People portraits are tricky. What’s key to a successful one? Well, aside from technicalities, its all about respect and interest. Respect your subject and show interest in who they are and what they do. You’d be surprised how many people will let you photograph them!

I shot this image in a thrift shop. A very photogenic couple was testing out a sofa and I was hunting for people portraits for a book I’ve since written. I told them they looked great together and asked if I could photograph them for the book (it always helps the creative process if you carry your camera everywhere!). They gladly agreed and I came away with a great shot and an introduction to the band “Sunsplit,” in which the couple play.

Notes on the Photo:

1. Paul Simon was wrong–everything does NOT look worse in black and white! In fact, things often look better. For one thing, you don’t have to worry about white balance. The lighting in this store was a combination of frontlit windowlight (daylight) and fluorescent. In color, such lighting would pose a problem. Also, B/W gives an unreal, abstract quality to just about everything.

2. I used a Canon Digital Rebel XT with a 28-135mm auto focus lens. One great thing about a DSLR is that if the light is dim (as it was here), you can up the light sensitivity to 1600 ISO. Sure, things become grainy (or noisy) if you try to enlarge the photo much, but sometimes you just have to play the cards you’re dealt. Evoking a feeling with your photograph is often much more important than it’s technical excellence.

3. Model release necessary? If you’re going to publish the photo and/or attempt to make money from it. An exception being a news item showing people in a public space.