3 Ways to Get Killer Portraits Using a Tripod

As photographers, you’re all looking to “wow” the people we’re taking pictures of, whether they’re clients or just friends. When you show final images, there’s that sense of anticipation, excitement and nervousness as you gauge reactions. And when you hear the words “amazing” or “I love them,” it’s truly a great feeling. So how do you get the “wow” and avoid the “just okay?” Well that’s not always easy. With so many good photographers out there and so much of their work getting exposure via social networks, expectations for good photography is as high as it’s ever been.

Here are three ways to achieve killer portraits with the use of a tripod that we use in our studio. These include the following, all of which we’ll show you – keep reading:

1. Shutter Drags
2. Composites
3. HDRs

Required Equipment

• Sturdy tripod – that old hand-me-down tripod might not be stable enough, as any movement will show in the images
• Shutter release – using a cable release will help you avoid touching the camera and causing movement
• Wide angle lens – as you can see from the images in this article, a wider lens is going to bring out many of the “wow” elements like the clouds, the ocean, the streaking lights, and more
• Camera – as with any type of photography, the camera is only as good as the photographer. You can get amazing results with both entry level DSLRs and full frame cameras.

1. Shutter Drags (Long Exposure Photography)

Dragging the shutter refers to using slower shutter speeds to capture movement. This captures motion of anything in your frame that is moving, while keeping the static objects in the scene nice and crisp. If you can get your couple to hold still, you have the opportunity to create awesome effects with moving people, cars or waves like you see in the image below. Additional saturation and contrast is added in post production using some Lightroom Presets.

Shutter Drag Quick Tips:

• How slow do you go? – well that depends entirely on how fast the other elements in the scene are moving. If cars are zooming by, you can get away with faster shutter speeds like 1/60 or 1/30, but if you are capturing moving people and they are slowly strolling, you may have to drop it even lower like 1/10th or even lower. For water, like the shots above, we are generally around 1/2 to 1 second.
• Ensure that your subjects are holding really still – instruct your subjects to hold very still, avoid blinking during the shot or sequence of shots, and even hold their breath.
• Utilize static poses –  posing for these types of photos will have to be static. Dips, jumps, and walks will add too much motion in the scene and result in blurry photos. However, static does not have to mean boring. You can still have them in flattering, romantic poses.
• Snap a few extra shots to ensure you have one crisp photo – take a few extra shots because a photo may look crisp on the back of your camera, only to show noticeable motion blur as it’s taken into post production.

2. Composites

Compositing multiple photographs into one is sometimes the best solution when it’s unreasonable to have your couple hold still for as long as you need to achieve the desired effect. For example, if you’re looking to capture the beautiful stars in a night sky or if you’re looking combine multiple streaks of passing car lights –  the five, ten, or even 30 second exposure time is much too long to expect any live subject to be still. Below is an example where our couple would have had to hold still for around 15 seconds as we spin flaming steel wool just behind them.

Composite Tips:

The tips for capturing composites are actually very similar as the tips for capturing shutter drags. For example, you still need a sturdy tripod and a shutter release; and you should certainly snap a few extras to make sure you have enough choices to work with in post-production. In addition, here are some more quick tips for capturing composite photos.

• Expose for the couple’s skin tones first – your lighting can be anything from flash to constant lights; but the most important thing is to focus primarily on the subject.
• Have the subjects exit the scene – after you’re sure you have a shot with a good pose and good lighting, you can have them exit the scene.
• Then adjust your settings as needed to expose for the background and create your desired effects. For example, if you’re looking to capture the streaking lights, adjust your shutter speed down and wait for the cars to pass.
• If you can keep the overall exposures identical between shots, compositing will be incredibly simple. Just layer the images in Photoshop, and then mask in and out elements on each layer. However, if the exposures and look of each image varies, then it will require quite a bit more advanced compositing work which would be beyond the scope of this article.

3. Try HDR Portrait Photography

While HDR Photography gets a bad rap sometimes for being gaudy and fake, when done correctly, you have the opportunity to create memorable, distinct photography. This is especially true with outdoor scenes on a cloudy day. Grab your tripod, pose your couple in a static pose, dial in the right settings, and shoot away. What are the right settings? Well start with ISO 100 and a decent aperture (f/4 and up). From there, the shutter will vary depending on the brightness of the scene. For more information, feel free to check out some of these HDR tips on dPS.

HDR Quick Tips:

Here are a few more things to keep in mind.

• Study how to bracket exposures on your specific camera. Almost all cameras have the AEB (Auto Exposure Bracketing) feature, but you will need to know how to access it to dial in the correct settings.
• Keep your minimum shutter speed at 1/200 or higher. Any movement in the couple or background can cause unnatural “ghosting,” so keeping the shutter speed high will really help you save time in post production.
• Avoid strong and overpowering flares. If you’re shooting into the sun, strong flares can desaturate your image and create a loss of sharpness. If you are shooting into the sun for compositional purposes, choose an angle where the flare isn’t going to distract from the subject.
• Choose the right time of day. Sunrise and sunset are still going to one of best times to shoot, as you are most likely to have amazing color in the sky during that time. Remember that the same general photography rules still apply when shooting HDR, we simply are using the HDR process to bring out more detail.
• Watch the weather report. Partly cloudy days are great times to shoot HDR photography. Capturing all of the contrast and interest in the clouds, as you see in the sample images in this article, really add the “wow” factor.

Conclusion

By no means are these three techniques enough for a solid session. In fact, the majority of the photos you take during any portrait session should revolve around candid posing, story-telling, and emotion. For us, we use these dramatic environmental shots to “set the stage” in a final album, canvas mural or other print medium. They are the big grand images that sets the scene, and they are followed by the close up candid images showing the couple interact in said scene and environment.

These techniques are also wonderful in creating “wow” shots, i.e. the shots they share on Facebook and the shots they end up printing on a canvas at their wedding. The shots that make everyone else go, “how’d they do that!?”

Do you have any other killer tips you’d like to share? Please do so in the comment section below.