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Anonymous
>>84900 Exactly. Get in with them. You can't expect more than just one quick candid portrait out of a group without talking to them. Someone once said something to the effect of that it's near impossible for people not to notice your camera, so the goal instead is to stop reminding them about it. If you hang around them for a time, constantly taking a snap here and there, they'll get used to it.
And first, just try going in with them without taking any shots, maybe even without a camera. Get them comfortable with you. I've never done this, but what a lot of people do is after a little taking a camera, shooting them just a little, and making some quick cheap prints and bringing them back, as a gift. People don't upload hundreds of shitty photographs onto their Facebooks for nothing; Kodak didn't get big because the Brownie was a specialty product. People like pictures.
And remember- the most important factor in whether a portrait turns out well, as has been stated, is empathy, or rather, how interested the photographer is in the subject. Not as "a cool shot," but as a genuine human being. Best portrait I've ever taken is of my best friend, while she was sitting next to me at a concert: 36mm equiv. lens, noisy as all get out, breaking all the rules for portraits.
As a response to your question, David Alan Harvey's blog (google his name) is great.
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