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Tips for Getting Your Portraits Right In-Camera

06 Sep

The post Tips for Getting Your Portraits Right In-Camera appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by John McIntire.

Getting your portraits right in-camera is a skill that every portrait photographer should strive to develop. Doing so will save you time and improve your photography across the board.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t post-process your images, and it doesn’t mean that Photoshop is cheating. But by putting in the extra time and effort at the capture stage, there will be less post-processing to do.

It’s also good if you have certain post-production techniques in mind. If you are able to shoot to the requirements of the technique (that is, if you’re able to get it right in-camera), then the whole process will be easier.

Getting Your Portraits Right In-Camera — Putting extra effort in at the capture stage will help you to get the best results possible straight out of the camera. If you take a lot of portraits, this will wind up saving you hours upon hours of time in the post processing stages.

This article will provide you with a series of tips to help you create better portrait images during the capture stage of the process. It should be noted that the points discussed here fall firmly on the technical side of things. Subjective things like composition, posing, expression, etc., won’t be discussed.

Also, nothing discussed here is a rule. I would hesitate to even call it a guideline. If you try something here that doesn’t get you the results you are after, that just means it’s the wrong tool for the job. By all means, do something else.

Aperture

One of the easiest things you can do in the pursuit of getting your portraits right in-camera is to prioritize sharpness. One of the easiest ways to do this is to choose the right aperture.

Shooting wide-open can be great in low-light conditions, and it can also provide a nice shallow depth of field for aesthetic purposes. The trade-off comes in terms of getting the focus right. The focal plane of a wide aperture lens (f/1.8, f/1.4, etc.) is very, very narrow, making it very easy to miss the focus on your subject’s eyes.

A good way to combat this is to choose a smaller aperture. By selecting an aperture around f/5.6 or f/8, ensuring the focus is where you want it to be becomes much easier. When you’re starting out, this can be the difference between a couple of sharp images (or even no sharp images) gained out of luck and a memory card full of them.

Again, this is not a rule, and shooting wide open is fun and has plenty of its own merits. But that doesn’t mean you should always shoot wide open.

Taking control of the light

You’ve probably heard the phrase “Photography is light.” It’s everywhere, but it cannot be repeated enough. If you want to take better photos, you need to learn to take control of the light. This is especially important for portraits.

Natural light

With natural light, you will want to learn how to find the light with the qualities best-suited to the portrait you want to create.

For the most part, you will want to avoid shooting in midday sun. Instead, learn to find patches of soft light. This can be an area of open shade, it can be window light, or it can be garage door lighting.

Studio lighting

In the studio, you will have a somewhat easier time of things.

After all, a studio should be designed from the ground up for you to alter the light at will. Use the right modifiers, learn some of the basic lighting patterns, and use modeling lights whenever possible. All of these will make it easier for you to take control of the lighting in your portraits.

Flattering light

Another thing about light that is important when getting your portraits right in-camera is whether or not the light is flattering. While this is quite a subjective topic, there are a few things for you to keep in mind that will help you to get more flattering light.

Light from above

In most natural circumstances, we humans are lit from above. This is how we generally see other people. Lighting your subject from other angles will result in oddly-placed shadows that won’t feel right to your viewer.

By placing the main light source above your subject, you are working to ensure that you are presenting your subjects in a way that people will recognize.

Soft light

As mentioned, using a soft light source will help you get more flattering results. This will reduce the overall contrast in your images, and help to reduce the appearance of skin textures in your portraits. It will also help to make the transitions from shadows to highlights smoother.

Lens choice

Selecting a focal length suitable for portraiture is another important thing that will help you get your portraits right in camera.

The focal length you choose will dictate how your images are distorted. At the extreme ends, wide-angle and long telephoto lenses cause significant distortion in your images. In order to avoid this, you will find that most portraits are taken at a focal length somewhere between 50mm and 135mm. As a general guide, you can’t go wrong by selecting a focal length in that range.

Now, that is, once again, not a rule. There are some amazing examples of portraits taken at extremely wide focal lengths, just as there are plenty of portrait examples taken with much longer focal lengths. If you think an extreme focal length is right for your portrait, go ahead and try it.

