What exactly is a Portrait? Most often it means a photo of a person from the shoulders up where the shoulders fill most of the frame, and the frame itself is longer than it is wide (eg. your camera is positioned vertically). So you are trying to capture a person’s upper body in such a way to provide detail and interest in the frame, without including too much detail about them. A cosplayer spends a lot of time on the upper body of the costume whether they realize it or not. That means it is a good area to focus on.

With a nice portrait, you are capturing their face as well as the nicest area of their costume. One of the greatest benefits of portraiture from a photographer’s point of view is that there are a multitude of quality lenses out there specifically designed to take these types of images. Those being 50 – 85mm lenses with exceptionally large apertures that are great at producing nice blurry backgrounds. With a good angle, arrangement of the subject, and quality lens; portraits are the “money shot” of convention photography and easy to accomplish in almost any setting regardless of crowds, space constraints, or available light.

Let’s talk about your subject now. How should you position them, or rather in a time constrained setting, where should you stand to maximize the quality of your photo? You want to see as much of their costume as possible, yet don’t want to image to appear flat. That means their shoulders should be angled toward you, but not extremely so. Most portraits have the subject looking directly at the camera, but don’t shy away from experimenting with the direction of their face and eyes. Make the type of shot you want to make within the constrains of what can be considered a portrait pose.
- Overview
- Who is this for?
- What is convention photography?
- My experience and experiences
- Why be a part of this?
- Practice, practice, practice!
- Networking
- Fun
- Photography terms primer.
- Equipment
- It is important or not depending on your ideals
- A basic setup.
- Decide how you want to make it work.
- Framing and composition
- Full body shots.
- Portrait style.
- Skewed angles.
- Face in detail.
- Plane of focus.
- Rule of thirds and golden ratio
- Available light photography.
- Strobe photography.
- Removing harsh light.
- Flash brackets.
- Bokeh and blur maximization.
- Histogram reading and image review.
- Post processing.
- Various schools of thought.
- Available software on your OS of choice.
- Ideas on how to improve your processing.
- Business cards.
- Social networking.
- Website
- The process from start to finish.
- My equipment.
- Ask the person first.
- Interrupting people.
- Constrained areas.
- Physical activity.
- Summary