What all I need to learn for studio portrait?

<p>Well I'm still a photography student but I'm curious and want to know everything for studio portrait photography. What skills and techniques should I have? Any other things to know in order to be a studio photographer? Tell me everything in number order.</p>

<p>1. Marketing & Business Plan<br>

2. Technical capabilities of equipment<br>

3. Creative lighting & posing<br>

4. Makeup & Styling - unless you hire a stylist<br>

5. Printing houses, characteristics, capabilities, prices</p>

<p>Studio lighting technique is important; lighting ratios, the classic portrait lighting patterns, knowledge of light modifiers, inverse square law, etc.. <br>

Posing techniques play a huge part in the studio; the ability to guide a subject to project the message you are trying to capture is an art in itself, I think. You may wish to research and study contrapossto in fine-art, which will define pleasing posture of the human form.<br>

Most of all, people skills and the ability to communicate with your subjects will help greatly in making successful portraits. <br>

All of these things are, of course, complex topics and you will not find any shortage of books, online resources, forum discussions, etc. on these matters. </p>

<p>talent to see and photograph people. </p>

Lighting and posing are the keys to great portraits. I think lighting is number one, the key to mastering great photo's. I'd buy

some books, even books from the 1960's show excellent lighting techniques. At 1 time I probably had about 100 books!

Don't go crazy as I did, but take studying seriously, sometimes more serious than college classes. Depends on your

teachers knowledge.

 

Some of the gear you will need for studio work are external strobes, (umbrellas, silver, white, and gold), backdrops, digital

backgrounds, green screens, reflectors, and soft boxes both large, light 3 to 6 feet and small ones.

 

In my opinion you will also need soft filters. I prefer the brand "Softar," 1/2 to 1 strength.

 

Buy as needed. Everything I've listed can add up to about $10,000 and more. Needless to say, keep up your skills with the

Photoshop products.

<p>Beginning Studio Portraiture Set-up:</p>

<p>I think just a simple, two-light set-up would get you off to a great start:</p>

<p>1. A single 3' or 5' octabox for your frontal key (octaboxes make pretty, round catchlights).<br /> 2. A single 2' x 3' (or thereabouts) softbox, or 1' x 3' (or thereabouts) striplight with a fabric eggcrate for your backlight.<br /> 3. Two, 200 Watt-second AC-monolights (200Ws is just about the right power for most home studios).<br /> 4. Four 8-foot light stands.<br /> 5. Two grip-heads (place upside-down on two of the light stands to create a backdrop system).<br /> 6. A 10' length of 1/2" electrical conduit (holds a roll of 9' seamless paper).<br /> 7. A roll of gray seamless paper (Savage's "fashion gray" is a nice, neutral light-gray).<br>

8. Four 15-lb. sand- or shot-bags.</p>

<p>To avoid needing a second frontal source as a fill, start off by keeping your main key nearer to camera (i.e., near center). Just don't place your key too far off-axis. I think this is one of the most common problems people have when starting out--attempting to elicit too much modeling by placing the key too far to the right or left of camera.</p>

<p>In fact, as evidenced by so much of fashion and beauty being shot with the key directly over the lens (so-called "butterfly lighting," because its characteristic nose-shadow resembles the shape of a butterfly), a centered-key (or near-centered) is virtually a sure-fire recipe for great results right off the bat without a lot of fuss. Sure, you can move off-axis a bit to create some shadow, but just be careful not to overdo it.</p>

<p>If you can't afford to get two strobes and two softboxes right away, just start off with one. I think you'll learn fastest, and will be better able to internalize the knowledge by doing: Start with an adequately sized softbox for your frontal key, and begin with the key centered, over your lens (or, slightly off-center if using a larger softbox and need to fit you and your camera under/beside it), and set the mid-point of the softbox positioned about two feet above your subject's eyeline. Then, also try varying its placement off-axis up to about 30 degrees (but no more). Find a willing subject and, shoot, shoot, shoot. A large, single key can do a lot all by itself (a gridded 2' x 3' softbox was also used as a backlight in the image below, but no fill-source or reflector was used):</p>

<p>Single-key example:</p>

<p><img src="http://studio460.com/images/elinchrom69-J2.png" alt="" /> <br /> Nikon D3s + AF-S Nikkor 85mm f/1.4G; ISO: 100; f/2.8 @ 1/200th.<br /> Elinchrom ELC Pro HD 500 @ minimum power (7 Watt-seconds) + Elinchrom 69" octa + frosted deflector.<br /> Background: Savage "Thunder Gray."</p>

<p>Of course you need to learn technique and you have been given some good advice above.<br>

Here is a link to a guide to relating to your subjects, a part of the art of portraiture which in my opinion is far more important and often overlooked:<br>

<a href="http://strobist.blogspot.dk/2012/08/on-photographing-people-pt-1.html">http://strobist.blogspot.dk/2012/08/on-photographing-people-pt-1.html</a><br>

You have to realise though, that if learning portrait photography were just five or ten easy steps, many more people would do it. To become outstanding, a lot of work and thought is required.</p>

All the best high $$ portrait guys I knew/know had fantastic concept of the shot they wanted to make. They had a quick

way of operating not wasting a lot of time with useless shots. They had great technique. Some ran their own business,

others had someone with better business sense do it with them.

<p>1) Craft: Learn everything you possibly can about light including how it works and why; then learn about optics and cameras.<br /> 2) Learn to love people and show it, no matter what. Literally "Be Happy" and let others feel it; it's usually contagious and when it's not do not catch the mal-titude.<br /> 3) If you need to use money then learn how it works, just like your camera and the light you use; take business and investment courses.<br /> 4) At some point you will either find your success is based on your own creativity or derivative work; relax, embrace the truth and run with it. Eventually you may have kids to put through college or a wife or husband who wants regular vacations, and you can always adopt a hobby.</p>