PHIL’S TOP 10 TIPS FOR GREAT STUDIO PORTRAITS

1 MANUAL FOR CONSISTENCY

Keeping your exposure consistent in Manual mode will make your life easier when using lights for portraits indoors. Start off around f/5.6, 1/200 sec, ISO100 and go from there.

2 PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

With your exposure fixed (see above), you can then practice with your lights; change their power, position, height, angle, distance from subjects and learn how it changes your images.

3 GET A BUDGET LIGHTING KIT

Invest in a studio lighting kit. A budget two-flash head lighting kit with softboxes won’t break the bank, and will make your portraits so much brighter without ugly shadows on faces.

4 HAVE FUN!

Experiment with your lighting. Make mistakes. Learn from them. Enjoy trying new things. Have fun and you’ll soon gain confidence with lights.

5 FINE ADJUSTMENTS

When you adjust your aperture, ISO or light’s power, make fine adjustments in equal measure by doing it in thirds, so thirds of a stop for apertures and ISO, and thirds for power.

6 FLATTERING FOCAL LENGTH

Anything over 70mm on a full-frame camera will capture people’s faces and bodies at their best. It’s also a comfortable working distance so you’re not crowding your subjects, but still fill the frame.

7 HOME STUDIO

You don’t need a massive pro studio for pro portraits. A large-ish room in your house, or garage space, will work to set up a decent home studio with a backdrop roll on stands, and a pair of lights.

8 DIFFUSING THE LIGHT

Both softboxes and umbrellas will help you to create softer and nicer lighting that’s perfect for portraits, as well as more interesting lighting angles for more interesting portraits.

9 BATTERIES FOR LOCATION SHOOTS

Go for battery-powered lights and you’ll be able to take amazing portraits outdoors on location. Pro Foto and Elinchrom have good (if expensive) options, but even two flashguns with small softboxes can capture good portraits outside.

10 ENGAGE WITH SUBJECTS

To get the best portraits you need to learn how to interact with your subjects. Help them to relax by chatting and messing around while you take test shots and tweak lights and camera settings, and show them images as you shoot to keep them engaged