The work of a photographer only seems simple. From the outside, it seems that you only need to press a button and get high-quality footage at the output. But in fact, this is a real work, which involves not only a constant assessment of the light, color and composition of the frame, but also the subsequent processing, which takes a lot of time.
In order for the portrait to turn out to be of high quality and beautiful from the aesthetic side of the issue, you need a portrait lens. Usually lenses with a focal length of 50mm, 85mm or 105mm are used for these purposes. It is they who give a beautiful picture and a gentle blurred background behind the main character.
Another important point is how far open the lens aperture is. The main thing to remember is the more you open it, the less depth of field you get in the frame. This information is very important when placing characters in the frame.
If we are shooting only one person and want to get a beautiful backdrop, open the aperture as much as possible. Nikon lens with a focal length of 85mm allows you to open the aperture by 1, 4. At the same time, the background is completely blurred. But remember about the depth of field - since it is extremely small, the sharply depicted space is no more than 10 cm, with a shooting distance of 85 cm. Therefore, focusing should be done exactly in front of the model's eyes. If you use a zoom lens and not a portrait lens, it's okay and you can get a high-quality shot. We unscrew it to the focal length we need: 50mm, 85mm, and then open the aperture to the maximum - usually 2, 8 or 3, 5. Next, select the appropriate ISO (the lower the value, the less noise we get in the frame), and the shutter speed, which will actually shoot without a tripod.
When shooting a family portrait, the focal length can be chosen even less, but the aperture will have to be closed. With a very shallow depth of field, not all heroes of the shooting can fall into a part of the sharply depicted space, therefore it is best to shoot a family portrait with a closed aperture of 3, 5 - 5, 6. The background will be clearer, but all models will get clear outlines, which is case is more important.
