Portraits are honest. A soft eye reads as a mistake. Wrong background and your subject looks bad. But get the settings right before you shoot, and post-processing becomes cleanup instead of rescue work.
Aperture — Go wide, but not too wide
For one person, use f/1.8 to f/2.8. You get a blurred background while keeping the face sharp. Shoot two people and f/1.8 becomes a problem—one face will go soft. Back off to f/3.5–f/5.6 so both are in focus.
Depth of Field Calculator
Preview how aperture, focal length, and subject distance combine to create depth of field and background blur.
Open tool →Shutter speed — Fast enough to stop motion
People move. Even when trying not to. Use 1/125s minimum for someone standing still, 1/250s or faster for movement, laughing, or kids. Slow shutter speeds blur the subject, not the camera.
ISO — Keep it clean
In sunlight, stick with ISO 100–400. As light drops, raise it gradually. Modern cameras handle ISO 1600 or 3200 without much noise—test yours to find where it breaks. RAW files give you more flexibility when cleaning up grain later.
Focal length matters too
Focal length changes how faces look. Shoot too wide (24mm, 35mm) and you distort noses and cheekbones at close range. That's why 85mm to 135mm on full frame became standard—they compress perspective in a less weird way and let you stand back instead of crowding your subject.
On crop sensors, 50mm hits the same field of view as 85mm full frame. A 50mm f/1.8 is cheap and works fine for portraits.
Lighting tip
Settings can't fix bad light. Outdoors, shoot in the hour after sunrise or before sunset—soft light, warm tones, directional. Midday sun is brutal. Move into shade (under a tree, building wall) or watch your subject squint and shadows cut across their face.
The ShutterFox portrait cheat sheet covers settings for golden hour, studio flash, and window light—save yourself the guessing on different scenarios.