Few underemphasized basics

We all see or know photographers who are quite exceptional at shooting portraits. We often term them "Pros." Here's my definition of a "Pro": A person who knows what he/she wants, and also knows how to do it fast. But there are many cases where even the said pros forget about literal basics. Here are a few of those basics that I believe every aspiring portrait photographer should keep in mind when out in the field.

Lens Distortion

aka., The Flattening Effect

Talking physics, we all know that the lens elements are curved, but the sensor inside the camera is flat. Because of this, the final unprocessed image will always be distorted; how much? That depends on the focal length, how close/far the subject is, and also the sensor size.

Because of this physical setback, you always have to keep in mind that while shooting portraits, you wouldn't want the subject's face/body distorted too much. Most portrait shooters (including myself) hate using focal lengths below 50mm solely because of this reason. Knowingly or unknowingly.

Here is a good demonstration by Pablo Riili (Instagram) on how focal length distorts the subject:

Focal Plane

Now assuming you understood the flattening effect, it is also vital to know about the focal plane. If you don't know what focal plane (or plane of focus or focus plane) is, this is going to be a little tricky to understand.

Theoretical definition: The vertical plane that is perpendicular to the camera's line of sight for which the camera's optics are adjusted to maintain details in that specific plane. I know, a little confusing. Let's slow down a little bit.

What's a plane? A flat surface, two dimensional.

Now, a focal plane? A vertical plane in front of the camera perpendicular to the camera's line of sight. Basically, a big wide rectangle sitting in front of your camera, virtually. Take a look at the following picture to understand it better.

But practically, the focal plane is never just two-dimensional. What's a rectangle in three dimensions? Cuboid! Well, the width of this cuboid always depends on how wide the aperture is. To give you a better idea, take a look at this:

So, when you talk about "focal plane" in photography, you are not actually talking about a two-dimensional plane, instead referring to a three-dimensional cuboid.

Now it is pretty essential to know how focal length and aperture impacts the focal plane. Two simple rules:

1. Wider aperture = narrower focal plane

2. Longer focal length = narrower focal plane

Given these two rules, when you think about it, it is quite hard to find the right combination of focal length and aperture maintaining the following goals:

1. Avoiding lens distortion

2. Keeping the subject in focus as a whole, i.e., maintaining a wide-enough focal plane

To keep it simple, here is a triangular graph that can help you understand the relation between the three entities, as mentioned earlier.

By the way, narrow focal planes give you dramatic bokeh. But if the focal plane is too thin, you might have parts of the subject out of focus. Especially for close-up face shots: you might often see parts of the face out of focus. I have pictures in which the eyes will be in focus, but the eyelashes entirely out of focus. Rookie mistakes.

The Lighting

• Never ever place a light source below the subject's face. 

Why? It's quite simple. We humans are used to see others' faces only with light sources placed above their heads. Until unless they are hanging upside down, or playing with flashlights in the dark. We are used to shadows casting downwards, and most people find it awful when they see the opposite.

• Know when to use key light and fill light. 

For people who don't know what key and fill lights are, you can know more here: (https://www.izzyvideo.com/three-point-lighting/). Combining both key and fill lights to create dramatic scenes is always awesome! But perfecting this is quite hard. The only way I do is trial-and-error. One thing to remember is to never place the light too close to the subject. You can often end up with harsh shadows and reflections in the subject's eyes. Also, if you are that person who uses "hair light" unnecessarily, please get some help.

Post Processing

• Selective Editing

I believe not everyone can nail the lighting in a picture. Speaking for myself, who almost always shoots using natural light (not even reflectors), the subject and the background can never be perfect (considering light). To counter this, I edit the subject and the background separately using Adobe Photoshop's "Quick Selection Tool" and taking advantage of layers. Also, this gives an added ability to make the background more dramatic without affecting the subject. But, again, make sure you don't over-do it.

• Skin Smoothening

We have to admit that most people don't have perfect skin/face. And in my opinion, it is not wrong to correct minor defects like blemishes or unnecessary facial hair. But doing it too much will always ruin a photo. Whichever technique you use to retouch (dodge-and-burn or Nik collection or manual patch tool), make sure the key features of the face stay crisp. By key features, I mean the eyes, eyebrows, eyelashes, lips, and feature lines near the nose and the jawline. Whenever I see a terrible skin retouch, I always laugh at it because it only reminds me of a mashed potato with googly eyes.

• Adding/removing elements

Removing elements is pretty straightforward. There are many many cases where you find something distracting in the background. An unnecessary object or a trash can or a person photobombing. I believe one should remove these unnecessary elements from a picture. I personally use "content-aware fill" in Photoshop.

Adding elements, on the other hand, can be quite interesting. Similar to skin smoothening, if elements are added unnecessarily, and against fundamental physics, it makes the photo look weird and awful. But if done right, this undividedly has the power to make a photograph look way more dramatic. Especially adding light-related elements, like light leaks, flares, and rays. I've seen too many people add the "sun" effect where they add a bright spot mimicking the sun. But... Not necessarily good looking. In fact, most photographs I came across appeared awful, maybe because I could tell that the spot is fake. Also, adding people into a photo is not very pleasing most of the time.

Questions? Don't agree with what I said? Shoot me an email! I want to know your perspective too.

Until then,
Stay curious, people!