Portrait photography with M or A or AV?
Hey, I'm currently continuing my education so I can use my camera even better.
I would particularly like to do portrait photography, but I have heard two contradictory things about the modes in which portraits should be photographed.
Firstly, I heard:
Doing it in M mode with a low aperture for blur and especially so that you can set the shutter speed high to get lots of pictures in a short amount of time also makes sense to me.
But then I've also heard that AV mode is better because the priority is on the aperture, so the background is nicely blurred. However, I don't think you can adjust the shutter speed in this mode.
what is your opinion on this?
(1 votes)
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You need to explore and define your work and photography workflow yourself.
I photograph people almost always (99.x%) with time automation, I insert the screen because I want to have a certain depth of field or not.
The camera electronics regulates the shutter time that I get displayed in the viewfinder and if this appears too long I will keep the screen on. The whole process does not take 2 seconds and an emergency immediately comes behind a second image, with a modified aperture and closing time.
the larger the aperture of the aperture (i.e. the smaller the aperture number) the more sharp the planes before and behind the plane of the aperture become.
Of course, it is also important here that the exposure time does not increase to such an extent that you have motion blur in the image. For emergency auxiliary light, flash or corresponding studio equipment.
With the (M)anuelle mode, you can naturally tick out some other features, but for portraits with beginners take AV and as small as possible aperture number.
With normal daylight, you can usually work with open panel without paying particular attention to the exposure time. In interior spaces, care is taken that the exposure time drops not less than 1/ focal length of the objective. So with a classic portrait lens of 80mm focal length not much less than 1/125 second. 1/60 second you usually get out of your hand… but not necessarily at f 1.8.
In most of the lenses, it is also worth fading one or one and a half apertures … gives distinct sharpness.
It’s on the screen. So the A attitude is usually preferred.
All manual costs only time. I don’t see any reason to miss out on the comfort of the automatic system, especially with very difficult motives..
So much patience will not have the model, so just make many pictures, lighting and glare vary a little.
Best always photograph in M because you know the closing time. At AV you don’t know them exactly.
What I don’t understand: Why do you have to make a lot of pictures one after the other with portrait? You have time. A lot of pictures in a row are made in fireworks, sports, fast animals?
With portrait I would practice – without human beings, for example with plants – glare and closure time (and ISO and white balance) so that the image looks as I wish. And then, if necessary, practice with animals (coes, horses on the pasture). And only then with people who also know that you practice and do not immediately expect the perfect picture. Then you already have experience with how to set the camera, what you look at, what you do sharply, where fall knits are lurking (most likely: light incidence).
Inform yourself about the exposure scale, that is in mode M of these bars, which indicates whether the image is properly exposed.
https://fotoschule.fotocommunity.de/was-ist-die-belichtungsbalance-und-wie-kannst-du-sie-us/
I’d practice that first. Once you’re familiar with the M mode, you can start practicing at home with plants or objects, and if that works well, ask friends if you can photograph them without the time rushing or expecting them something special.
If you have a tripod and a photo lamp, put the camera on the tripod, insert the whitefish with a gray card, a photo lamp and then something (candle stand, apples etc.) in front of the camera and try out different settings. Mode AV, mode M, slightly under- and over-exposed, various points focused, light possibly used with shaders and reflectors (also built: black painted cardboard/paper with aluminum foil covered for the first time) differently (to google: lightsetup portrait photography or still life to practice).
Then check out the exif data in the finished photos to see what has worked best for which motif/light/ distance etc.
Best answer so far 🙂
Thanks for the detailed answer, think that with many photos of portraits was meant to capture emotions or a beautiful natural laugh
The shutter and exposure time must fit. How you get there doesn’t matter.
This is bullshit, the closing time only in certain cases affects how many images you can snap in a short time (only if you have a closing time of one or more seconds, which makes little sense for portraits). With a closing time of 1/4000 you can make a new photo as quickly as 1/50. The serial image speed of most cameras is lower than 10 images/second (1/10). In portraits, however, series recordings are not even so useful because the model is often still. Then you have 50 photos with almost the same content you need to get out later.
Yeah, that’s what the camera does for you, which is better than beginners. In addition, you have an influence on whether the images should be brighter or darker. I’d rather advise you to the mode before you have worked into the exposure triangle and read the exposure scale of your camera.