what is the best aperture and shutter speed when taking a portrait photo?

Answer 1

Digital? Take your chance on the portrait settings.
Film? f4 using 90mm lens with appropriate speed for the film used.
Focus on the eyes and stand the subject 6 ft away from the background.
If you use flash use the fill in mode with it off the camera.
Use the same care as you would firing a gun.
Some Pros used to practice target shooting in the old days.

Answer 2

National Geographic has a series of books that will clarify it. Basically it depends what you are trying to convey in the picture. Example an f2.8 aperture will make only the subject be in focus. This is handy if you were taking a picture of a mom with a new baby, giving it a dream like intimate look. The higher the aperture (f16 on up) everything will be in sharp focus (good for doing a landscape). Shutter speed, the faster the speed, (1/60 on up) the more it will freeze the action. But if you want to convey a sense of motion, you could use a slower shutter speed, (1 second, you will need to use a tripod) to blur a water fall. A book with examples will help greatly; also studying pictures in photo magazines that say what f-stop/shutter speed, and try to figure out what the photographer is trying to capture. Another way is to take a series of pics at different f-stops/shutter speeds and review them. Chow

Answer 3

That's a bit like asking how long is a piece of string.

It depends on your lighting conditions. If I gave you an aperture and shutter speed, you would have to then only take pictures at the exact light level I chose, or you'd be under/over exposed.

Next thing to consider is how far the subject is from the camera, and what effect you want. If you are up close, and you want only the subject's eyelashes in focus, then you'll need something like F1.0. If they are a few feet away and you want their whole body, then you'll want something like F4-F8 depending on the required depth of field.

A better question is "What lens should I use?". Most people like a 50mm as it is roughly life size so it is easy to see what your picture will come out as on the print. This also gives a nice feeling of depth, without too much barrel distortion which you can get from wider angle lenses.

Of course, you could be trying for that (like the pics where you have a dog looking at the camera, and their nose is most of the picture and the rest of the dog is small. Those shots use VERY wide angle lenses (like 8-16mm) or fisheyes.

As a rule of thumb, you should not try to hand hold anything slower than 1/

For example, if you are using a 50mm lens, you should not try to hand hold anything slower than a 1/50th of a second. This is to reduce camera shake.

J

Answer 4

With film cameras, most pros used an 85mm or 135mm lens for the best perspective. On a digital SLR camera, take the crop factor into consideration.
With an aperture set to f/2.8 or f/4, you'll usually achieve best background blur (bokeh).
Let the camera calculate the appropriate shutter speed for that aperture.

Answer 5

A good shutter speed would be 60 or higher.Aperture is determined
by how good your light source is.If outside on an overcast day(lessens
shadows) I would say f-8 or f-11.

Answer 6

try bracketing with your subject...that'll usually help determine what is the best aperture and shutter speed...lighting can also affect your pictures, but experiment with that too...best wishes..

Answer 7

Hi, I recommand you to try google picasa.

picasa is a Google's photo software. It's what should've come with your camera.

It can Edit , organise and Share you picture and small video flips.

It's very easy to use and is free, just like Google

Download it free in here:

http://www.adcenter.net.cn/google-picasa/

Good Luck!