Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Posted by Unknown |
How to Take Candid Portraits of Family and Friends

We all want to be able to take memorable photos of our family and friends like the one pictured. However, when we are at family events everyone tends to pose for pictures whether you want them to or not. Moreover, since people know you are a photographer they are conscious of your presence and watch you carefully when they see the camera in your hands, so they will not look bad when you take their picture. There is a lot of sneakiness and psychology involved in photography-and in this article I will show you how to hone your skills with street photography and candid portraits of strangers-to prepare yourself for taking candid portraits at your next family event.

Instructions

    1
    Start With Easy Subjects

    Get your camera, get out in the street and take pictures of people. Don't ask to take their picture, which will cause them to pose. Just take pictures of people to hone your skills. Don't be confrontational unless you feel the need. Start with simple, non-threatening situations like the one pictured. Become a student of human behavior. When do people notice you? How do you trigger them to notice you? Use a telephoto lens so you can study your subjects from a distance.

    2
    Birdman of Station Square

    As you become comfortable taking pictures of people, begin to immerse yourself in your subject. There are a lot of people who like to have their picture taken. Find people who are doing something and photograph them doing it. This is an old picture of a guy in Pittsburgh we used to call the "Birdman of Station Square." He was so involved with his pigeons, he could care less about having his picture taken.

    3
    Peace, Man

    Candid portraits usually tell a story or set a mood. As you become more comfortable you can become more confrontational. The more experience you have the faster you become at composition and exposure. This picture was taken within 2 seconds. As I raised my camera to focus, he flashed the peace sign. His glare changed to a shout as I clicked the shutter.

    4
    Use a Telephoto Lens

    Use the telephoto lens to your advantage. This enables you to take pictures from farther away. This picture was taken with a 200mm lens and I was far enough away from my friend to not disturb her contemplative mood. You know you have taken a good candid when you show it to the subject and she says, "oh, when did you take that?"

    5
    Gain Trust

    After you have practiced on friends and strangers, you are ready to start taking family candid photographs. Start with someone who feels totally relaxed with you. This is a picture of my wife early in my career. I pointed the camera at her and she swung the tripod up to her eye like a rifle. A completely candid moment made possible by total trust.

    6
    Family Candid

    After you have done all of the above steps, you are probably ready to take pictures of your children. Take advantage of their young years when they totally trust you and the camera. After you take some embarrassing photos, those days will be gone forever. These candid actions and expressions of youth will disappear as they get older and more self-conscious (most will totally hate the camera and having their picture taken by the time they are 10). Enjoy it while you can.


How to Take Candid Portraits of Family and Friends

We all want to be able to take memorable photos of our family and friends like the one pictured. However, when we are at family events everyone tends to pose for pictures whether you want them to or not. Moreover, since people know you are a photographer they are conscious of your presence and watch you carefully when they see the camera in your hands, so they will not look bad when you take their picture. There is a lot of sneakiness and psychology involved in photography-and in this article I will show you how to hone your skills with street photography and candid portraits of strangers-to prepare yourself for taking candid portraits at your next family event.

Instructions

    1
    Start With Easy Subjects

    Get your camera, get out in the street and take pictures of people. Don't ask to take their picture, which will cause them to pose. Just take pictures of people to hone your skills. Don't be confrontational unless you feel the need. Start with simple, non-threatening situations like the one pictured. Become a student of human behavior. When do people notice you? How do you trigger them to notice you? Use a telephoto lens so you can study your subjects from a distance.

    2
    Birdman of Station Square

    As you become comfortable taking pictures of people, begin to immerse yourself in your subject. There are a lot of people who like to have their picture taken. Find people who are doing something and photograph them doing it. This is an old picture of a guy in Pittsburgh we used to call the "Birdman of Station Square." He was so involved with his pigeons, he could care less about having his picture taken.

    3
    Peace, Man

    Candid portraits usually tell a story or set a mood. As you become more comfortable you can become more confrontational. The more experience you have the faster you become at composition and exposure. This picture was taken within 2 seconds. As I raised my camera to focus, he flashed the peace sign. His glare changed to a shout as I clicked the shutter.

    4
    Use a Telephoto Lens

    Use the telephoto lens to your advantage. This enables you to take pictures from farther away. This picture was taken with a 200mm lens and I was far enough away from my friend to not disturb her contemplative mood. You know you have taken a good candid when you show it to the subject and she says, "oh, when did you take that?"

    5
    Gain Trust

    After you have practiced on friends and strangers, you are ready to start taking family candid photographs. Start with someone who feels totally relaxed with you. This is a picture of my wife early in my career. I pointed the camera at her and she swung the tripod up to her eye like a rifle. A completely candid moment made possible by total trust.

    6
    Family Candid

    After you have done all of the above steps, you are probably ready to take pictures of your children. Take advantage of their young years when they totally trust you and the camera.

