Zoom in close and make your images look like the pros!

Here is a good Tuesday night photography tip, next time you shoot a friend, relative, model or whoever, get in real close for a very personal shot! Its nice to photograph people from the waist up as most people do, but sometimes its nice to zoom in close and take a tight crop picture. In the picture to the left, I zoomed in and made sure to fill up the viewfinder with her face. She had cute curly short hair and very little makeup, I wanted to show her naturally beautiful face and the only way to do it is to get in close.

Taken at a wide open 2.8 aperture setting, it allowed me to blur out the background, I used my 80-200mm AF-D 2.8 lens (Nikons’ new version is the 70-200mm lens, at a later post I’ll go over Nikon lenses and my thoughts on them).

The angle I thought was also great, having her look over her right shoulder gave it a special touch. Its as if I caught her in the middle of a thought or about to say something.

I also like the second image, which shows her more playful side and a little more of her body. This picture is what most people would take and of course are accustomed to viewing. Compare it to the first image with the tight crop and you can see how each have their own special features. Photography isn’t only about having the most expensive or latest photo equipment, its about creating images that tell a story, at least that’s how I view each project.

With the second image, I zoomed in to 105mm and again used a wide open aperture of 2.8, if you try this, be sure you are far enough so she is in full focus, use your aperture preview button to make sure every part of her is in focus.

Overall I think the picture is fine but not as personal as the close up image above. As a photographer, you should experiment to see what works for you.