Exposure Explains: portraiture with Benny Lee

Here's how you can take beautiful-looking portraits, even when the background is unattractive.

Exposure Explains is a new series showing you how our featured Exposure photographers take their winning shots. This month, we're looking at Benny Lee's portraiture technique, which is all about making the most of your shooting situation, regardless of the background.

Benny likes to use a 50mm f/1.4 lens to take his portraits, as it provides a shallow depth of field, which is ideal for achieving that "blurred background" look. He also uses a circular polariser to help diffuse the backdrop and draw attention to his subject. You can achieve a similar effect by shooting with your lens set to its widest maximum aperture.

Read more on the sorts of lenses available for your digital SLR in our lens-buying guide, and how to get started with using your camera in manual or aperture-priority mode.

For more tips and tricks, and to see some more of Benny's work, make sure to check out his Exposure profile.