Mermaid Parade 2011 Photo Workshop

Well a fun day was had by all.  Great to be outside all day long on a glorious day, doing what I love to do most.

Tip for the day day is on aperture. What aperture should you use for portraiture?  For a head shot of a single person I generally like to open up to a wide f/stop to blur out my background. That's my preference because I like the look of it and find it particularly attractive and it makes for a stronger photograph. When used on women (who we have to be more careful with) it softens the face and complexion leaving the most important feature sharp which is the eyes. However, there are exceptions especially when you are shooting in crowds and where there are lots of people and different things happening such as at the Mermaid Parade, where I just did a workshop. In a situation like this, where you want to be flexible and spontaneous, you might want to choose to use a medium depth-of-field for a little more depth of field. When a situation arises and you have a little more time to to make a change and want to throw more of your background out-of-focus and again to get a stronger photo, open up your aperture, that is, providing you have the light. Again, in the studio I like to choose a shallow depth of field especially for women.  Studio lights can show imperfections and reveal too much. If the person is young and their complexion is good,  you have choices, but the older we get the more lines and imperfections we get on our faces and the more we notice them.  So, the photographer should be aware of this. When photographing more than one person you need a medium aperture to make sure your subjects are in focus. For children, more times then not because they can't hold still sometimes a choice of  a medium to small aperture is better.