How to Create High-impact Portraits
Standard thinking about camera lenses when it comes to taking pictures of people is that you want a short telephoto for studies of individuals and wide-angles for groups and environmental portraits. And while there’s a lot to be said for this tried and tested approach, it’s hardly a recipe for creating exciting images. On a digital compact with a zoom using the middle of the range will produce full-body and head-and-shoulders compositions with natural perspective. With a digital SLR camera, bear in mind that all but the most expensive models have a digital magnification factor of 1.6x, so a 28-80mm zoom becomes an effective 45-128mm, which is ideal for pleasing, flattering pictures of people. But unless they’re particularly photogenic – or the situation is interesting in some other way – the results can often be rather bland.
We’re in the middle of a period of huge innovation and technological development. Digital cameras are becoming smaller, faster, cheaper and more sophisticated by the day. Which is why the Samsung Digimax U-CA 4 is a bit disappointing. It checks all the boxes but doesn’t offer any single feature that’s likely to make it stand out in an increasingly crowded marketplace. So let’s take a look at what this camera has to offer.
Photographers place a lot of value on sharp focusing and countless shots never see the light of day because of soft or inaccurate focusing. While failing to record the main focal points sharply is frowned upon, it’s generally acceptable for other parts of a shot to be out of focus. Indeed, photographers often use extremely shallow depth of field to blur everything behind or in front of the focal point. This really emphasizes the sharp areas of the subject. Though you don’t often see photos that buck the trend and defocus the focal point to deliberately, it can produce some unique images. Use it to give your images for dreamy, mysterious or sinister quality; as a cunning way to mask your subject’s identity; or simply to create an eye-catching abstract study.