Perspective and viewpoint

Your viewpoint as the photographer has a huge impact on your portrait images, and there are a few things you can do and avoid to help you get better portraits.

Viewing angle

For the most part, try to keep your lens at the same level or below the level of your subject’s eyes. Shooting above and downward toward your subject has the effect of making your subject appear vulnerable and weak.

(This is my bias speaking. I really don’t like taking photos from above, but it is still not a rule.)

For stronger portraits, try to avoid that.

Distortion

Just like when you are photographing buildings, having your camera not level to the ground can cause distortion in your images.

Converging verticals on a human subject look even weirder than they do on buildings. If you are shooting from above your subject, this can lead to distorted facial features. If you are shooting from below, it can cause distortions of the legs, arms, and torso that just won’t look right to your viewer.

Some of this can be mitigated by selecting a longer focal length or stepping further away from your subject, but this won’t completely prevent distortion. To avoid any of this distortion in close-up portraits, shoot from eye-level or just below eye-level. To avoid it in half-length to full-length portraits, shoot from the level of your subject’s navel.

Exposure

For the most part, exposure is another subjective topic. There is often no right or wrong exposure, but if you’re starting out with portraits, there are a few things that will help you along the way.

Portraits can have a lot of contrast in them. Just imagine a subject with light-colored hair who’s wearing a black shirt. For the best outcome, you will want to ensure that the exposure retains details in both extremes.

To ensure that you have retained all the details in your images, you can refer to the histogram on the back of your camera. A simple way to use this is to make sure that the information depicted by the histogram does not go past either the left-hand or the right-hand sides of the graph.

If the histogram goes off the right-hand side, your image will be overexposed and you will be missing details in the highlights of your image. If the histogram goes off the left-hand side, your image will be underexposed and you will be missing details in the shadows.

Manipulate the exposure

Sometimes, you won’t be able to retain all the detail in a given scene, as the contrast will be too high. In order to keep your shadows and highlights from clipping, you will want to manipulate the scene. There are a lot of ways you can do this.

You can use a reflector to bounce light into areas of the scene that are too dark, thus reducing the overall contrast of the scene. You could do the same with flash as fill light.

You could also use a diffuser in front of your main light source to soften the light and reduce the overall contrast in the frame. This works with both natural light and studio strobes.

Of course, in a studio, you could always opt to use a bigger modifier, or move your light source closer to your subject. Both of these have the effect of softening the light and reducing the overall contrast in your scene.

If you are new to portraits but familiar with other aspects of photography, you can think of this as similar to using graduated neutral density filters in landscapes.

By placing a graduated neutral density filter in front of the lens, you are (usually) increasing the exposure time needed for one part of the image (usually the sky) so that it falls at a value closer to the foreground, reducing the contrast in the image by however many stops the filter represents.

You can think of these tools for portraits in the same way, except that they manipulate the actual light in the scene in front of you, rather than fitting onto the lens and manipulating the final exposure.

End

While this article is definitely not a complete and exhaustive guide to portrait techniques, these few basic tips should help you get your portraits right in camera. If you take your time to be mindful of your choices regarding camera settings, lighting, and exposure, you will start to find that you need to spend much less time in post-production.

Of course, if there are any tips that you use to get your portraits right in-camera, please feel free to leave them in a comment.

The post Tips for Getting Your Portraits Right In-Camera appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by John McIntire.

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Create Beautiful Indoor Portraits Without Flash (NSFW)

29 Aug

The post Create Beautiful Indoor Portraits Without Flash (NSFW) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ed Verosky.

Ed Verosky is a professional photographer and author based in New York. In this article, Verosky explains how to create portraits using natural and ambient light only. To learn more about achieving great lighting in any situation, check out Verosky’s popular eBook, “100% Reliable Flash Photography.“

Note: This post contains one image with very mild nudity (in fact, so mild you might not even see it).

