Child Portraiture | Extreme Close-Up | Expressive Portraiture

© 2011 Wazari Wazir | Portrait of My Son | Extreme Close Up | Expressive Portraiture

“If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough”

– Robert Capa –

Extreme portrait shot of my son above were taken with my favorite 50mm lens shoot at ISO 200 at n aperture of f2, I just add the grain in Photoshop to make it look like film effect. I rarely shoot my son picture at Higher ISO, unless I don’t have much choice like in the book store for an example where the light is quite dim. This is a crop version from the actual photograph where full head and shoulder were in the frame but I cropped it tight in the Photoshop.

I’ve always like extreme portrait photograph of my son, where I can see deep inside his curious innocent eyes and wondering what’s he’s thinking. If you like to get an extreme photograph like this one or just tight head and shoulder shot and shooting at wide open aperture like what I’m using here, which is taken at f2, please pay a very close attention to the shutter speed that you use. I use a shutter seed of 1/640 for this shot, the reason why I have to use this fast shutter is speed is to make sure that I nail the shot and  to make sure I get a sharp picture.

To the novice, you might be wondering what’s the relation between hight shutter speed and image sharpness, it is very simple, if we use slow shutter speed like below 1/100, like if we are using 1/60 and shooting a portrait  at wide open aperture at f2 handheld, then the potentioal to get a blurry picture is high because depending on the individual handling the camera, when we press the shutter button, whether we like it or not, the camera will “jerk” or “shake” a bit, so by using fast shutter speed, we can prevent the picture from getting blur. So don’t be surprise if you have focus your subject so nicely, so sharp but in the end you get a blurry picture when you view it in your camera LCD. The problem might be that you are using a slow shutter speed, just for a guide and this one also depending on the individual, I rarely use shutter speed below 1/100 when using 50mm at wide open aperture just to be on the safe side.

Extreme close-up for portraiture is a great way to really get intimate and personal with your subject, do not be afraid to get really close to your subject, be it your very own child or a total stranger. A photograph shooting at a close range is more powerful than a photograph taken with long lens where the subject still look “Big” in the frame but loose the “intimacy” factor.

I’ve to agree with what Robert Capa The Most Famous War Photographer of 20th Century where he said “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough”. True enough.

* About the editing for the photograph above, you might wanted to check The Photoshop Tone eBook