Hi there

I just started my favourite picture taking, portraiture. I love black and white and I have my own Dark Room. I have a starter gear of a Canon Elan IIe and three lenses. One 28-80 4-5.6, another is a 24 Wide angle lens and the third is a 100-300 4.5-5.6. I also have a professional flash which is the 540 EZ. I saved a lot of money to get myself started with something decent. My probelm is, I cannot wait to start taking good portraits and I want to find the best way no matter how hard it is to get the best outof my gear. I cannot afford a fixed 100 mm lens now but I know that I must be able to get good portraits with what I have, maybe?

What is the best combination of film, lens and lighting aid should I invlove to get some starter pictures. I already started some trials and the best combination was my 100-300 lens with a 400 ISO film. If I used the 28-80 with the 400 ISO, I get a lots of grain. I am an AGFA person so I prefer AGFA products over others. I didn't use any specific portrait film yet, any recommendation?

I would really appreciate any kind of feedback.

Maher Toronto, Canada

-- Maher EL-Dahouk (meldahouk@hotmail.com), November 27, 2000

Answers

Hi Maher, I think you are off to a good start, and you have plenty of gear. My recommendation is that you 'focus' your attention now on 'doing.' That is, keep taking portraits. Find out what works for you. Find out with what gear you are comfortable. Use 3, 6, 10 rolls during one session.

There are 'answers' to the questions you posed, but I think that when it comes down to the nitty gritty, it all depends on your vision, your style and your level of comfort. Some people like grainless portraits, others like grain, others like to use 35mm cameras, others medium or large format, still others might like pinhole cameras.

Be assured that all these 'systems' -in the right hands - will allow the photographer to take portraits that will knock your socks off.

My suggestion is to go out and immerse yourself in taking photos, processing film, making enlargements. Then you might have specific questions that will relate to a very specific situation, and for which there will be good answers on this forum.

Cheers -chris

-- Christian Harkness (chris.harkness@eudoramail.com), November 27, 2000.

hi there maher,

cool system you got... nice, i think the best lens to use on portraits are your 100-300mm lens with a lower ASA film, like ASA 100. used with a tripod. try experimenting with the combination, until it suits your style of shooting portraits, sometimes move closer and sometimes move farther, try different angles, move around till you see what you want to capture. and the best advice i could give is "shoot, shoot and shoot". =D try different appertures, film speed, etc.. have fun!

weird ems

-- weird ems (emeechua@tri-isys.com), November 27, 2000.

Hey again, I think Weird's response, with which I agree, is a good example of what I was talking about.

For example, I have come to return to my 50mm lens as my main portrait lens. I got away from the longer lenses because I don't like to work on a tripod with 35mm. Also I use very fast film with 90 percent of my work.

This does not make anybody 'right' or ''wrong.' These are just different ways of working. The more you photograph, the more you will find out what you like. You might also want to consider that if you do what 'everybody' does, then your photos might start looking like everybody's.

chris

-- Christian Harkness (chris.harkness@eudoramail.com), November 27, 2000.

The important elements are lighting, posing and processing. Proper lighting is crucial to a good portrait. Learn a little about makeup too. Almost all modeling sessions include a makeup person. You don't necassarily need floods and strobe lighting. But light intensity (power) makes it easier to control the lighting and you can use a finer grain film which makes for a smoother looking product. Window light is nice and very useful. You should have some reflectors handy to bounce it back into the subject as fill light. Get a good lighting for portraiture book. It makes it much easier to learn posing and lighting techniques that way. One thing I did was to get ahold of a professional portrait photographer and hang with him through a session to see how he worked. It was very educational. Good luck. James

-- james (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), November 27, 2000.

I think James is partially there. He gives prerequisites. However, the key to great portraiture is not about the equipment. It's about how you work with people, how you see them, how you know what they will look like on film with any equipment. Stop thinking about lenses and film, use what you have and are familiar with. I've never taken a portrait with a lens longer than "normal", and I don't think it's ever hurt the results.

The Story of Mexico, copyright 2000 Jeff Spirer
80mm lens on 6x7, unmodified interior lighting

-- Jeff Spirer (jeff@spirer.com), December 02, 2000.

Jeff, I really like that! You took maximum advantage of a busy background that would normally be viewed as difficult or a problem. Cool.

-- Conrad Hoffman (choffman@rpa.net), December 02, 2000.

In the ten years that I've been shooting portraits (five years professionally) I learned that working at the 'perfect portrait' requires working with your subject. Some portraits I consider 'perfect' do not suit my subjects' taste at all. And some I would be embarrased to show them turn out to be their favorites. Though as a photographer I'd like to believe that I can control a photographic situation with the proper equipment and technique, in the end I discover that controlling the aesthetic taste of your subject, is difficult if not impossible.

So I just try to enjoy shooting portraits and celebrate the instances when my taste and that of my subjects' converge. For the times when my subjects are not totally pleased, I work it out with them again till we are both satisfied. I still learn about portraiture from my subjects each day I work with them. And because of this, I still feel the thrill of the art as the first time I held my second-hand Olympus OM-1 with a 50 mm lens ten years ago.

In the course of my photography, I've used different focal lengths, different speed and type films and different light sources and setups. In the end, it will be your taste and that of your subject's that will tell you which combination equipment, techniques and materials is right for each situation. So don't worry too much about the technical matters and just enjoy your portraiture. The more you shoot the more you learn.

-- Jorge Andrada (glamour@mozcom.com), December 08, 2000.