How can I shoot a soft, vintage-style portrait with the lips in focus?
Asked 7/28/2011
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2 answers
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I’m new to DSLR photography and use a Nikon D3100. I’d like to recreate a portrait with a soft, warm, vintage feel, shallow depth of field, and the lips as the main point of focus. What shooting setup would help create this look? Specifically:
- what kind of lens or focal length would work well?
- how can I get such a shallow depth of field?
- how should I light the subject to get the soft, warm look?
- what kind of post-processing gives that slightly vintage appearance?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
2 Answers
11
Here's what I see:
- The lighting is fairly soft, and warm. My hunch is that the photographer used diffused natural lighting (such as sunlight through a curtain). You could achieve the same with a diffused strobe (ex: through an umbrella) and gels or white-balance tweaking though.
- Whatever the light source, it's coming from camera right, somewhat behind the model.
- The lack of deep shadows suggests lots of ambient light (relative to the key light), or a reflector/fill light. I'd guess the former; note that the background is pretty light too.
- It's reasonably noisy, so it was probably taken with a high ISO. (This depends a lot on the camera though.)
- The depth of field is quite small; note the difference in focus in the neck area of her blouse. That suggests a wide aperture.
- It's not very sharp, even in the areas that are in focus. I'd guess that the photographer did not use a very sharp lens. It may even be a point-and-shoot camera; the noise, lack of sharpness, and low resolution give me that feeling.
- It's a very mysterious, suggestive framing/cropping.
I don't think there's necessarily any fancy Photoshopping going on -- nothing obvious to me at least. Most of this you could achieve in-camera.
By "focusing on the lips", you probably mean that the rest of the photo is more blurred than her lips & face. This is achieved through a shallow depth of field. Getting that effect is a big topic, but the short version is to shoot with a wide aperture, longer focal length, and closer distance to the subject as possible. Actually focusing on the lips is just a matter of taking control of the camera's focusing system; once you do that, the shallow DoF makes everything else blurry.
Originally by user48. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user48
15y ago
0
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The look comes more from lighting, aperture, and processing than from one specific lens or Photoshop filter.
To get the shallow depth of field, use a relatively long focal length and a wide aperture. On your D3100, an 85mm f/1.8 or 50mm f/1.8 would work well; even your 18–55mm kit lens at 55mm can help if you shoot close to the subject. Stand fairly close and use the widest aperture available to blur the background.
For focus on the lips, use a single focus point and place it directly on the lips rather than letting the camera auto-select. With depth of field this thin, precise focusing matters.
Lighting appears soft and warm, likely diffused natural light (for example, window light through a curtain) or a diffused flash/strobe. The main light seems to come from camera right and slightly behind the subject, with enough ambient or fill light to keep shadows gentle.
For the vintage feel, keep contrast low, warmth slightly increased, and sharpness somewhat soft. White-balance warming and a little grain/noise can help. There doesn’t appear to be one special filter—just soft light, shallow depth of field, and gentle warm-toned editing.
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