The idea I had in mind for the final product was to have single faces nearly filling the frame with beautiful bokeh as the background. Before leaving my apartment, I fixed my camera settings for that portrait style.
ISO: 100 – I’m shot in the daytime, and unless it was unusually dark outside ISO 100 worked fine. And it allowed for a wide aperture.
Aperture: f/2.0 – I needed to keep my lens fairly wide open in order to achieve nice bokeh. I could stop down to f/1.8, but I would lose a tiny bit of depth-of-field. From experience, I know f/2.0 will give me enough DoF to cover the front of the model’s face.
Shutter Speed: 1/125 – 1/200 – I would meter all the models before shooting a frame. I’d simply set my meter to ISO 100, f/2.0 and see what Shutter Speed I should be at. Most shots during the day came out somewhere between 1/125 – 1/200.
WB: Auto – Even though I’m not a fan of Auto White Balance, I used it for these shots. I did that because one shot would be in shade while the next could be in direct sunlight. And the final product was going to be in black and white anyway, making white balance less important.
Lens: 85mm f/1.8 – I could have used my 50mm f/1.4 but I haven’t had a real chance to play with the 85mm for portraits yet, so I chose it instead. If you have any L-series glass, I highly recommend using it for these shots. The quality will definitely be worth the aperture sacrifice, if your lens is f/2.8+. 85mm-135mm lens (on a full-frame camera) are also traditional focal lengths for portraits.
Camera: Canon 7D – Camera doesn’t matter much for these types of shots, the priority lies on the lens when it comes to hardware. I’ll be using CameraRaw techniques, so if your camera doesn’t support Raw you will have to improvise a little.
Shutter Speed:10/600 second
Aperture:F/4.5
Focal Length:34 mm
ISO Speed:1600
Aperture:F/4.5
Focal Length:34 mm
ISO Speed:1600
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