How to take pictures of people?

[SFDMALEX]

Well I tried to take some family pics with the Kodak but people just dont come out as they look in real life :(

First of all skin tone. Everyone comes out pale white. Now my ass might not be tan but my sister still has some of that dominican tan on her and she comes out pale too. So how do I deal with that?


And secodnly I see things on peoples faces that I never saw before hehe, every singles imperfection everthing is visible....would be nice not to see every dimple tiny pimple and such..............


Any tips?

[skituner]

a little photoshop level adjustments should fix that

[Zot09]

The pale-ness could be the flash on the skin, but if that were the case most imperfections would be invisible. Are you able to adjust color temp on your camera? The imperfections may be visible due to the lighting conditions. Do they always show, or is it just under certain conditions?

[antonioledesma]

imperfections can be solved with lower res, make-up and/or photoshop.

Try other ways to iluminate your model: use a lamp and cover the light bulb with a white paper, if your light bulb is incandescent and is yellow.

your camera needs to get more light into the the chip to get every detail and pixel available. So, because of this it always tries to use the flash.

experiment with different settings, scenarios, etc and with time you'll get the hang of it

[SFDMALEX]

THanks guys, I still got a lot to learn with this.


I think lighting is the biggest issue, Im taking these pics at home at night and my light bulbs arent that bright, and all I get is pretty much the light flash of the camera making everything super light.

[antonioledesma]

how many watts do your light bulbs have? 60, 75, 100W id they're incandescent or 20-40 if they are of white light???

[SFDMALEX]

how many watts do your light bulbs have? 60, 75, 100W id they're incandescent or 20-40 if they are of white light???

ahhh damn in the room that I was taken them they one 100 watt, but 100watt here is as light as a 100watt in europe........so its pretty dark.
And they are incandescent.

Dunno the rest mate. Just a transparent 100watt light bulb.

[antonioledesma]

those light bulbs are the worst ones you can use for pictures, that's why no serious pro photographer uses those
but you could manage to correct the color's percentage in your camera or photoshop.

try to take 2 pics with the same person. Only change the light bulb and you'll notice a huge difference.

[SFDMALEX]

Cheers mate! What do you recomend? Those white light bubls? I can pick up some of those for picture taking purposes.

[antonioledesma]

those are better, but if you choose a not very bright one, your pics will come with a green tone :mrgreen:

find any lightbulb or arrangement that gives you at least 5000 K (Kelvin)
http://www.homedepot.com/HDUS/EN_US/energy/en_learn_fluorbulbs.html

[nthfinity]

i have a recomendation for your flash... it ought to correct some of the issues you're having

tape a piece of tissue puffed around the flash... it diffused the light and ends up lighting things more evenenly, and doesnt burn so much paleness into the image.

if you are 'trying' to take photos... outdoors in the morning/evening always produces the nicest colors

[TT]

As far as I experienced, built in flashes are crap :bah: so either you get some better lamps around you, either you shoot outisde ;) sadly the best option would be to use external "pro" flashes, but your camera can't have them I suppose :(

[MartijnGizmo]

As far as I experienced, built in flashes are crap :bah: so either you get some better lamps around you, either you shoot outisde ;) sadly the best option would be to use external "pro" flashes, but your camera can't have them I suppose :(

Exactly. The lack of built in flashes on pro models tells us enough about their quality.

[dutchmasterflex]

SFDMALEX, in photography, lighting is everything. All you are doing is capturing the light being reflected off objects.

Try adjusting the flash levels on your camera. You should be able to set it at like -2 to +2 (- dimmer + brighter flash)

Also, turn flash on and put it in manual mode. Play with the apeture settings