Shooting People! (in Portrait Mode)

I admit, I like shooting people, with my camera.  Portrait Mode is for much more than just people though…

When you set your camera to Portrait Mode, usually indicated with a profile view of  a head, you’re telling your camera that you want to blur the background and foreground of your photograph while keeping your subject in focus.  This is a great mode anytime you are trying to isolate your subject and create separation from your subject and the background.

Don’t think of Portrait Mode just for photographing living subjects, think of how this mode with affect your photo.  If you were shooting a large group of people, using Portrait Mode would blur-out some of the people in the group because this mode uses a low f/stop number for shallow depth-of-field, whereas Landscape or Scenic Mode would be a better selection for a large group of multiple subjects.  Portrait Mode is best used for single subjects, whether it’s a person, a flower, or any object that you want to showcase in your photo.

To better accentuate the blurring of the background, try backing-up from your subject and using your zoom to compose your photo.  Trying to blur the background while your camera’s zoom is set to wide angle makes it difficult to create the separation of subject and background.  Zooming, and then composing, will not only help to blur the background, but narrow your field-of-view as well, bringing even more attention to the subject of your portrait, whether that happens to be of a person or not.

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