How do you approach a portrait? Is the end result going to represent a style or mood or is the image going to tell a story? What’s the purpose of the image. These are very important questions to think about when doing a portrait because portraits are often very personal photographs to the people in the photograph. One tool I like to use, especially in a crowded setting, to isolate just a couple of people is long lens.
Dad likes to call this Sniper Mode because instead of going wide with like a 24-70 AF-S, you use something longer like a 70-200 VRII to isolate just those areas of interest. Hank and Tim are my examples here. They were just enjoying a beer after a long day at the flyin. Simple story that kind of sums up the day. You couldn’t get it with a wide angle lens getting close but you could with a long lens.