Guidelines

• Brightness and contrast should be adjusted to present the subject and background accurately
• Photos without proper contrast or color may obscure unique facial features
• Color should reproduce natural skin tones
• Fluorescent or other lighting with unbalanced color may cause unwanted color cast in the photo
• Appropriate filters can eliminate improper color balance

  
Very dark or very light apparel may cause certain auto-exposure systems to overcompensate, resulting in overly dark or light flesh tones. A neutral gray card may be used to set exposure at a consistent level before placing the subject in the scene.


  
Contrast that is too high is usually due to the overall light and shade in the scene. Correct contrast can be achieved by directing diffused lighting onto the subject. Such lighting increases the local contrast while reducing the total contrast.


  
Picture is affected by the type of light used. Avoid mixing incandescent and fluorescent lighting. Corrective filters can improve the overall light that reaches the conventional film or digital camera sensor, and thus remove unnatural color effects. A neutral white card may be used to set the white balance level on some advanced digital cameras.

Guidelines

• Head should be positioned directly facing the camera
• Photo should capture from slightly above top of hair to middle of chest
• Eyes should be open and looking at the camera
• Eyeglasses should be worn if normally used by the subject
• Glare on eyeglasses can usually be avoided with a slight upward or downward tilt of the head
• Background should be plain white or off-white
• Include headpieces if worn daily for religious purposes; they should not obscure or cast shadows on the eyes or any other part of the face

  
To prevent geometric distortion and ensure an adequate depth of field, the camera should be placed at the subject’s eye level and approximately 4 ft (120 cm) from the subject.

By placing the subject on an adjustable height seat, the height of the camera tripod can be fixed.

A lens of about 105 mm focal length on a 35 mm film camera, or its equivalent on any other camera, should provide a sufficiently flat field-of-view.

The subject’s eyes should look directly at the camera and the subject may be either smiling or not, but unusual expressions and squinting should be avoided.


  
A slight downward tilt of the head will usually eliminate glare on eyeglasses. If this does not reduce the glare, try tilting the head slightly upward or rotating the glasses slightly upward or downward. The head should not be tilted by more than a few degrees to eliminate glare.

"Red Eye" conditions should be avoided. Red eye is caused by a direct reflection, through the pupil, from the retina of the eye when an on-camera flash is used, particularly for a subject who has adapted to a darkened environment. Red eye can be reduced by using an off-camera flash or by brightening the ambient lighting.


  
A distracting background should be avoided. Use a plain wall or a photographer’s backdrop cloth as the background. The background color may be white or off-white.

Ideally, the background will be out of focus so that minor markings or texture on the background are not apparent in the photo.

Guidelines

• Over-exposure or under-exposure may render the photo unusable
• Three-point balanced lighting is strongly recommended (see Figure 1)
• Facial features should be clearly evident in the photo
• Lighting should be adjusted to avoid shadows on the face or background
• Diffuse sources of light, such as umbrella lights, are preferable to point sources

  
Over-exposure occurs when the image receives too much light; it results in a loss of resolution (very fine detail), more graininess and less detail in highlight areas. Under-exposure occurs when the image receives too little light; it results in loss of detail in the subject’s shaded areas, which can become dark and featureless.

Exposure problems can be avoided by conforming to the recommended lighting arrangement (Figure 1) and using diffuse light sources of moderate lamp intensity.


  
Illuminating the background is best accomplished with a light source that spreads illumination evenly over a wide area.

Correct positioning of back-lighting, below the subject and radiating up, will reduce or remove shadows from the background without affecting the amount of light incident on the subject.


  
To avoid shadows on the face, the amount of light striking a subject's face from two sides, should be equal. In a balanced lighting arrangement, if one of the two light sources is of a lower intensity, move it closer to the subject to offset the difference in light intensity.

Overhead lighting can produce unwanted shadows on the face and should be avoided whether balanced lighting is used or not.

Guidelines

• High resolution photography and printing are strongly recommended
• Both conventional and digital photography are acceptable, and conventional or digital printing methods may be used
• Resulting print should exhibit a continuous-tone quality regardless of the print method used (dye sublimation, ink jet, laser, etc.)
• Digitally printed photos should be produced without visible pixels or dot patterns
• Fine facial features should be discernible
• The entire face should be in focus

  
Image quality and resolution are directly related: the higher the resolution, the better the image quality. For conventional photography, high resolution is inherently achieved through the use of 35 mm film stock. In digital photography, the size of the camera's digital sensor determines the degree of resolution that can be achieved.

Avoid using a low-resolution digital camera. After images are loaded into the camera's memory and displayed on a monitor, images are often smaller than expected or there are discernible pixels (image pixelation) when the images are enlarged on the monitor or output to a printer.


  
Images that look fine on a computer screen may appear coarse or grainy when printed, even at the 2 inch x 2 inch dimension. This can be attributed to the differences in image resolution for the display monitor and the digital printer, with respect to the amount of image data available. Digital printers have variable resolution settings, and the proper setting needs to be selected to avoid having an image appear fuzzy or grainy. However, no printer resolution setting can adjust for too little data in the image caused by use of an inappropriate camera lens or low-resolution digital camera.


  
The subject’s face should be the central or principal point of focus. It may be necessary to adjust the distance setting on the camera’s lens once the subject is framed in the scene. If excessive adjustments are needed to focus properly, the lens being used may not have a suitable focal length (approximately 105 mm) and may cause unwanted distortions in the image.