How to Take Portraits

Transcript Hi, I’m Joe. I teach at the School of Visual Arts in New York. I’ve been teaching here in the photography department for 22 years. I’m also the staff photographer for a public media company here in New York. I’ve got the greatest job in the world. I take beautiful pictures for money. I …

Transcript Hi, I’m Joe. I teach photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York. I want to talk a little bit about how you control exposure. You control exposure in your camera three ways, f-stop, shutter speed, and ISO. F-stop is how big is my hole. Shutter speed is how long is my …

Transcript Hi, I’m Joe. I teach photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York. I’m going to talk a little bit about choosing a camera for taking portraits. I have a point and shoot camera. I like it lot. It’s a ton of fun. It’s not a great choice for shooting portraits because …

Transcript Hi, I’m Joe. I teach photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York. I’m going to talk to you a little bit about choosing a good portrait lens. The normal lens for your camera, whatever is the normal focal length, the focal length that shows things in a size perspective that’s approximate …

Transcript Hi, I’m Joe. I teach photography at the Visual School of Photography in New York. We’re going to talk about shooting portraits at night. The way I usually do this is to use a flash and whatever the ambient light is, whatever is there when you show up. The street lights, whatever they happen …

Transcript Hi, I’m Joe. I teach photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Today, we’re going to talk about photographing somebody against the sunset. The problem with photographing somebody against the setting sun is that all of the very, very bright light is coming from behind them which makes this side of …

Transcript Hi, I’m Joe. I teach photography at the school of visual arts in New York. Today, we’re going to talk about how to deal with a back lit subject. The problem with a back lit subject is that all of your light is coming from behind which makes this side of your subject a …

Transcript Hi, I’m Joe. I teach photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York. If you’re going to shoot a selfie, don’t use a big camera like this. You’re asking to use it as a gravity checker if you try to hold it up in the air with one hand like that. Even …

Transcript Speaker 1: I’m Joe. I teach photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York. We’re going to try to pose a family picture with a pet. The trick to photographing with a pet. Try and get them in the morning. Keep a grip on the animal so that the animal doesn’t go …

Transcript Hi, I’m Joe. I teach photography at the School of Visual Arts. Today we’re going to do an indoor family portrait. I set up very, very simple lighting here. I used relatively inexpensive battery powered flash units bouncing off of umbrellas to keep the lights soft and very diffuse. Although you could use very …

Transcript I’m Joe. I teach photography at the School of Visual Arts. We’re going to talk about photographing groups and families. Have everybody dress nice. Lose the tee-shirts with the writing and the logos on them. Tee-shirts that have a lot of writing on them, people are going to read the writing instead of looking …

Transcript I’m Joe. I teach photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York. I’m going to talk about dramatic portrait lighting techniques. The first one you’ll look at right here is called loop lighting and it’s known for the sort of loop shaped shadow that it creates underneath the nose. It’s a relatively …

Transcript I’m Joe. I teach photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York. I’m going to show you how to use an umbrella to shoot a portrait. As you can see, I’m using this strong tungsten light over here. Inexpensive. Very, very easy to get. It makes a very, very harsh light, and …

Transcript I’m Joe. I teach photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York. This is a cheap, do it yourself, studio lighting set up. The lights are simple clamp reflector lights. You can find these online. You can find them in pet stores. I like the ones with the ceramic bases because you’re …

Transcript I’m Joe. I teach photography at School of Visual Arts in New York. This is basic lighting for portraits. This is a very simple thing that pretty much anybody can do if you’ve got any kind of an off-camera flash at all. You want one that’s got that action going on. You’ve probably seen …

Transcript I’m Joe. I teach photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York. These are some window light portrait tips. A window is probably the best and easiest light source you can use in your home. Don’t use the window when the sun is shining right into it. Make sure the sun is …

Transcript I’m Joe. I teach photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York. These are a few environmental portrait ideas. You can actually make a good environmental portrait almost anywhere. Don’t make the mistake of looking for an interesting background. An interesting background doesn’t help you, your subject is what’s interesting. Let the …

Transcript I’m Joe. I teach at the School of Visual Arts in New York. This is some tips for helping people look better in pictures. Have them show up groomed. Have them show up wearing nice clothes. People look better when they’re dressed up a little bit. They don’t have to wear an evening gown …

Transcript I’m Joe. I teach photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York. These are a few good portrait photography tips. One. Cameras like this, they kind of want to force your hands into holding them horizontally. People aren’t horizontal, they’re vertical. Don’t be afraid to turn the camera sideways and take vertical …

Transcript My name is Joe. I teach photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York. We’re going to talk about some couple photography tips. Don’t try and pose your couples side by side. It makes the frame really wide and makes them look kind of disconnected. Put one person a little bit in …

Transcript I’m Joe. I teach at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. These are a few tips for posing outdoor portraits. I usually try to keep people in the shade. Nice soft, even, diffuse light is much more flattering than direct sunlight. I usually try to have people standing as much as …

Transcript I’m Joe. I teach photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York. These are a few outdoor location ideas. Almost anything works as an outdoor location if you let the background go out of focus. Use an F-stop of 5, 6-ish or so, so that you have enough depth of field for …

Transcript I’m Joe. I teach photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York. I’m going to talk about lighting for outdoor portraits. Keep your subjects out of direct sunlight. Direct sunlight on people’s faces creates big, deep shadows and makes everything that could possibly be wrong with them show up ten times worse. …

Transcript I’m Joe. I teach photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York. We’re going to talk about a couple of great portrait tips. Shade is better than direct sunlight. Direct sunlight is harsh. It makes people squint. It creates deep shadows in their eyes and big shadows across their face from their …

Transcript I’m Joe. I teach at the School of Visual Arts in New York. We’re going to talk about portrait photography ideas. First, things not to do. Show up wearing something nice. You don’t have to show up in a tuxedo and an evening gown but it’s better to stay away from your ripped clothes …

Transcript I’m Joe. I teach photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York. We’re going to talk about posing techniques for women. First the things that you shouldn’t do. Show up with your hair nice and not puffed up all over the place. If you can get out on a cool day with …

Transcript I’m Joe. I teach at the School of Visual Arts in New York. I want to talk about posing techniques for men. Start by talking about posing techniques that are bad for men. Folding your arms. Especially folding your arms with a tilt. Roll your left shoulder back just a tiny bit. Turn your …