For me, using flash can be the most efficient way to create a high-quality portrait. There’s nothing like it for an editorial shoot when you need that combination of full lighting control, minimal shooting time, and predictable results. Sure, you have to know what you’re doing to make it come together like that. But that ability comes with knowledge and experience.

Mastering flash means mastering your light in any situation. Sometimes, however, there is beautiful light to be found, just waiting there for you to use it. Natural and constant ambient light can be your best friends if you have a little time and flexibility with the environment and your subject.

Constant light, as opposed to flash/strobe lighting, will allow you to see and adjust its effect on your subject and the environment in real-time. This is a great way to learn about lighting placement and this knowledge and experience will certainly carry over into your flash portraiture. As I like to say, “light is light,” meaning that the principles of lighting a subject and the environment are essentially the same whether the light source is a quick “flash” or a constant illumination.

The main difference is that the flash is capable of producing a more intense light but with too short of a duration for the photographer to see the effects of its position on the subject in real-time. With constant lighting, you can casually move the lights and your subject around and know instantly how the changes will affect the portrait you’re making. With a few test shots to check exposure, you’re good to go.

Lighting setups

Natural light. Window light is just about the most beautiful light you can find when the conditions are right. It can serve as a huge softbox and be manipulated with any combination of window dressings such as blinds and curtains. Simply place your subject nearby the window and let the light create much of the portrait’s drama. I like to position the subject so that there is plenty of shadow to one side, providing many options for classic portraiture looks.

Window light narrowed with curtains. ISO 800, 50mm, f/2.8, 1/80 sec.

Household lights. You can also make great use of simple household lamps. I like to remove the shades off the room lights and utilize them as bare bulb light sources. To start off, just position the main light in front and to one side of your subject, preferably several inches higher than their head. This will give you a classic lighting pattern to work with. A second light may be placed farther back from the subject and serve as a backlight or kicker, which will add dimension.

A setup consisting of two household lamps, minus the lampshades. The kicker is behind Kelly ,and the main lamp is almost directly in front of her, just to camera right. ISO 800, 50mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec.

Camera settings

My general advice for any indoor shooting is to think “fast and wide.” Your initial camera settings should be a balance of the highest ISO possible that will still provide acceptable noise levels for your purposes, the widest aperture your lens will allow, and the fastest workable shutter speed.

Of course, each of these controls is interrelated and integral to overall exposure, so you’ll have to make some adjustments and concessions for the environment you’re working in, and for the effect you’re trying to achieve in your shots.

Fortunately, most DSLRs are now capable of low noise even when using high ISO speeds, so most room lighting and even low natural light won’t be a problem for you. But even if your camera happens to produce lots of noise at higher ISOs, that isn’t necessarily a big concern. Either leave the noise as is, or bring some of it down in post-processing using your choice of available noise reduction techniques.

Many photographers actually artificially add noise back into their images in order to reproduce the look of film, or otherwise reduce the super-clean, slick, digital look coming out of the camera. Simple advice: Don’t worry about the noise unless it gets in the way of the image you’re trying to create.

Another thing that will really help with achieving beautiful portraits in lower lighting situations is a fast lens. By “fast,” we’re referring to a lens with a wide aperture of at least f/2.8. The wider the aperture, the more light the lens allows to pass through in a given unit of time. This will give you more freedom with your ISO settings (as they won’t have to be so high to compensate for less light coming in through the lens), and faster shutter speeds (as they won’t have to be so low to compensate for less light coming in through the lens). Lenses with wider apertures also have the capability of shallow depth-of-field, which can greatly add to the interest and mystique of your portraiture.

Shutter speed is an important consideration not just because of its effect on overall exposure, but also because of potential blur with lower shutter speeds. As with ISO, however, the effect of supposedly less-than-optimal shutter speeds is what you make it. You might find an occasional blurry image makes a rather artistic statement. Every portrait doesn’t have to be as sharp as a tack.

Another household lightbulb setup, featuring Chris. I used a bare household lightbulb off to camera-left to illuminate her on one side and the background at the same time. The main light is coming in from camera right. ISO 800, 85mm, f/1.8, 1/60 sec.

