{"id":113847,"date":"2017-11-23T16:31:53","date_gmt":"2017-11-23T16:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amateurphotographer.co.uk\/?p=113847"},"modified":"2017-12-20T08:34:06","modified_gmt":"2017-12-20T08:34:06","slug":"five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/","title":{"rendered":"Five ways to shoot portraits that pop"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even if you are not that familiar with his name, there’s a good chance you have seen the work of Drew Gardner. This internationally acclaimed portrait and location photographer has worked extensively for a range of advertising clients, as well as doing editorial work for some of the biggest magazines in the world \u2013 from GQ to The Observer. AP<\/em> caught up with Drew for his insider tips on how to take portraits that pack a punch.<\/p>\n

\n

1. Plan, plan and plan some more<\/h2>\n\"\"\n

\u201cI have been taking portraits professionally for about 40 years now and as I say in my lectures, if anybody shows you a rulebook of photography, throw it away,\u201d Drew notes wryly. \u201cHaving said that, I have a pretty good idea of how I am going to approach a portrait assignment as I like to thoroughly research the person I am photographing, and where I will be working.\u201d<\/p>\n

He cites the example of his highly acclaimed portraits with US golf legend Tom Watson for Sports Illustrated<\/em> magazine. \u201cI practiced everything in my back garden, and worked out how I was going to use the camera, what lighting I was going to use, which ND filter and so on.\u201d As Drew notes, careful planning can make all the difference when you have limited time with a big name, which is usually the case.<\/p>\n

\n

2. Shoot wide<\/h2>\n\"\"\n

Drew is a big fan of shallow depth of field, an effect he also used to make his portrait of Tom Watson really stand out. \u201cThey told me to just do my thing, which is music to any photographer’s ears. So I came up with this idea of a full-on portrait, taken at a very wide aperture of f\/1.4, to really capture the soul of the man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

3. Focus carefully<\/h2>\n\"\"\n

Wide aperture portraits with a narrow depth of field requires careful focussing, as Drew explains, and it\u2019s absolutely essential if you are using a high-quality manual focus lens, such as the ZEISS Otus range<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to focussing at very wide apertures, I use Live View on the back of the camera, particularly if it’s full frame. I can zoom 10x into the eye and get it exactly sharp. It’s a different way of working than looking through a conventional viewfinder, but very interesting. You can also get sharper pictures with manual focus, but this comes down to practice and familiarity with your lenses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

4. Use the best possible lenses<\/h2>\n\"\"\n

On the subject of lenses, Drew swears by ZEISS glass, and is a particular fan of the Otus prime lenses. \u201cI was sceptical at first when people said ZEISS bring a medium format-style look to D-SLRs, but they really do. Otus lenses also have an almost 3D quality and deliver fantastic bite and contrast. You can tell an image was taken on an Otus lens even if you see it on a monitor as you pass by, they really do jump out at you.<\/p>\n

“When you work at very wide apertures, as I like to do, you really appreciate the quality of a lens.\u201d He is consistently fond of the 85mm focal length. \u201cI argue about this with other photographers over a pint but I reckon 85mm is pretty much the ultimate focal length for portraits.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

5. Make the camera invisible – and obsess about light<\/h2>\n\"\"\n

\u201cTry and make the camera disappear \u2013 to become so familiar with the camera that you change lenses or memory cards without having to look at it, and know exactly where a menu setting is,\u201d Drew explains. \u201cYour destiny comes down to familiarity with your equipment.\u201d Drew takes a similar approach to working with light, and practices taking ‘mental pictures’ all the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI constantly take photos in my mind\u2019s eye, even when driving the car or taking the kids to school. Yes I am mentally working out the camera settings I would need, but I am also trying to get a good feeling for how light falls, so I am ready to make the most of that situation in the future. When you see a billboard, think ‘how did they get that picture?\u2019 Was it taken on an overcast or sunny day? Did they use a softbox, brolly, or hardlight? When you are able to ‘decode’ the light, that is when the magic happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Drew\u2019s favourite kit<\/h1>\n\n\n\n\n
\n

