Secrets Of Romantic Portraits
Best Lens for Romantic Portraits
I'd like to Share with you some of the secrets of Taking Romantic Portraits.
I've been photographing people in love for most of my life, such as weddings and engagement portraits and my favorite portrait session is what I call the engagement "Love Story Portrait Session.
We end up either putting many of these portraits into a folio, album, slide show or framed wall portraits.
When doing an engagement session you don't have the stress and time restraints as you do on a wedding.
I believe this session is more of a story than a single portrait. It's the story of 2 people in love and it requires certain ingredients for it to be successful. And by putting all these ingredients together we end up with a Romantic "Love Story" that the couple will cherish their entire life together.
What are some of these ingredients?
Proper Equipment & Its Use:
I do most of my sessions outdoors and they can be done year round. However Spring, Summer & Fall are the most popular times with Fall being the most beautiful.
As for equipment, the camera is not as important as the lens. As long as the camera you use is adequate for the type of photography you wish to do.
As for the camera body, If money is not a major factor, then get the best camera you can afford. If you are on a tight budget, my advice would be to spend the money on a good professional lens and get a cheaper body. You can always upgrade later.
I would also advise you invest in a brand name such as Nikon or Canon. These are the camera systems currently used by most professionals. These two names have stood the test of time and have a huge variety of lenses and accessories.
Yes, there are many other outstanding camera manufactures out there with names like Kodak, Fuji, Olympus, Sony, Panasonic, Samsong and others.
And many of their products are outstanding. I have been a big Fuji user and supporter since around 2002 when the Fuji S2 came out.
I still have and use the S2 & S3. The nice things about these cameras is that they accept Nikon lenses. These cameras are a bit outdated as far as speed and LCD size is concerned. But, if you are on a very tight budget you can pick up a good Fuji S2 on ebay between $200-$300.
LENS OF CHOICE
My favorite lens for the engagement "Love Story" portrait is the Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VR lens.
Why is this such a great lens?
Well, there are several reasons. One of them is, it's a fast lens and allows me to shoot wide open at f2.8.
Why shoot wide open or close to it? Because it gives me a beautiful perspective that when zoomed to full 200mm or close to it.
Here is where selective focus comes into play. When you focus on the couple the background goes out of focus. This brings our attention to the couple and making the background less of a distraction and more of an important part of our composition by using a limited depth of field to our advantage.
One important factor to keep in mind when shooting wide open at f2.8 or even 3.2 is that there is very little depth of field and proper focusing is extremely important. Otherwise, you risk ending up with an out of focus image. I generally set my focus on the eyes.
Another reason I like this lens so much is that it's a VR lens. VR is Vibration Reduction and works great on this lens. What this means is that now you can shoot hand held at slower speeds and still get sharp images than with a lens that does not have VR.
You should be able to take sharp images at 1/30 of a second with full zoom if you're careful. I know some photographers who are shooting at 1/15 sec with great results.
On the other end of the scale is a wide angle lens. I occasionally use the Sigma 15mm f2.8 lens. I usually have this lens on another camera body so I don't have to change lenses. I try to avoid changing lenses so there is less risk of getting dust on the sensor.
This lens also adds to the variety of the portrait session and is great for adding impact when your working around beautiful architecture or even around trees.
The other lens I use occasionally on a portrait is Nikon's 18-200mm VR lens. The only objection with this lens is that it's not as fast as the 70-200mm f2.8 lens. Still, 18-200mm is a large range to be in and covers most shooting situations.
The aperture on this lens is 3.5 at it's widest setting and 5.6 at full zoom. This lens also has VR. It's a lot smaller and easier to work with
When this lens first came out it was extremely hard to get and sold at a hefty price. Some photographers claim if they could only have one lens, this would be it.
It is great for travel. You don't have to take along a big arsenal of lenses. One camera body and this lens and you're all set. You may not even need a camera bag when you're traveling.
With all that said, my favorite lens would be the 70-200 f2.8 VR lens for this type of portrait session.
Coming Soon is more information on other important gear I use on my engagement portraits as well as
Best Use of Lighting, Posing Techniques Refined, Best Use of Composition and more. Don't miss this!!