So, with those factors in mind, you might want to try the following exposure combination as a starting point and adjust according to your needs:

Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
Aperture: f/2.8 (or the widest possible for your lens)
ISO: 800
Shutter Speed (target): 1/100 sec. or higher.

In Aperture Priority mode, your camera will automatically set the shutter speed for you while you control everything else. You’ll have to pay attention to your shutter speed to make sure it isn’t falling so low as to create unwanted blurring. Again, these are just starting points. With a stationary pose and a steady hand, I’ve managed handheld shutter speeds as low as 1/15 sec. and produced good results. You might also want to try your camera’s Manual mode to maintain full control of your settings. If your lighting conditions are going to be fairly static, I’d recommend it.

Also, you will most likely benefit from shooting in your camera’s RAW (NEF) format so that critical adjustments, like white balance, exposure, and contrast, can be made easily and with minimal loss of information in post-processing. Although white balance settings aren’t actually imposed on the RAW file, you can set white balance as you wish during shooting in order to get an idea of what the final image might look like. Plus, a chosen WB setting will tell your processing software what color temperature and tint settings to best start off with for each image.

Window light illuminates Satu. ISO 800, 50mm, f/4, 1/200 sec.

Post-Processing

Aside from the creative post-processing possible with your ambient light images, there are some things you might want to address in the initial post-processing effort:

White Balance: Not all light sources produce the same color temperatures. Despite what they look like to our eyes, the camera will record various types of household lighting (fluorescent, tungsten, daylight balanced) and natural light (sunset, cloudy, shade) as producing different color casts.

So if you are shooting a portrait using a bright tungsten light as your subject’s main light, but you have a strong window light coming through in the background, you might have an undesirable color mix to deal with.

Fortunately, you can correct these types of color mismatches in post-processing by making a general white balance setting choice in your software and selectively altering the offending colors in specific parts of the image. If this isn’t something you’d like to worry about, then don’t. The colors might be acceptable just the way they are. If not, you always have artistic color-altering effects and even black and white conversion options. So, it’s all good.

Noise Issues: I personally like a little noise in my images most of the time. But if you had to use very high ISO settings to get your shots, and have the need to bring some of the noise down, there are a number of good built-in, stand-alone, and plug-in software options to handle this. I will occasionally use the noise reduction tools in Lightroom or my Photoshop Noise Ninja plug-in, for example.

Natural and ambient light photography indoors can be a great way to learn the finer points of lighting your portraits. The actual experience for you and your subject is also worlds apart from the strobe and studio effect of working with flash. Unlike outdoor shooting, indoor work without flash can introduce problems having to do with lower lighting situations. Using some of the advice above, you should be able to handle the challenges of low-light portraiture and come away with great-looking images.

If you would like to learn how to get amazing light in any situation, check out Ed Verosky’s eBook, “100% Reliable Flash Photography.” It’s a great resource that has helped thousands of photographers improve their use of flash and ambient light for portraiture.

The post Create Beautiful Indoor Portraits Without Flash (NSFW) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ed Verosky.

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13 Tips for Improving Outdoor Portraits

22 Aug

The post 13 Tips for Improving Outdoor Portraits appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Guest Contributor.

Outdoor portraits present portrait photographers with a variety of challenges and opportunities. Today, James Pickett suggests 13 tips to help you with your outdoor portrait work.

When I bought my very first digital SLR, there was a sigh of relief. Everything was going to be so much easier, and I wouldn’t have to think anymore.

You know the scenario: You pull the camera out, charge the batteries, go for a walk around the house and down the street, taking the same pictures you have taken every time a new camera came into your life.

“This is great,” you think to yourself. “This is going to make my life so much easier!” I was wrong. In fact, I was dead wrong.

There are three very simple things that improve all photography, including portraits. To this day, there is no trick I have found that replaces the need for proper exposure, white balance, and sharp focus.

1) Never select all of the focus points for portraits; pick one

When you pick the autofocus option that allows the camera to select focus points, you are doing your portraits a terrible disservice.

