A Short Course on Portrait Photography - Part II
( Part II)
Part I of this article (published last month) gave you a deep insight into portrait photography. Now it is time to put that theory into practice. This concluding part of the article explains, step by step, how you can make a portrait using the classic Rembrandt approach to lighting.
Before you start, make sure of the following: 1. Mount your camera on a sturdy tripod. 2. Use a lens with a focal length between 85mm and 100mm (equivalent 35mm focal length). If you are using an APS cropped sensor D-SLR, use a focal length of 50mm at least. 3. Switch on the histogram and highlight warning tools. These will be in the Playback menu. 4. Set your camera to Manual exposure mode using the mode dial. 5. The metering mode (Matrix or Center-weighted, etc.) is not relevant since you will be determining the exposure with the help of the histogram display. 6. Set the aperture to around f/8 for adequate depth of field and sharpness. 7. Set your camera to the lowest base ISO for the best picture quality. 8. Use RAW format for best quality. If you do not want to use RAW for whatever reason, use JPEG with highest pixel count ( Large setting) with least compression ( Fine setting). 9. If you are using JPEG format, set saturation, contrast, sharpness to minimum levels. It is easy to enhance any of these in post-processing but difficult to reduce them in a JPEG. If you are not going to do any postprocessing, set the camera Picture Controls (or Picture Styles) to “Portrait”. This will help in getting good skin tones. 10. We will be using strobes as the light sources and these need to be triggered. The simplest way to trigger them is to use the built-in flash of your D-SLR. Set this flash to manual mode and minimum power level (1/64 or 1/128 of full power) as you are using it only for triggering and not for any illumination. If you keep higher power ( brightness) levels, this extra light might cast a shadow of the subject on the background. You should also keep a black card in front of the built-in flash to further block any light. However, be assured that the light from the built-in flash will still be enough to trigger the strobes. 11. You can set the shutter speed up to X-Sync. If you are not sure what this is, set the shutter speed to 1/125 sec. 12. Since we are using strobes for this exercise, set White Balance to “Flash”, or better, make a White Balance measurement and set the White Balance to that value.
Setup and Lighting: Refer to Picture 1. Set up the subject (a) against a black (or dark) background ( b). Position the subject so that his shoulders are approximately at 45º to the camera lens axis as shown. Since we are going to use a black background, make the subject wear light toned clothes to give proper separation. This will eliminate the need for any additional lights. The background must be at least 3 feet away from the subject so that no shadow will fall on it. If your subject is a tall person you may have to move the background further away. Next, position the lights.
Positioning the Main light: In case of Rembrandt lighting, the main light is placed at 45º to the lens axis as marked, at a slightly higher position than the subject’s head, and pointing downwards ( Picture 1). While positioning the main light, observe how the triangular highlight is being formed on the cheek away from the light. Also, pay close attention to the catch-lights in the eyes of the subject. These need to be at the 1 O’clock or 11 O’clock position, depending on whether you are using broad lighting or short lighting. Here are a few more tips to help you place the light.
You should use a diffuser to soften the shadows. However, while placing the light, remove the diffuser so that the highlighted triangle is more distinctly visible. You can put the diffuser later on once the position is fixed.
If the light is too high, it makes eyes look like dark sockets due to the shadow of the brow. If this is the case, lower it.
If the light is close to the lens axis, the light will become more frontal and flat. If it is moved at an angle greater than 45º, it will produce a nose shadow. There will be no triangular highlight in either case.
Positioning the Fill light: In case of Rembrandt lighting, the fill light is kept close to the lens axis, as compared to the main light which is kept at 45º ( Picture 1). It is also kept on the opposite side of the main light, at lens height. The fill-light can sometimes cause reflections from the face of the subject. if you observe these, then move the fill-light slightly laterally ( left or right) till they vanish.
Positioning the Hair light: This light is kept above the subject to one side or even directly above. It is best positioned with the help of a boom ( Picture 1). If you don’t have one, you can ask a helper to hold it for you. Care must be taken that only the hair is illuminated by this. If it comes forward, you will find that it creates ugly highlights on the forehead and / or nose of the subject.
Broad lighting or Short lighting: To get broad or short lighting, you need not change the positions of the main or fill lights. You can simply have your subject turn such that in the former case the side of the subject facing the main light will also face the camera. In the case of short lighting, the subject has to turn to the other side so that the side lit up is not facing the camera.
Procedure: Once you have the lights in place, you need to set the lighting ratio. For classic Rembrandt lighting, a lighting ratio of 3:1 is used commonly. That is, the combined light of main light and fill light must be two stops brighter than the fill light alone.
Setting this ratio can be done best with a flash meter. However, not all of us have one. Next best is to have two identical strobes whose power can be controlled. This way you can set the power level you need. If you keep the main light about one stop brighter than the fill light (after the diffusers) then you will get the 3:1 ratio just described.
If you don’t have strobes whose power can be changed, you can use the distance as a measure of the power. This is based on the old inverse square law that you studied in high school physics. You can make your strobe less bright by one stop if your increase the distance by a factor of 1.4. For example say your strobe is at 4 feet from the subject. If you now increase the distance by a factor of 1.4 that is 4 X 1.4 = 5.6 feet, then the light at the subject from this strobe will reduce by one stop. As an example, if you have two strobes of the same power, you can keep one strobe (main light) at 4 feet and the 2nd strobe (fill light) at 4X1.4 = 5.6 feet. The fill light will now be one stop less bright than the main light. This way, you can control the relative brightness of the strobes by moving them suitably.
