DSLR, taking pics of people!! help

[Beedub]

ok needs some help from the experts, my mom has a magazine spread coming up for a business magazine and WE need to supply certain pics, now ive maanged to convince her im awesome behind the camera and can take some good pics.... well i lied..... i have no idea what im doing, we only need a few images, one at the housein our office /dining room and one in our actualy business premises... what im trying to get to how do i set the camera to make the ebst of these pics and really gain a pro looking portrait pic??? is their programms on my mac that i can use to touch up photos and remove wrinkles ect ect??? help help help.... bare in mind i have no clue what im doing..... i use a nikon d3200 so any help with setting this thing up for the best images and touching images up or using tricks to gain uber clear HD type images maybe?? help help helppppppp!!!



byron

 

[Stuart Truman]

well i lied.....

Well you've got a Nikon, which for low light is better than a canon at the same price point (and as a canon shooter you have no idea how much that pains me to say it

What lenses do you have? This will make a huge difference.

So start simple.

Put the camera in aperture priority mode.

Lens open fairly wide. (Depends on the lens and distance to subject) but start at f/4 and see how much is in focus and how happy you are with depth of field.

Set the ISO such that you're getting a decent shutter speed to avoid shake. (Rule of thumb is shutter speed should be no less than the length of lens. 50mm then use 1/60th or faster unless you have image stabilisation)

Set the focus point to centre and focus on the eyes

Don't have rear lighting (windows etc) it will mess with the metering.

Check the background to make sure no pot plants are growing out of her head or other distractions.

Check the results. Try setting the camera to spot meter on her face.

Try and shoot with natural light unless you really can't avoid flash. If you only have a pop up flash, put a piece of white toilet paper over it to soften it.

Your camera will also have a white balance setting to compensate for tungsten or fluorescent lighting etc. try to get all that right in the camera before resorting to photoshop etc.

Shoot raw. It will give you the best results once you start processing on a PC or Mac.

I have some portrait editing software. If you want to send me a shot I'll happily run it through for you. Tbh you don't want to go stupid with the airbrushing etc.

You can download a trial I think. (Portrait professional)

Hope that helps.

 

[szatras]

What kind of lenses do You have? I assume kit 18-55 mm? Are You going to take those shots during the day, or night? Do You have any accessories like external flash?
Well, to be honest, it will be though one without any experience.

 

[NeilP]

Stuart Truman has some really useful information there.

I would disagree regarding the Canon/Nikkon low light debate but we shall save that for another thread.

As for post processing, lightroom would be your best bet.

There is a channel on youtube called SLR Lounge and they have great tips for PP in a variety of different scenarios.

I've found (as ghetto as this is) that those flexible table lights are perfect for what you're proposing to do. Stuart mentioned tissue paper over the built in flash, you can use a similar principle with a white sheet to diffuse the light and take away the harshness.

I would like to also reitterate the point about shooting RAW. Yes in an ideal world the image would be perfect straight out of the camera, but shooting in RAW, from personal experience allows you to more easily cover what you didn't quite get right with shooting in the camera.

 

[Beedub]

18-55m these will be day time pics .... Stu thanks for your advise , I'll try what you've suggested and come back to you thanks again guys !!!


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[Beedub]

One last thing , how do I shoot in RAW??. And stu I'll be sending you 3/4 images !!!! I you could touch them up for me I'd e eternally greatful !!


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[original guvnor]

One last thing , how do I shoot in RAW??. And stu I'll be sending you 3/4 images !!!! I you could touch them up for me I'd e eternally greatful !!


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Beedub - there should be a setting on your camera to change from JPEG to RAW. Mine's a Canon so it will be meaningless to you but if you look in the index of the manual it will help you out.

 

[Beedub]

thankyou OG..... will check this out...

 

[Stuart Truman]

One last thing , how do I shoot in RAW??. And stu I'll be sending you 3/4 images !!!! I you could touch them up for me I'd e eternally greatful !!


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Beedub - there should be a setting on your camera to change from JPEG to RAW. Mine's a Canon so it will be meaningless to you but if you look in the index of the manual it will help you out.

Probably in the image quality settings. Various sizes of jpg and raw. No idea on a Nikon though.

 

[aquazi]

Those were some good tips stu




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