Technique assessment

Shallow depth of field

Pete says… Portraiture is stationary, so Heather didn’t need to worry about having masses of depth of field in case of subject movement. I suggested she use a wide aperture for a shallow depth of field; by using around f/3.2 and focusing on the eyes, we’ll have sharp focus in the eyes, nose and mouth, which are the important features, with the rest of the face and body dropping off into an aesthetically pleasing blur.

autofocusing

Pete says… It was vital that Heather get the eyes pin-sharp, and that meant taking her D800 off automatic focusing modes and using Single-point autofocus. That, combined with Single-shot (AF-S), rather than Continuous autofocus (AF-C) mode, meant she could move the AF point around the image frame to purposefully and accurately pin-point the eye for a sharp photograph.

Single-shot Release mode

Pete says… I noticed Heather’s D800 was set to Continuous burst mode, so I suggested that she shoot in Single-shot release mode instead. In this mode Heather could take her time to compose the shot and, when the shutter release button is depressed, only fire off one frame at a time. This would instil discipline to check that focus is spot-on, and also speeds up the editing workflow as she’ll have fewer images to cull, rather than trawling through bursts of near-identical shots.