Don’t Be Afraid to Get in Close

Another portrait tip: you don’t have to show a person’s entire face or head. Don’t
be afraid to crop them and get in close for a very personal shot.

You can get close either by standing physically close to the person or by standing
farther away and zooming in. However, as you’ll see in Chapter 6, these two
options produce very different images, so you’ll want to think about which approach
is right for your subject.
Remember That Your Knees Can Bend

It’s easy to forget about that third dimension that you can move in, and shoot all
of your shots while standing up. Don’t forget that you can bend your knees (or
even lie on the ground) to get a different angle. Getting down low is especially important
when shooting children and animals, since it puts you at a more personal,
eye-to-eye relationship with them.


Lead Your Subject

When shooting a portrait of someone who’s looking off-frame, consider leading
the subject. When someone is looking out of the frame, we’re more interested in
the space that’s in front of them than the space that’s behind them. Even if we can’t
see what it is they’re looking at, we still want to feel the extra space that sits in the
direction they’re looking.


Watch the Background

Don’t pay attention just to your subject; remember that they’re also standing
in front of something. Make sure there’s nothing “sticking out” of their head or
juxtaposed in a distracting way.



Watch Out for Backlighting

This is loosely related to the previous tip. Be careful about shooting your subject
in front of a brightly lit background, such as a window, or shooting into
the sun. Although sometimes you can use such an approach to great effect, for
simple snapshots you’ll get better results keeping a close eye on the backlight in
your shots. If you find yourself shooting someone in front of a window or bright
light, try to move them or yourself so that the light is not directly behind them.
The problem with bright lights in the background of a shot is that they confuse
the camera’s light meter. When a bright light appears in the background, the
camera meters to properly expose that bright light. This usually means the foreground
is left underexposed and appears too dark.

In Full Auto mode, the Rebel T1i should recognize such a situation and automatically
pop up the flash. The flash will serve to light up the foreground, creating a
more even exposure with the background.

You’ll learn more about metering, as well as other strategies for handling backlighting,
in Chapter 7. For now, even if you aren’t sure exactly how to handle such
a situation, at least start learning to recognize when you’re shooting in this type
of difficult lighting condition.


Understand Flash Range

While the flash on the T1i can do a good job of illuminating a subject, you have
to remember that it has a limited range. Anything beyond about 13 feet from the
camera will fall out of the flash’s range and not be illuminated at all. So, if you’re
standing at night across the street from a person or building and you shoot a picture
with the flash popped up, you’ll probably get a shot that’s completely black.
For this situation, flash is not the answer. Instead, you’ll need to employ some
low-light shooting strategies, which we’ll discuss in Chapter 7.

Cover Your Shot, or “One Shot Is Rarely Enough”

There’s one mistake that all beginning photographers make: they think an expert
photographer sees a scene or subject, determines how to best frame and expose
it, and then takes a picture of it. If you describe this process to an “expert” or
“professional” photographer, they’ll most likely laugh.

The fact is, even the most accomplished photographer rarely gets it right the first
time and so rarely shoots only one exposure of a subject. Instead, they work their
subject—something we’ll be talking about a lot through the rest of this book.
Very often, the only way to find the best composition or angle on a shot is to
move around. Get closer and farther, stand on your tiptoes, squat down low,
circle the object—and look through the viewfinder the whole time, and shoot
the whole time.

If you like, review your shots and try again. Often, photography is like sculpture.
You can’t see the finished shot right away. Instead, you have to “sculpt” the scene,
trying different vantage points until you find the angle that makes for the most
interesting composition and play of light, shadow, and color.


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