Shooting Faces

[mamakstall]

Hi All,

I'm new to digital photography and i would like to find out some ideas or advice for shooting people faces. Can i please find out what is the best approach angle for shooting different face shapes depending on gender; whether should i go black and white or color; shooting at night or day, or other tips and tricks that could improve my photographing skills.

All advice are welcome and greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[BigFuzzy]

Originally Posted by mamakstall

Hi All,

I'm new to digital photography and i would like to find out some ideas or advice for shooting people faces. Can i please find out what is the best approach angle for shooting different face shapes depending on gender; whether should i go black and white or color; shooting at night or day, or other tips and tricks that could improve my photographing skills.

All advice are welcome and greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Hi mamakstall,

Welcome to DPS and photography in general.

This is very tough to answer without us knowing more of what you want to get. You're basically asking us what to do to get good photos, period.

The short answer is there is no answer as everything is dependant on what goals you want to achieve. All you've said is you want to photograph faces.

What do you mean by "faces" ? Does that mean tight crops only showing faces? Do you mean headshots? Can you be more specific?

Color vs b&w: Again, depends on what your goals are. B&w tend to be more about mood, contrast, texture, contours.. color is well, colorful. Again, what are your goals..

If your goal is simply to get good images, then I would start by reading all you can about portrait work, lighting and basic skills such as composition, exposure, etc. A lot of your answers would be obvious once you do that. Study photographers whose work you like, learn what they do and figure out where you want to take your images.

Also.. always always always nail the focus on the eyes unless there's a specific reason why they aren't in focus.. that'll immediate kill the image (in my opinion) if you miss focus.

If you have more specific questions, we might be able to give you more specific answers.

[3bayjunkie]

g'day mate! Id suggest reading some photography books specific to what you want to do. I would suggest starting with Scott Kelby "The Digital Photography Book" part 1, 2 and 3. Those are very good and you will learn a lot. You can get them at a book store or strait from amazon for the kindle or kindle for pc!

Good luck and happy shooting!

[mamakstall]

Hi All,

Thanks for the rapid reply and i really appreciate the suggestion. I will be photographing outdoor most of the time, therefore, lighting equipment is going to be a little bit restricted. My subject is person with broad facial. Most of the shots will be either full body, or half body. I have read up on quite a bit regarding photographing round faces, but majority of them are talking about using lighting equipment. Once again, since i'll be walking around to grab shots, carrying lighting equipment is going to be a little bit inconvenience. Is there an easier way, other than changing my subject, to slim down or sharpen the face so that it doesn't look that "broad" without any further retouching on the PC? I've tried asking the subject to tilt a little bit to the side, but seems like that makes the other side of the face exposed more, thus looking broader again. Is there a way to acheive this?

Thanks

[BigFuzzy]

Originally Posted by mamakstall

Hi All,

Thanks for the rapid reply and i really appreciate the suggestion. I will be photographing outdoor most of the time, therefore, lighting equipment is going to be a little bit restricted. My subject is person with broad facial. Most of the shots will be either full body, or half body. I have read up on quite a bit regarding photographing round faces, but majority of them are talking about using lighting equipment. Once again, since i'll be walking around to grab shots, carrying lighting equipment is going to be a little bit inconvenience. Is there an easier way, other than changing my subject, to slim down or sharpen the face so that it doesn't look that "broad" without any further retouching on the PC? I've tried asking the subject to tilt a little bit to the side, but seems like that makes the other side of the face exposed more, thus looking broader again. Is there a way to acheive this?

Thanks

Whenever you try to slim someone's face, try shooting from a higher angle. So, get higher than your subject and shoot a bit downwards to them, that should help as it'll help make the chin (which is lifted up a bit since they are looking up at you) more pronounced which will make the face 'longer'

Good luck

[Ginger Pixie]

Originally Posted by mamakstall

Hi All,

Thanks for the rapid reply and i really appreciate the suggestion. I will be photographing outdoor most of the time, therefore, lighting equipment is going to be a little bit restricted. My subject is person with broad facial. Most of the shots will be either full body, or half body. I have read up on quite a bit regarding photographing round faces, but majority of them are talking about using lighting equipment. Once again, since i'll be walking around to grab shots, carrying lighting equipment is going to be a little bit inconvenience. Is there an easier way, other than changing my subject, to slim down or sharpen the face so that it doesn't look that "broad" without any further retouching on the PC? I've tried asking the subject to tilt a little bit to the side, but seems like that makes the other side of the face exposed more, thus looking broader again. Is there a way to acheive this?

Thanks

I watched a tutorial on portrait lighting on youtube using studio lights. His suggestion for the fuller face was to light from the side and get the model to turn their head towards the light (not fully) so that the part of the face that is well lit is narrower and the broader side of the face is in shadow which slims it down. He also shot from the first rung of a step ladder, with the model sitting down.

Thought that might be useful to experiment with.

I presume you have a reflector if you haven't got lighting?