Working the Subject
- Portrait Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots
- Direction & Quality of Light: Your Key to Better Portrait Photography Anywhere
- Master Lighting Guide for Portrait Photographers
Let's say you're a beginner asking an experimented photographer for advice. You're about to go on a trip to a very interesting destination, and you want to make sure you come home with some killer shots. Most photographers are going to tell you to shoot in manual mode, or to get close to the subject, which are both very good pieces of advice that I also recommend. But if I were to give you only one recommendation, it would have to do with working the subject.
(Success Tip #1: Take portraits of people anywhere and turn them into profits)
What does that mean exactly? Let's start with what it means not to work your subject. Let's say you're on the street somewhere and you want to take someone's portrait, with their permission.
You go for the shot, and you nail it within the first five frames. You check your LCD, everything looks fine. You thank the person and you move on. Sounds familiar? Well, it's wrong. It's great when you get the shot in the first attempts, but it's wrong to settle for just one shot. An interesting face is something you can work with, especially when you're on the street. Working the subject in this case means going for different approaches. You start by shooting at different focal lengths. Was the first shot you nailed taken at 50mm? Great. Now switch to 105mm, then to 24mm. See where I'm going? But what to do if you only have one lens with you? It's often the case with many travel or street photographers who use cameras like the Fuji X100T. Well, in this case, you're just going to work the subject by zooming in and out with your feet. You can take a series of awesome shots, different ones mind you, in a matter of seconds. All you have to do is keep an open mind and make the most out of the opportunity. Having someone's permission and trust means a great deal and walking away with just one shot would make it a partially missed opportunity.
(Success Tip #2: Get your free catalog from NYIP here )
Here's Bryan Peterson in Delhi demonstrating how he works the subject in this video from AdoramaTV.