This feature of a camera is usually designed to pick whatever is closest to the lens and focus there. In some cases, like with my 1DS Mark III, the camera will choose a cluster of focus points and make a “best guess” based on averaging the distance between all of the chosen points. Using one focus point gives you, the photographer, ultimate control.

2) Always focus on the eyes

The eyes are the windows to the soul and should be the focal point of any good portrait. Not only are the eyes the most important part of a good portrait, but they are the sharpest element on the face and should be left that way.

When you are shooting with a wide aperture value and you’re focused on the eyes, the lens’s bokeh will aid in softening the skin, as well.

3) Shoot wide open for shallow depth of field

There are quite a few reasons to invest in a fast lens capable of wide aperture values; the most common is for shallow depth of field.

If you can shoot at ƒ/2.8 or ƒ/4, you should use it. Most fantastic natural light portraits are from wide aperture values, and it is all because of the wonderful smooth background blur we call “bokeh.”

4) Never, ever shoot a portrait at less than 50mm; try to stay at 70mm or higher

The last thing you want to hear from a client is “Why does my head look swollen?”

Any focal length below 70mm can distort your subject. However, it doesn’t become very noticeable until you are below 50mm. The compression effect of a telephoto lens will also increase the blur of bokeh. Most of my portraits are done between 120mm and 200mm.

5) Always shoot in RAW

These words have bellowed from my mouth a thousand times, and they will surely come out a million more. Raw is an unmodified compilation of your sensor’s data during the time of exposure. It is your digital negative. When you shoot in JPG format, everything but what the image processor needs to make a shell representation of the image you intended to capture is stripped away. For every edit you make to a JPG, you lose more data. With RAW, you can make a vast range of edits before creating the JPG.

How can this make you portrait better? Think about the last time your white balance was set incorrectly and you tried for hours to remove the color cast, only to destroy the image with every attempt. RAW would have saved you by allowing you to fix the color before opening the image for retouching.

6) Always bring a gray card or a piece of a gray card for white balance

Gray cards aren’t free. However, $ 5.95 US for a cardboard Kodak gray card is darn close. To avoid confusion, I am going to explain this backward. When opening Adobe Camera Raw or any other RAW image editing application, there is always a way to select a custom white balance. Usually, it is an eyedropper of some kind that you can use to click on what you think is neutral gray in your image.

Imagine a world where your photoshoot involved 4 locations and a total of 800 images, and all day the camera was set to Auto White Balance. That is 800 different white balance values, a post-production nightmare.

If at each location you have your subject hold the gray card on the first shot, you will save hours of work. When you open images from the first location in your favorite post-production application, all you have to do is click the eyedropper on the gray card, select all the photos, and synchronize the rest. Precious hours will be saved.

(If you plan on taking your time, it may be wise to do this once every 30 minutes or so to compensate for the changing light of day.)

7) Shoot in the shade (avoid direct sunlight)

Direct sunlight is harsh, makes your subject squint, and creates hard directional shadows and unpredictable white balance conditions. When shooting in the shade, there are no more harsh shadows, only smooth, milky shadows created by your subject’s natural features. With proper exposure and white balance, you can make these shots look amazing.

8) Shooting carefully on an overcast day.

Nature’s softbox is a giant blanket of clouds. A good heavy blanket of cloud cover can help you enrich your colors, and make some very smooth and pleasing shadows.

9) If you must use hot, hard, bright light…

Always try to control the direction, use some kind of reflector, and try to mimic a studio light. Putting the sun directly behind your subject isn’t a good idea, unless you are trying to make a silhouette.

When the sun is at my back, I have the subject look off-camera (away from the sun) and get very nice results. Another great trick is to wait for a cloud to move in front of the sun; this usually creates a very bright-yet-contrasted look.

10) Use an existing reflector

For example, my guess is that about 75% of the delivery trucks on the planet are white. These big, white delivery trucks can make amazing fill light reflectors as long as they weren’t painted with an off-white. (A yellow tint can change the white balance in your shadows.) Picture framing outlets and craft stores always have medium-to-large-sized pieces of foam core lying around that have been left for scrap. They are usually more than happy to part with these scraps and, if not, chances are that there are pieces by the dumpster.