Canon EOS 6D II<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/td>\n

\n

ZEISS Otus f\/1.4 85mm<\/a><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

ZEISS Otus f\/1.4 55mm<\/a><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n

\n

Fujifilm X-T2<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

\n

\"\"For more on Drew and his work, see www.drewgardner.com<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even if you are not that familiar with his name, there’s a good chance you have seen the work of Drew Gardner. This internationally acclaimed portrait and location photographer has worked extensively for a range of advertising clients, as well as doing editorial work for some of the biggest magazines in the world \u2013 from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2745,"featured_media":113850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[793,498],"product-category":[],"class_list":["post-113847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-photo-news","tag-portrait-photography","tag-zeiss"],"yoast_head":"\nFive ways to shoot portraits that pop - Amateur Photographer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Five ways to shoot portraits that pop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Even if you are not that familiar with his name, there’s a good chance you have seen the work of Drew Gardner. This internationally acclaimed portrait and location photographer has worked extensively for a range of advertising clients, as well as doing editorial work for some of the biggest magazines in the world \u2013 from […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Amateur Photographer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Amateur.photographer.magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-11-23T16:31:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-12-20T08:34:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2017\/11\/Screen-Shot-2017-12-20-at-08.33.15.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1250\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"806\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AP_Magazine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AP_Magazine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Five ways to shoot portraits that pop\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-11-23T16:31:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-12-20T08:34:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/\"},\"wordCount\":756,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2017\/11\/360_barrowhill-201.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"portrait photography\",\"Zeiss\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Latest news\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/\",\"name\":\"Five ways to shoot portraits that pop - Amateur Photographer\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2017\/11\/360_barrowhill-201.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-11-23T16:31:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-12-20T08:34:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2017\/11\/360_barrowhill-201.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2017\/11\/360_barrowhill-201.jpg\",\"width\":5472,\"height\":3648},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Latest\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Latest news\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Five ways to shoot portraits that pop\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/\",\"name\":\"Amateur Photographer\",\"description\":\"The world's number 1 weekly photo magazine\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/author\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Five ways to shoot portraits that pop - Amateur Photographer","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Five ways to shoot portraits that pop","og_description":"Even if you are not that familiar with his name, there’s a good chance you have seen the work of Drew Gardner. This internationally acclaimed portrait and location photographer has worked extensively for a range of advertising clients, as well as doing editorial work for some of the biggest magazines in the world \u2013 from […]","og_url":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/","og_site_name":"Amateur Photographer","article_publisher":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Amateur.photographer.magazine","article_published_time":"2017-11-23T16:31:53+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-12-20T08:34:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1250,"height":806,"url":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2017\/11\/Screen-Shot-2017-12-20-at-08.33.15.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AP_Magazine","twitter_site":"@AP_Magazine","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Five ways to shoot portraits that pop","datePublished":"2017-11-23T16:31:53+00:00","dateModified":"2017-12-20T08:34:06+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/"},"wordCount":756,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2017\/11\/360_barrowhill-201.jpg","keywords":["portrait photography","Zeiss"],"articleSection":["Latest news"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/","url":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/","name":"Five ways to shoot portraits that pop - Amateur Photographer","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2017\/11\/360_barrowhill-201.jpg","datePublished":"2017-11-23T16:31:53+00:00","dateModified":"2017-12-20T08:34:06+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2017\/11\/360_barrowhill-201.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2017\/11\/360_barrowhill-201.jpg","width":5472,"height":3648},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/five-ways-shoot-portraits-pop\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Latest","item":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Latest news","item":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Five ways to shoot portraits that pop"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/#website","url":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/","name":"Amateur Photographer","description":"The world's number 1 weekly photo magazine","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/author\/"}]}},"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2017\/11\/360_barrowhill-201.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 09:11:50","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2745"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113847"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119611,"href":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113847\/revisions\/119611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113847"},{"taxonomy":"product-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product-category?post=113847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}