your book every ten seconds
DO:
- Teach good compositional techniques
DON’T:
- Fail to follow those techniques yourself. i.e. “Don’t take shots from the same angle’. Every single shot of you explaining the tip was EXACTLY THE SAME! And stop doing that stupid looking-out-of-the-frame-before-turning-to-the-camera-thing with your head.
DO:
- Use some interesting music.
DON’T:
- Use a different jingle that is obviously from GarageBand for every single tip. This is where you want consistency, not distracting noises. Pick one jingle and stick with it.
DO:
- Tell us who you are.
DON’T:
- Use your name multiple times on the same screen or over and over throughout the video.
DO:
- Use photos that illustrate the good and the bad way of doing things.
DON’T:
- Worry… this was the best part of the video and I don’t have anything else to say. It’s a great video with good content and I’d be just as compelled to buy the book if you hadn’t shown me a hundred pictures of it.
March 31st, 2008 at 4:32 pm
@ Erin.
After reading your comment about each video originally being separate im not as annoyed. however!! ;)
surely it wasn’t that hard for your editor to simply take out the shameless plugs in between each ‘video’.
cheers
March 31st, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Oh weird, I guess Erin’s comment was still in moderation when I commented. Thanks for your reply to the comments Erin. :)
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Wow, just what we needed here. 10 steps on how to buy a book from someone more interested in what she could sell us than what information she could share. Note to the author: Try paying for promotion and stop wasting our valuable time by jamming your book down our throats. I got so sick of these ludicrous little tips interlaced with seeing the cover of her book flip up that I could not get past tip # 3.
I hope the Digital Photography School blog owners were paid well for the advertisement. If not you were ripped off worse than your faithful readers and followers were.
I know this blog is offered to us without cost and would expect a certain amount of adverts but, in the future less shameless self-promotion hyped as helpful tutorials please.
Oh, and by the way. I will not be looking for this book at the bookstores. If these tips are any indication of its content it likely has little to no value as a learning tool.
Bilka
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:20 pm
@ Tony Bullard WROTE
“Video editors just have to laugh at 5:37.â€
@ Craig McDiarmid WROTE
“I wondered if anyone else noticed that. Heheâ€
——-
I pulled out of the video after tip # 3. I had to go back and fast scan to 5:37. Good catch guys it flew by in only 60 frames +/-. How much faith can we have in this presenter if her editors aren’t even up to the job?
Bilka
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:35 pm
sorry friends for this - obviously the advertising in the video was too much for some of you. For me I found the mentions of the book a little annoying but posted it because I thought that most of the actual tips were worthwhile. However I take your points - too much self promotion and it’d be vastly improved without all the book mentions.
This wasn’t a paid post or a paid advertisement - just me attempting to provide some tips for the many readers who are asking me daily for portrait photography tips.
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:33 am
@ Darren WROTE
“This wasn’t a paid post or a paid advertisement…â€
—————-
Darren,
Please do not get me wrong. My comment above about being paid was not critical of you. You have every right to solicit advertisements and support for your site. I was hoping you were paid because with this level of promotion you should have been. The tutorial was all about this woman’s book, not photography and certainly not about the Digital Photography School, which we now know so generously hosted this promo. A site of this size and quality takes time and money. You work very hard at keeping us informed. Thanks for your efforts and sense of community for photographers and enthusiasts.
Cheers,
Bilka
April 3rd, 2008 at 2:20 am
I got the book as a Christmas gift. It’s actually a pretty good book for us beginners.
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:32 pm
thanks for understanding Bilka - and thanks Brad for the recommendation
April 4th, 2008 at 1:27 am
Sheesh. She may have the photography tips, but she certainly could generalise them into videography as well (even allowing for the advertising already mentioned).
Annoying random tinkly jazz piano riffs changing all the time, flying logos over-animated, annoying head shots. It’s all just way too busy.
April 4th, 2008 at 2:36 am
Thanks for posting this..the tips were wonderful, especially those of us who are just starting out. Your site is awesome!
April 4th, 2008 at 2:41 am
I tried to find her show on DIY without any success. Is it still in the program lineup?
April 4th, 2008 at 2:43 am
Great tips for beginners (like me), but the promos for the book were VERY annoying. One at the beginning & a shorter one at the end would have probably been just as effective.
April 4th, 2008 at 6:42 am
I disagree with her about using red eye reduction all the time. It makes my 2 year old scrunch up his face in annoyment so I get lousy looks all the time. I leave it off and PS does a great job at fixing it. Plus it speeds up the autofocus time on my little camera and saves my battery.
oh and the book plug between EVERY comment is annoying! big time!
April 5th, 2008 at 1:06 am
nice tips, i realy dig the one with the soft light
April 5th, 2008 at 1:25 am
very useful and interesting tips when it comes to Digital Photography. waiting to see more on the kind of lenses one must have
April 7th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Ignore all the PRO comments - this was very useful for beginners, despite the shameless promotion. But it wouldn’t exist without the book promotion - so that’s OK. I may even go and get the book, given that a couple of posters above said it was useful.
April 9th, 2008 at 3:20 am
Very well explained and to the point……..Oh….and what a stunning woman Erin is!
April 10th, 2008 at 3:20 am
I liked the soft and the hard light tip…
July 28th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
My mother alway said if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. People can be so rude. Don’t insult the woman. She is doing a good thing; she is knowledgeable; she has written a book, which is more then most people criticizing her have accomplished. Take what you can from her video and leave the rest.
Erin, I feel I must apologize for the rudeness of people.
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