A strong portrait can be incredibly rewarding, a revealing collaboration between the sitter and the lens. French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson claimed it was the most difficult form of photography because, "You have to try to put your camera between the skin of a person and his shirt." The first step to achieving that intimacy is to master a few technical aspects of the perfect portrait.
The eyes have it
The first thing we look at in another human face is the eyes, so keep them sharp, especially in your early portrait shots. One way to emphasise the eyes is to use a narrow depth of field so that they remain in focus while other features fall off into blur. This effect can be achieved by adjusting the lens aperture. Wider apertures have lower numbers, and give less depth of field.
An aperture of f/2.8, for instance, will produce a more pleasing effect than one at f/8. Select AV mode on your DSLR to take control of aperture settings. When focusing, half-press the shutter button to focus on the eyes and then recompose the frame. Note that controlling the focus using a button on the back, rather than the shutter button, may help. To do this, open the camera's menu and adjust the "Custom Function" settings.
A lens with a longer focal length makes a shallow depth of field more noticeable, since wide-angle lenses tend to distort subjects close to the lens. For portraits, this can be very unflattering. A longer focal length will compress perspective and produce a much more pleasing result. With the cropped sensor on the Canon EOS 100D, a lens such as the Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM pancake lens is a good pairing.
Getting the light and tone right
The next thing to think about is lighting. Dutch painters of the 16th and 17th centuries spent years exploring the effects of light. Vermeer's Girl With a Pearl Earring, for example, shows the artist's fascination with side window light. Very little has changed since. Generally, a light source should be large, soft and coming from one direction. If light is reflected in the subject's eyes, so much the better – this creates "catchlights", which can really bring the eyes to life. Place your subject next to a window and get them to turn slowly, so you can observe the effect the light has on the face and the surrounding shadow. If the light creates too much shadow on one side, bring in a reflector or a white surface to bounce it back.
Tone and colour also play a big part in our reaction to an image. Colours can clash, and backdrops can be distracting. Experiment with removing colour; black and white images have fewer distractions. For portraits, black and white can be especially powerful.
This week's assignment
Take some simple head shots of a volunteer subject. Try using window light and shooting outside, but keep things simple. Concentrate your attention on the lighting, focal point, choice of lens, colour and tone.
