Close-up portraits include only head and shoulders of the model or less, only eyes for example. I’ll write a couple of tips for close-up portraits in this post.

Light

Light is important in close-up portraits. Soft and balanced lights are preferred in order to avoid any sharp shadows in the models face. But also you can accent on different expressions in the model’s face by using a direct stronger light and sharp create shadows on the face on purpose.

Lens

Do not stand too close to the model use a normal - short-tele lens instead. 50mm-90mm will do just fine for close-up portraits. Reason for using this kind of lenses and shooting the model from distance is de-emphasizing the subject’s nose. If the camera is close to the model, her/his nose will be even closer and will look bigger than normal in the picture. So to avoid this, take the picture from a significant distance.

Settings

Use low f values which means a wide aperture. That helps us to isolate our subject from the background by making the background blurry.