Frans' Portrait Post

Recently, the GCT crew has been working with taking portraits shots. We were commissioned to take different shots of our subjects in various locations around the school. The locations where we took our shots, all contained a banuasic backdrop to convey the stature of our subject. All of us were required to take a shot from both portrait and landscape. Our task was straightforward, but after we had to inquire more on taking better quality portraits by watching videos. Afterwards, the GCT class has a better understanding on the components of how to take a great portrait. I'm looking forward to incorporating the new techniques I have learned from the videos I watched.


1) Keep your subject focused while everything else is out of focus by using a short depth of field
2) If there is a lot of light, change your ISO to 100. If there's minimal light, change your ISO to 400
3) A larger aperture can help create a short depth of field, perfect for the out of focus background
4) When capturing people, try and find what is unique about that person and try and capture that
5) If you don't know what to set your shutter speed to, put your camera on aperture priority on the mode dial and then when you set the aperture, the shutter speed will be correctly set automatically 6) Use natural light as it is more flattering 7) Use straight lines when conveying masculinity, and s-lines when conveying something soft or feminine 8) Backdrop, outfits, and props should be harmonious 9) Utilize motion to add interest 10) When positioning your subject, think of the rule of thirds. You want to put your subject where the points of interest are.