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There are few things more frustrating in photography than taking a good shot and discovering later that there is a problem with focus, exposure, noise or some other variable that you should have got right before you pressed the shutter. Mark Galer shares a failsafe checklist to help you increase your success rate when shooting portraits.

How many times have you taken a photo and discovered later that there was a problem with focus, exposure, noise or some other variable? We've all been there. Fortunately there are steps you can take to reduce the incidence of such events occuring and improve your success rate with the camera.

I use a simple checklist when shooting to remind me to check a few important variables. SAIFER stands for Shutter speed, Aperture, ISO, Focus, Exposure and Raw. If I have considered each of these elements I know the photograph will be technically okay.

In a typical portrait scenario, this is how I put SAIFER into practise:

01 SHUTTER SPEED
Use a shutter speed of 1/60s or faster; anything slower than 1/60s risks subject blur, even in a static portrait setting with image stabilisation switched on.

02 APERTURE
Switch your camera to aperture priority and choose an aperture setting at least one stop away from the lens’ minimum and maximum apertures. That means if your lens has an aperture range of f/4 to f/22, you should try to stay within an aperture range of f/5.6 to f/16. Avoid using f/4 and f/22. Most lenses are sharpest several stops away from the extreme aperture settings. F/22 will lead to soft images due to the effects of diffraction and most lenses are not sharp when wide open. With close-up portraits (head and shoulders), I find that very shallow depths of field can be problematic. Generally speaking, I try to avoid anything wider than f/2.8 on a cropped-sensor camera or f/4 on a full-frame sensor. If the person in your portrait turns their face at a slight angle to the camera I would be inclined to stop down even further, f/4 and f/5.6 respectively, to ensure both eyes sit comfortably in the area of sharp focus.

03 ISO
Aim to use the lowest ISO setting possible – preferably no more than 400. Most sensors operate at their best around 100 to 200 ISO. By increasing ISO, you not only increase noise, but reduce the dynamic range of the sensor – in other words, its ability to hold detail in the shadows and highlights. Stick to a low ISO and you will have more flexibility to modify tone and colour in post-production.

04 FOCUS
Make sure the key elements of your image are in focus. In a portrait that’s the eyes. Even having stopped the aperture down I find I have to override the autofocus or move the focus point off-centre to ensure the eyes are nice and sharp. If your camera offers a “magnified view” or “focus assist” option in Live View mode, use it.

05 EXPOSURE
Auto exposure rarely cuts it. Always check the live histogram on the camera’s LCD to make sure the highlights aren’t blown out (the histogram will appear bunched up on the right of the graph) and the shadows haven’t turned to a muddy mass of black (the histogram will be bunched up on the left). I use exposure compensation, if required, to protect against loss of detail in the shadows and highlights. Many cameras typically underexpose RAW files by around one stop. Raise the exposure if you can (but not so far that the highlights clip) to ensure maximum quality and to give yourself more options in post-processing (quality in equals quality out).

06 RAW
If quality is your priority, the camera should be set to capture images in Raw format. With Raw you have more latitude in post-production to fine-tune tone, colour, noise, sharpness and more. Only use JPEG if you are ‘computer phobic’!

This is an excerpt from the article 'Anatomy of a Portrait' which will be published in the upcoming issue of Australian Photography + digital (April 2013).


Photo by Mark Galer.

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