Hi all, I have been asked by a friend to photograph the family. One small problem...I don't do people so i need some help. I will be using the 50D the nifty 50 and prob the 70-200. All will be handheld. I will be shooting RAW and jpeg. What style should i use that will give the best skin tones. There are 3 people, should i use multiple focus points or just 1. If just 1 who should i focus on? Any tricks will be much appreciated thanks!
Shoot RAW and adjust in post using a calibrated monitor...that should do it As for posing, it depends on how tall, small, wide, thin, old the subjects are and their relation to each other. Other than that it's hard to give any other tips. Perhaps posting in the people forum would serve you a bit better?
if you have a white bal card (or even a pure white towel or something in a pinch) take a few shots with that where the family was standing. It may help you fix any white balance issues in post.
Bring a gray card and in each lighting situation get one shot with someone holding the gray card. Skin tones are far more color critical than landscapes.
Gray card is a good idea for process control. Belt and suspenders approach is to use the card to set Custom WB. As a starting baseline I put the camera in "daylight" WB, shoot the card filling the center circle, then selecting that frame via the menu set Custom WB. Then I shoot the card again with Custom WB. That gives me several data points: 1) a shot showing the color of the lighting relative to daylight, and 2) an image that should measure R=G=B with the eye dropper and look neutral on my monitor when opened. The Custom WB tag in the file header controls display on the monitor.
Click the WWW button below and you'll find a ream of tutorials on how to flatter people in portraits on my tutorial site. It starts with orienting the face to the light so it hits both eyes and don't cast a distracting nose shadow, then moving around the nicely lit face with the camera to find the most flattering angle...
With artificial light just reverse the process. Look at the face from profile-to-profile to find the most flattering angle to the camera, them move the key light about 45 degrees from the nose and above the eye line where it will reach both eyes and not cast a distracting nose shadow.
If you look through the lens and see the nose holes the camera is usually too low. The view is much more flattering when camera position is above the eye line of the subject. For that reason I don't recommend a tripod unless the subjects are seated because it will put the camera too low and you will not be able to react to subject movement to find the most flattering camera angle to the face.
A trick I use for heavy subjects or those with loose jowls is to stand on a chair and have them look up at me. The stretches the neck skin, but keeps the face/camera relationship the same as eye level. Outdoors, even in indirect light, the high angle of the light will cause the brow to shade the sockets. Do the same thing: get the camera above the subjects and have them lookup so the same light that hits the cheeks reaches the eyes.
Shooting distance controls perspective. The "wide angle" distortion of faces is caused by shooting close, not the focal length of the lens. I find 7-8ft flattering for most faces. Very thin/narrow ones are flattered more by shooting from further away. When the camera gets closer than 6ft. the nearer nose starts to get exaggerated.
Try this: Take your nifty 50 and shoot the same face from 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 ft. Then in Photoshop scale and crop the photos so the heads are all the same size. Compare how the distance changes the appearance of the face.
So when shooting find the most flattering angle and distance, then select focal length to get the desired crop in camera. Given the choice between shooting wider and cropping later, versus cropping in camera and winding up closer with less flattering perspective, I'd opt for the former.
As for posing, it depends on how tall, small, wide, thin, old the subjects are and their relation to each other. Other than that it's hard to give any other tips. Perhaps posting in the people forum would serve you a bit better?