URGENT i need a crash course in....

[monkey_wrench]

Doing good quality portraits! im doing this off the cuff for a friend for her birthday im photographing her 17 year old son mark and her 19 year old daughter danielle as a present for her 40th

need help
lighting
poses
settings

pleaseeeeeeee

[txdude35]

Perhaps this would have been better suited for the "sharing knowhow" section?

[tim]

The best tip I can give you is "don't bite off more than you can chew". Any photography takes practice, experience, and maybe some reading, you're not going to learn it in 10 minutes on the net. Take lots of photos, look at them to see what worked and what didn't, and aim to improve next time.

[Pekka]

Quick'n'simple advice, others feel free to add to this:

Use makeup (not you, the subjects)- get rid of reflectivity.
Focus always on the eyes, use center focus point only - use manual focus if needed (e.g. hair over eyes).
Use 50-200mm lens at 3.5 to 8. Primes are usually better.
If there are two persons as subject, make sure their eyes are on same focus plane (by their placement or changing your position and angle).
Place the subject as far away from background as possible. Find a big room.
Find a place with white roof and preferably non-colored walls.
Shoot from 2-5m. Use flash pointed up or relatively up, if you have 550 use the catchlight panel.
With flash, use ISO 200-400, even 800. Do not try to avoid noise and loose your exposure in process.
Find a simple background.
Relax, take your time and chat with subjects.
Take a LOT of shots - usually the shots get much better when subject starts to relax and you start to relax.
Think of few poses in advance.
Take also shots inbetween poses while you chat - those are often very natural and relaxed.
Shoot RAW or JPEG+RAW.

[monkey_wrench]

Quick'n'simple advice, others feel free to add to this:

Use makeup (not you, the subjects)- get rid of reflectivity.
Focus always on the eyes, use center focus point only - use manual focus if needed (e.g. hair over eyes).
Use 50-200mm lens at 3.5 to 8. Primes are usually better.
If there are two persons as subject, make sure their eyes are on same focus plane (by their placement or changing your position and angle).
Place the subject as far away from background as possible. Find a big room.
Find a place with white roof and preferably non-colored walls.
Shoot from 2-5m. Use flash pointed up or relatively up, if you have 550 use the catchlight panel.
With flash, use ISO 200-400, even 800. Do not try to avoid noise and loose your exposure in process.
Find a simple background.
Relax, take your time and chat with subjects.
Take a LOT of shots - usually the shots get much better when subject starts to relax and you start to relax.
Think of few poses in advance.
Take also shots inbetween poses while you chat - those are often very natural and relaxed.
Shoot RAW or JPEG+RAW.

thankyou!! that helped :D