Taking Great Portrait Photos at Home

Most people never try to take a portrait with a studio look because they assume that they can’t without all of the fancy studio equipment. You can! Yes, even with a point-and-shoot camera, you can take beautiful portraits.

Choose Your Film. If you’re working with a traditional film camera, first, you will need the proper film. I recommend 400 speed for this project. Even if you don’t quite need the speed, it will provide a safety net because we’ll be working with lower light. Kodak Royal Gold is great for this because it has nice, warm skin tones. If you’d like an artsy look, I would recommend using black-and-white film for this project. You need to free your creativity and feel like an artist. Using a roll of black and white seems to automatically put people into that frame of mind. I really like Kodak T400CN because it can be processed at a regular lab and you won’t have the extra expense or wait that comes with traditional black-and-white films. For this project we are going to think of film as if it were Kleenex: if you need more, use it!

Find a Backdrop. Now, let’s find a suitable backdrop. The easiest thing to use is a bed sheet. Medium tones tend to compete visually with the skin tones, especially if you decide to take the pictures in black and white. White and light pastels work well. Black can also be very dramatic. Take that sheet out of the linen closet and put it into the dryer for a few minutes to wrinkle it. Yes, we do want the wrinkles. Symmetric squares from folding will make our backdrop look like the bed sheet that it is.

Look for Lighting. Now we are going to go on a hunt for the best soft light we can find. You don’t want direct light streaming in through a window because it will have too much contrast in the final picture. You might find that light near a big window, a doorway that opens to the outside, or under a porch. But my favorite place is in the garage! Just think of an open garage door as a giant window. Pull the cars out, sweep up a little, and attach your sheet to the wall with duct tape. You can use two sheets and put one on the wall and the other on the floor. You want to get a curved base where the sheet meets the floor so there isn’t a line running through your picture. The area of your picture should be out of direct sunlight. Move inside the garage just far enough so that you are out of any direct sun.

Obtain a Reflector. Now you will want something that you can use to reflect some of that light coming in through the garage door back onto the subject. Get a piece of white foam core or even a full-length mirror. If you don’t have either of those, then a white sheet can be used to move some of that light onto the shadow side of your subject.

Turn off your flash! If you have a camera that won’t let you, then cover it with something. Because we have turned off the flash, what you see will be what you get. Move the reflector around until you like what you see. You might even try two reflectors. Position one reflector so it reflects light onto the shadow side of the face and the other so it puts light onto the back of the subject.

Using a digital camera for a project of this nature can be even more fun because of the instant feedback and the ability to check your lighting. If the side of your subject that is farthest from the light seems too dark, add something light to reflect the light back onto the subject. If you would like a little more shadowing for a moodier effect, something dark will absorb the light and increase shadows. Check your digital images carefully to make sure that they are sharp and don’t suffer from camera shake. If they seem a little soft, bump up your ISO setting or stabilize your camera on a tripod or stool.

Dress the Subject. We’ve barely mentioned the subject! Once you get your "studio" set up, it is time to get the subject ready. It may be tempting to put them in the Tommy Hilfiger shirt they got from grandma or their brightest outfit, but for a studio setting we are looking for clothes that don’t compete. Go solid, go neutral, or go naked (but only for babies, and animals I suppose!). If you are shooting black and white, you can’t go wrong with denim. I love the look of kids in overalls with no shirts underneath and of bigger people in jean jackets. If you do include a hat in the ensemble, make sure that you reflect some light underneath the hat so the subject’s face doesn’t go dark. It is probably best to lose the shoes.

Position the Subject. Sit the subject at least three feet from the backdrop (it would be more if we were using flash), and fire away. Go for a range of expressions. With some kids, you can either have eyes or teeth. When they smile with their teeth, the eyes shut down. Get some with big expressive eyes as well as some with the grins. They don’t have to be looking at the camera for all of the shots. Yawns, sneezes, surprised looks can all be good.

Try some with the whole body, but get close and concentrate more on just the face. Ideally your subject should be filling up at least 75% of the frame, and more if it is just a head shot. Keep checking the corners of the frame as you shoot to make sure no garage is sneaking into your photo.

There is a lot of set-up time involved, but you’ll have a clean garage floor and some beautiful pictures of your loved ones to show for that effort.

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