Outdoor Autumn Portrait.

[MarkyLandon]

Find a location that has some nice coloured foliage in the background. The place where your subject is positioned should ideally be shaded from direct sun to give a more flattering/softer light. Use the aperture priority setting on your camera and set the Aperture as large as possible. The aperture is lens dependant. Remember a large f nmber = small aperture, so you want a small f number to have as large an aperture as possible. A large aperture lets in more light giving a faster shutter speed and creates a more limted depth of field. It's the limted depth of field which will give the bokeh/blurry background... and if you have chosen well you'll get some lovely colours blurring into each other.

Zoom in (the higher the level of zoom the more the background will blur) and compose your shot. Remember to position your main subject off centre rather than in the middle. Think of the rule of thirds and position key elements on or near intersecting points of the 1/3 lines.

Set your iso as low as possible to maximise image quality but keep your eye on the shutter speed. In this case the shutter speed at ISO 100 was too low and would have resulted in camera shake ( I didn't have a tripod with me) so I ramped up the ISO to 400 to give a shutter speed of 1/80 allowing me to comfotably hand hold the shot.

Fire off a few shots and remember to keep the camera ready as you quite often get t he best shot when your subject thinks you've finished and relaxes. The most natural expressions, especially in kids can't be forced or requested, they just happen and you need to be ready.

[windrider86]

I like the mood that you created here as well as that stunning background!

[Peapod Photo]

This is lovely.^^

[itsliju]

Nice capture. I like it


Liju Augustine
Learning by sharing - Liju's Photography | - learning by sharing

[super4]

I like the rice colors, very nicely done

[jamesrdroy]

Absolutely stunning, just like all your other work! The choice of your daughters' (Fiona's?) dress makes this even more so appealing in this composition, I guess. I will try this as soon as the rains let off! Thank you, Mark.

[ilanm64]

fantastic shot , nice colors and good light

alen

[MOmilkman]

Great shot and wonderful write up!

[dionv]

Great shot and related description of how you obtained it.

Thanks for sharing!

[Petite_PhotoGirl]

I like the composition of this photo and the depth of field. Great capture.