Normally the hair light is one stop brighter than the main light. Exposure can be determined with a flash meter. However, in this digital age, (with a cooperating subject) it is not difficult to set exposure even if you don’t have a meter. This is best done using the two tools viz., histogram and highlight warning, built in your D-SLR. When setting exposure, you need to fire all the strobes simultaneously. Hence, it is best to set the exposure after you position and set the brightness level of all strobes. Take a test picture, playback your image and check for any blown highlights. If they exist, this indicates over exposure. If this is the case, you need to reduce exposure (choose a narrower aperture) or decrease the power of the strobes.
Blown highlights are most likely to occur with hair light as it is a concentrated light illuminating hair, which can be glossy at times. They can also occur if the subject is wearing very light toned clothes, or clothes made of a shiny fabric.
After you check and correct for blown highlights, check the histogram. Now, no part of the histogram should be touching the right axis (since you have already taken care of blown highlights). As you are using a black background, a part of the histogram may be very close or even touching the left axis. However, this is not a problem.
Depending on the tone of the clothes and skin of the subject, the rest of the histogram will be to the right – more if the person is light skinned and/or wearing light colored clothes. If most of the histogram is bunched to the left it indicates under exposure. Correct this by opening the aperture, that
is, choosing a smaller f/number. Picture 2 shows a histogram that corresponds to the portrait in Picture 6.
Tip: When you are positioning strobes or adjusting their brightness, it is a good practice to check the effect of each of them independently, rather than fire all the three strobes simultaneously and then try to manipulate them. Here, I have shown the effect of each light – main, fill and hair (Pictures 3, 4 and 5) independently. Observe the effect of each of these lights and see how the final result is when all of them fire together (Picture 6).
After you set up the lights and exposure, you are all set to take the portrait. Make sure that the subject relaxes, and focus on the eyes. Release the shutter when you see the right expression. You can try several variations like broad/short lighting ( Picture 6 and 7), different lighting ratios ( Pictures 7 and 8), and so on. Later, you can view the images on the LCD monitor of your camera or your computer and choose the best one(s).
Some tips and guide lines: While there are no rules in portraiture, there are a few generally accepted guidelines that over time have proven to give a pleasing look. Here is a listing of a few of these, along with a few tips.
Since the face is the most important part of the body, it is natural that the face generally occupies the most important place in a portrait. It is generally positioned looking at the photographer to provide an element of engagement with the viewer.
Eye contact is most important when one converses with anyone. Consequently, eyes in the portrait should make contact with the photographer, and later with the viewer of the image. Due to the importance of the eyes, they should also be rendered sharp. Hence, in a portrait make sure that you focus on the eye which is closest to you. If your camera’s AF point does not overlap the subject’s nearest eye, then first keep an AF point on the eye, focus, and while keeping the focus locked, recompose before you release the shutter.
The maximum impact is created when the eyes are as per “rule of thirds” position – specifically, they should be one third down from the top of the frame.
Make sure that there are catch-lights in the eyes regardless of the type of lighting you use. A portrait without catch-lights is considered to be dead!
Remember you are taking a portrait and not a mug shot! So, don’t keep the person squarely facing you with the shoulders parallel to the camera! It is best if the shoulders are approximately at 45 º to the lens axis. Also avoid a part of the ear being shown.
Don’t mix lights - that is don’t use a mix of say, strobes with tungsten lamps. Such mixing will cause color casts. These will be very difficult or even impossible to correct in post-processing. Also don’t forget to set the right White Balance. If possible, make a custom setting of WB, or take a photograph of
a gray card. The latter will help you to correct color casts. A red flower may not look bad with a slight color cast but skin will look very bad. Please pay particular attention to this aspect.
Portraiture is not just reality, that is, faithfully reproducing the likeness of a person. It should also have an element of improvement over the original. By this I do not mean manipulating the image in post-processing so that all blemishes are removed. A good portrait should combine techniques to make a person look better, and thus involves some photographic flattery! This is normally done by closely studying the physical features of a person and then choosing appropriate lighting and camera angles to deemphasize the appearance of not-so desirable features. Here are some tips to help you.
1. Double chin: This may be a sign of prosperity but unfortunately is not very photogenic. You can reduce the visibility of this by asking the subject to raise the chin upwards and using a higher than normal camera position.
2. Reflections from spectacles: You can eliminate most of them by moving the fill light laterally a little. Generally, broad lighting is better to reduce reflections from specs.
3. Baldness: Don’t use the hair light as it will cause a reflection. Instead, make the subject wear light toned clothes and use a dark background. This will give the needed separation. Alternatively, you can use a background of a color or tone that decreases separation between the head and background so that they merge. This is turn will hide the appearance of baldness. Use a slightly lower camera angle too.
4. Prominent and large nose: Use a lower camera position and main light. Also make the subject face camera more directly rather than at an angle.
5. Prominent ears: Keep the subject more angled so that the ears do not stick out. Keep the ear in shadow if possible.
6. Facial Defects: If the subject has facial defects like injury marks or scars, keep them on the shadow side. Acknowledgement: My thanks are due to Akshay Rao for his help in preparing this article.