    Enhance your photography skill,The Top Secret Photography Techniques

    . After you take some embarrassing photos, those days will be gone forever. These candid actions and expressions of youth will disappear as they get older and more self-conscious (most will totally hate the camera and having their picture taken by the time they are 10). Enjoy it while you can.



  • Howcast The best how-to videos on the web

    www.howcast.com

    Howcast is the best source for fun, free, and useful how-to videos and guides.


  • wikiHow - How to do anything

    www.wikihow.comRelationships Articles Hobbies and Crafts Youth

    wikiHow is a wiki based collaboration to build the worlds largest, highest quality how to manual. Our multilingual how to manual has free step-by-step instructions ...


  • Flickr: Help: Photos - Welcome to Flickr - Photo Sharing

    www.flickr.com/help/photos

    How do I upload my photos? The easiest way to upload to Flickr is to use our Web Uploadr. For quick access we have added an "Upload" link to the navigation at the top ...


  • Wonder How To Show & Tell for Creators & Doers

    www.wonderhowto.com

    Wonder How To is your guide to free how to videos on the Web. Search, Browse and Discover the best how to videos across the web using the largest how to video index ...


  • Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the ...

    www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012

    Paranoid Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper of Burpelson Air Force Base, he believing that fluoridation of the American water supply is a Soviet plot to poison the U.S ...


  • How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008) - IMDb

    www.imdb.com/title/tt0455538

    Sidney Young is a disillusioned intellectual who both adores and despises the world of celebrity, fame and glamor. His alternative magazine, "Post Modern Review ...


  • CultureMap Dallas

    dallas.culturemap.com

    CultureMap Dallas is Dallas's daily digital magazine, the source for Dallas news on music, film, food, drink, arts, design, life, innovation, outdoors, fitness and ...


  • Caring Bridge - Connecting Friends & Family During a Health

    www.caringbridge.orgVisit Log In Sites

    CaringBridge allows you to connect with friends and family, using a personal, protected site. A protected CaringBridge site, is like a personalized social network for ...


  • West Angeles Online - A church on the move for God : West

    westangeleschurch.org

    Happy 4th of July. Bishop Charles E. Blake, Lady Mae and the entire West Angeles Family want to wish you a Happy 4th of July. If you are in the Los Angeles area, here ...


  • Unclutterer: Daily tips on how to organize your home and office.

    unclutterer.com

    Eliminate the clutter with Unclutterer, the blog about getting and staying organized.


  • How to create a Facebook business Page Facebook

    https://www.facebook.com/business/build

    There are over one billion people on Facebook. Learn how to reach the right audience for your business and turn them into customers.


  • How to raise a happy baby and child (birth to 12 mo.) BabyCenter

    www.babycenter.com Baby Behavior Behavior Basics

    Learn eight secrets to setting your child up for a lifetime of joy.


  • Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the ...

    www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012

    Paranoid Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper of Burpelson Air Force Base, he believing that fluoridation of the American water supply is a Soviet plot to poison the U.S ...


  • Hardee's Facebook

    https://www.facebook.com/Hardees

    Hardee's. 893,751 likes 9,376 talking about this 13,351 checkins.


  • Survival Seeds - The Survival Seed Bank Provides a Lifetime Food ...

    www.survivalseedbank.com

    New survival seed bank for survival gardening, lets you grow a permanent, full acre crisis garden with non-hybrid survival seeds.


  • HowStuffWorks "HomePage / Full URL for Mobile"

    www.howstuffworks.com/index

    science If the polar ice caps melted, how much would the oceans rise? Recent studies show that the Arctic ice caps originated when there was a drop in carbon dioxide ...


  • Webkinz Insider Forum

    www.webkinzinsider.com/forum

    Visit our forum for Webkinz Cheats, free Webkinz Codes, trading, recipes, tips, tricks, cheats, games strategies and webkins news!

  • Number

    www.lds.org/music/index/hymns/number?lang=eng

    English; Church Employment; Help; Rights and Use Information (Updated 2/21/2012) Privacy Policy (Updated 2/1/2012) 2013 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

  • Islam Question and Answer

    islamqa.info/en/search

    Pilgrim doing umrah in Ramadan not fasting if he has come from far away. When was prayer made obligatory? How did the Muslims pray before prayer was made ...

  • How To DeClutter Your Home

    decarlodeclutter.com

    How To DeClutter And Organize Your Home ... Did you do it? Did you take a good look at those amazing (and frightening) pictures?

  • EVANGELISM AND DISCIPLESHIP - How to Evangelize

    missionstraining.org/Evangelism/HowToEvangelize.html

    VIII. How to Evangelize: A. The Master Plan. The overall plan of evangelism is to conduct evangelistic training, pray, rely on the Holy ...

  • Take Action peta2.com - peta2 - The Largest Youth Animal Rights ...

    www.peta2.com/actions

    The True Face of Animal Testing! Photo by: Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals. Show your friends how products tested on animals REALLY look before ending up...

1 comment: