how do I do this

[PhotoJunkieJen]

Man, I want my portraits to look like this... so crisp and clear. How do I achieve this??

There's just always the "Clear" effect I see in a lot of portraits that I can't get on my own. Maybe their gear is just better than mine *Shrugs*

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/p...1320752&ref=nf

[nicotine]

That portrait doesn't look that clear to me, to my eye it seems like his clothes are more in focus than his face. But my tips to taking clear, crisp portraits are these:

Keep your ISO down
Be very mindful of your focus points (if using AF)
Slow down, when you are still learning you need to take your time and be mindful of your settings, background, focus, etc. You are not shooting candids or sports so there's no need to rush.
Up your shutter speed a little bit to kill camera shake

[david335]

Here is what I see: The crispness comes from a really good focus and a good lens (50 prime maybe?). It looks like the rest is just creative lighting.

[JerInTheBox]

Yup, crispness comes first and foremost from the focus being dead on. A perfectly focussed $100 lens like the nifty fifty will look better than a slightly out of focus $2000 lens. And as nicotine says, keep the shutter speed as high as you can so avoid any camera shake and to freeze the motion. Even if your hands are perfectly still, your subject might not be so you need to freeze their motion as best you can. After that you can try some sharpening in post to 'crisp' it up a little more.

[agresbach]

one useful thing i've learned also is be aware of what you have your aperture set to depending on what kind of scene you are shooting and what sort of effect you're going for. I'm still learning myself but when i was newer, if i had my 50mm 1.8 prime lens on i found myself defaulting to wide open or almost wide open on the aperture (1.8-2.8) which can give a cool shallow DOF effect but for a portrait you'll typically want at least both eyes in focus and probably the entire head before the focus starts to drop off. making this same mistake cause some of my earlier photo's to appear too soft.
just a tip i've learned

[DennisBZ]

In relation to Agresbach's comment on aperture, setting your aperture to f/8 will give your portraits general sharpness. By my experience, I am able to go lower to f/5.6 and still get overall sharpness.

In terms of shutter speed, try to be within the corresponding focal length (i. e., 50mm = 1/60; 85mm = 1/100) or higher as possible.

[RoyL]

It has the elements of being a good photo but lacks the quality.

The biggest problem is that the focus is on the zipper and not the eyes, and this cannot be remedied.

To answer your question, use a wide aperture (f1.2-f5.6 are generally good), expose properly (take some test images), then the important part, focus on the eyes. I do this through the viewfinder, not by pointing the camera at the eye but pointing at the bridge of the nose and manually focusing while looking at the eye's. Cannot go wrong this way.

[PhotoJunkieJen]

So forgive the newbie question... but I am a newbie

Would a lower aperture... make for better focus?

Is that the goal? To keep the aperture low?

I thought you used aperture when you wanted a lot of your scene in greater focus but could comepensate for the lower shutter?

[ColorMEHappy]

I haven't read all the responses to see if someone recommended this, but I select my focus point on portraits, I don't know if your camera is setup to be able to do that, but I always set the focus point on the eyes, typically with anything set at f/2.8 or higher should be able to get the entire face when focusing on the eyes..with the f1/8, sometimes you have to be careful because you may only get one eye in focus, haha.

The next biggest thing is lighting, this particular picture has fill on the right side (left side of his face) they may be using a reflector, it doesn't look like flash.

I also agree though, that the picture has good lighting, but it's not really that clear to me, a little camera shake, they should have set the shutter speed a little bit higher.

[ColorMEHappy]

I see you have the Canon XSI, you can switch the focus point on the camera, if you look through the viewfinder, hit the upper right corner button, it should light up the focus points, then use the wheel in the front (by your trigger and index finger) and it will move the focus point. Don't forget to switch it back to selecting all focus points after a certain shot though.

Also, I may be totally off, this is assuming that the XSI is just like the XT.