11) Learn the sunny ƒ/16 rule

Why?

So you have a baseline for proper exposure in your mind to work with if no other tools are present.

The sunny ƒ/16 rule states that on a sunny day, with your aperture value set to ƒ/16, your shutter speed will be the inverse of the current ISO speed. For example, if your camera is set to ISO 100, and your aperture value is ƒ/16, your shutter speed will be 1/100th of a second. On a cloudy day (or when in the shade), you simply use ƒ/8 instead. If you own an incident light meter or gray card, use either for the most accurate exposure instead.

(Note: the procedure for metering exposure with a gray card is not the same as a custom white balance.)

12) Bring a sheet and a few spring clamps from home

Leave the expensive 200-thread-count sheets on the bed. You already got them? Well, go put them back. You know that cheap old sheet you stuck in the corner of the closet to use as a drop cloth the next time you paint? Go get it.

(Another option is to buy the cheapest low-thread-count white top sheet you can find.)

A queen-sized sheet is an amazing, cheap diffuser. Sort of a seven-foot softbox for the sun. Wrap an edge of the sheet around a branch or clothesline and clamp for a sidelight.

(Anchor the bottom corners with rocks to keep the sheet from blowing into your image.) Clamp all four corners to anything you can above your subject for an overhead light.

13) Keep the powerlines and signs out!

We have already discussed keeping your camera focused on the eyes, but you must also keep the viewer’s mind focused on the image as a whole. Powerlines, signs, long single blades of grass, single pieces of garbage, and sometimes even trees can be serious distractions from the overall focus of the image: the person you are photographing.

Last, and most important, have a great time shooting! Enjoy what you’re doing, and it will show in your work (as well as in the expression of your subject).

A few bonus tips for shooting on cloudy days

Clouds are wonderful. They create a giant blanket of natural sunlight diffusion that makes your images rich and powerful. The clouds can fool your mind in ways you can’t imagine, much like your mind corrects for the natural white balance throughout the day.

When you are shooting on an overcast day, using your camera’s custom white balance is especially important. Every day is completely different for color, and that color depends on two things. First, the time of day; most people understand white balance and how it changes throughout the day. Second, you have to account for all of the wonderful things that light has to pass through before it hits your subject.

Pollution changes the color of the light from minute to minute. Even if your eyes don’t see it, your camera does. On a cloudy day, pollution particles are being carried around in the sky by tiny water droplets. Now your sunlight is passing through nature’s prism and reflecting off of pollution particles in infinite directions.

Don’t forget to white balance with that six-dollar piece of cardboard, your Kodak gray card.

The ultimate secret to shooting on a cloudy day is a compass. (You either tipped your head like a confused Chihuahua or just had an epiphany.) I am an experienced, internationally-published photographer, and rarely can I see where the sun is coming from on an overcast day. The light isn’t omnipresent; it’s just diffused, softened, and scattered. Sunlight on a cloudy day is still directional, and your subject still has a dark side. Use a compass to find out where the sun is, put it at your back, and shoot like mad. Never again will you look at an image after and wonder why the sky was blown out when it was so cloudy, or why the clouds look great but your subject is dark.

The post 13 Tips for Improving Outdoor Portraits appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Guest Contributor.

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How to Create Dramatic Portraits in Your Garage

15 Aug

The post How to Create Dramatic Portraits in Your Garage appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Nick Fancher.

The setup

If you want to take dramatic portraits on a black backdrop (without even needing a single light), a garage is your new go-to spot.

This is the simplest (and most makeshift looking) setup that I use. As you can see in the image above, all I am using is a piece of black foam core, folded into a “V,” set inside a garage on a sunny day.

While you can accomplish this setup on overcast days, having a sunny day helps to increase the brightness of everything outside the garage, thus increasing the catch light in the model’s eyes. The sunny daylight scene outside the garage essentially acts as a giant reflector, which illuminates the area under the subject’s chin to soften shadows.

