DIY Portraits

Taking Your Own Family Photos

I love pictures...pictures of me, my family, my friends, and others. I simply cannot afford to hire a professional photographer every time  I need to update the portraits in my living room and my profile pictures for social networking sites. When you're broke (like me) and on a very unpredictable schedule (also like me), you learn to take your own portraits. I have owned (and have been learning to use) a DSLR camera for the past 10 years. I know, I'm only 25, that means that I've been doing this since I was 15. I do have some equipment that most amateur photographers do not own, but hopefully I can help those of you who are just starting out, learn a little more about how to take some better looking photos of your loved ones.

 This is one of the most recent photos taken of me and my husband.

What you'll need:

1. A tripod. This will be necessary if you are doing this without the help of someone that you do not want in the photo. And it will be particularly helpful if you are very particular about how you want your photo composed and framed.

2. A DSLR camera is preferred, but you can get good quality photos from a point-and-shoot or even a smart phone.

What would make it even better (these things are optional):

1. A reflector. This will help balance and even the light, but can be difficult to use when taking photos of yourself.

2. A remote to control your camera. It is easier than using a timer and running and is particularly helpful in groups when you need more than one continuous shot. But it can be difficult to hide said remote if your hands will be showing in the photo.

3. Some sort of off-camera flash, and gels if you'll be shooting in lighting conditions that are not exactly white.

4. A polarized filter if you will be shooting in bright sunlight.

There are lots of things that can make a photo better, but most of these things are not used by amateur photographers, sometimes not even by professional photographers (because they're not needed in all situations, or because can be difficult to carry around). During the photoshoot in the picture above, I only used the first two necessary things. There are times when I use the extras, but you can get great photos without them.

Please remember that I am writing this tutorial from one amateur photographer to another. Though I have been playing around with DSLR cameras for a long time, I am not a professional, and I have never had any formal training. With that out of the way I'll explain some of the first things that I learned when transitioning out of Auto mode. And hopefully it will explain why the above photo is over-exposed.

1. There are three settings on your camera that are the most important settings when it comes to exposure. Those thing are ISO, shutter speed, and aperture.

 The ISO is like the film speed on film cameras. The higher these numbers, the lighter you photos will be, but they will also get grainier. I usually keep mine below 800 even at night unless it is absolutely necessary to set it higher.

The shutter speed is the amount of time the shutter stays open. The longer it stays open, the brighter the pictures. It is best not to make this number any lower than the focal length of your lens. When I'm shooting with a 50mm prime lens, like the one in the photo above, I try to keep the shutter speed to about 1/60 (one sixtieth of a second) or faster. If you have to make it slower and tripod will come in handy. Try not to make it too slow with moving subjects, like people and pets.

The aperture is the amount of light that a camera lets in when the shutter is open. It is the size of the opening that lets light in. The smaller that number, the lighter the photo will be, but less of the photo will be in focus. If you want blurry backgrounds keep the numbers fairly low. I believe that the aperture in the photos above is around 4.

2. Once you get all of those settings working together to create the perfect exposure, you can shift your concern to the color of your photo. I'm talking about white balance. I like to use custom white balance, but that is not always necessary. Your camera should have several preset white balances and

Here is a perfect example of a photo that had the incorrect white balance. I took this photo a few years ago and tried to fix the white balance in post processing, but it is still not perfect. Make sure to practice with white balance and see what works best for you. High numbers will make your photo look warmer (more orange and red) and low numbers will make it look cooler (more blue and purple). Make sure to use a setting like tungsten or a really low number when taking photos using indoor light. You don't want them to look orange.

3. Another thing that is really important to getting a good, sharp photo is focus (which is also a problem in the photo above). When you look in your camera's view-finder, you'll see a bunch of small rectangles, squares, or dots. These are focal points. When working in manual, you can move a cursor around to select one of these focal points. When taking photos of people it is important that the selected focal point be directly on the subject's eye. This is usually where we want to focus. That should make that point the sharpest part of the photo. If you're having difficulty focusing on the exact spot that you want, try turning the aperture up slightly, it'll give you a broader depth of field.

4. Lighting is probably the most important part of a great photo. All of my favorite photos have great lighting, but it can be difficult to understand. It comes from one direction, bounces off of nearly everything and goes another direction, picking up colors to cast on your skin along the way. When you first start working with natural light, it is probably best not to shoot in direct sunlight. If you really want the look of sunlight in your pictures, start by taking photographs during the sunset and the hours just before and after.    

For the picture above, it was a bright, HOT, and sunny day. To get softer light my husband and I stood under a tree. I set the camera on a tripod, set the timer, and ran. You can see that the background is overexposed, but we, the subjects, are not.

Another helpful tip when you're shooting in direct sunlight is to face your subjects away from the sun. This is where an off camera flash or reflector come in handy. Make sure that your subjects, who are shadowed by the sun, are properly exposed.

That is what you need to know to get started in your photography adventures. I'll post more tutorials from a beginner for beginners on how to get photos like the ones below. Thanks for reading!

A little sensual ;) It'll be a tutorial on experimenting with lighting and working indoors.

On lighting and getting that blurry background and flowing water.

Finding the light and post processing.

Using off-camera flash and lighting set-ups.