Technique ASSESSMENT

nina helped Photoplus apprentice Paul set up his camera ready to capture family portraits

Av To manual mode

“Paul was used to shooting in Av mode, only going to Manual mode when using lights,” says Nina, “However, I was keen for him to use Manual so he could take charge of his aperture, shutter speed and ISO for more control over his results. I asked him to set a minimum shutter speed of 1/500 sec to freeze fidgety kids and avoid motion blur in limbs, and a wide aperture, such as f/4, to blur the backgrounds, then adjust ISO to expose for skin tones; on our overcast day in the shade, this was 400 to 640.”

Warmer Whites

“When it comes to portraits, photographers need to find a white balance to suit their image style. For me, I set my white balance on my Canon 5D Mark III to 6400 K – warmer skin tones are my preference, whether indoors or outdoors. This also means the white balance stays consistent so images look good together for client’s galleries. I sometimes even go up to 8000 K in the golden hour! For Paul’s 70D, however, we found that 5500 K was much better for accurate colours that still had warmth, so see what works best for your camera,” advises Nina.