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The reason why a garage is great for this kind of setup is that it allows you to place your subject closer or further away from the bright, outdoor light, depending on how much light you want in your subject’s eyes or how even you want the light to appear.

For example, if the subject is right at the edge of the garage, just out of the sun, the exposure will be very bright, requiring a very fast shutter speed and/or a small aperture, but they will have large catchlights in their eyes. Note that the smaller aperture will cause the image to be sharper from the front to the back. Also, the closer the subject is to the bright outside, the darker the background will be once you’ve adjusted your exposure for their skin tone.

Alternatively, if the subject is placed deeper into the garage, it allows you to use a wider aperture or slower shutter speed, which can create a flattering, softer, shallow depth of field look, though the catch light and overall light quality will change.

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Shooting in a garage is the equivalent to a one-light studio portrait since the only light source is the open garage door. This increases the appearance of the image being a studio portrait, as it mimics a large softbox or octabox (though an open garage door is larger and less expensive).

If you want to have more light, such as hair light and rim light, to create separation between a subject and the background, there is another option available to you. Simply place your subject on the shaded side of the garage, allowing the sun to light just the edges of your subject’s hair and shoulders, as seen below.

The one downside to having a huge wall of soft light in front of your subject is that it can flatten out the subject, which can make the lighting appear flat or boring. One remedy for this is flagging off portions of the light, as seen in the image below. Note that any object you place in front of the model to flag the light will also change the shape of the catchlights in their eyes.

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For portraits like this, you will want to use a focal length of at least 50mm or longer. Anything wider angle will lead to distortion of the subject’s features. Since you are shooting outdoors, you have unlimited space to back away from the subject. So I like to use my 70-200mm lens for these types of headshots.

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The other perks that come with shooting outside or in a garage are that you have a free hair fan and plenty of ventilation, which comes in handy when you’re shooting smoke.

My buddy Colin is a drummer in the band House of Heroes. He approached me to shoot the cover of their latest EP, Smoke. He wanted a dramatic, close-up of a girl’s face with smoke all around. I knew that my garage would be the perfect spot to conduct the shoot (as it’s open-air with bright light).

I placed whiteboards on either side of Courtney, which helped to not only fill in any shadows under her jaw but also add catchlights to her eyes. In addition to the images of Courtney, I also shot several frames of smoke being exhaled by Colin (try doing that inside a studio) isolated on the black backdrop, which was later overlaid on the final image of the model in post-production.

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Have you tried doing portraits in your garage or other makeshift location? Have any additional tips? Please share in the comments.

The post How to Create Dramatic Portraits in Your Garage appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Nick Fancher.

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Photographer turned his front door into a large format camera to capture portraits during the pandemic

15 Aug

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has made social distancing critically important. While creating distance is good for our physical health, it is difficult for photographers, especially portrait photographers. To overcome this challenge, Kyle Roper, the producer behind The Skyscraper Camera Project, transformed the front door of his home into a large-format analog camera. This has allowed him to safely capture portraits and launch a new photo series, Door Frames.

A look at the makeshift front door camera form inside Roper’s living room.

Given ample time at home and the desire to continue creating images while observing social distancing restrictions, Roper converted his front door into a camera obscura using magnetic dry erase board, gaffer’s tape, cardboard boxes, a dark cloth, c-stand, clamps and sandbags. For photo paper and film, Roper uses Ilford RC IV Multigrade Photo Paper, Ilford Direct Positive Paper and Ilford Ortho 80 Plus. His lens of choice is a Nikkor-W 300mm F5.6 lens in a Copal shutter.

An overview of all the elements of the front door camera.

Roper states that he was inspired by his friend, Brendan Barry, an artist and camera builder we’ve featured many times before. Roper was also inspirited by the work of Dorothea Lange and Francesca Woodman. The former is a particularly interesting inspiration given Lange’s famous documentary and photojournalism work for the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression.

The conveniently-located window in Roper’s front door.

Of Door Frames, Roper says, ‘When you have nothing but an abundance of time, you take the time and slow things down. You find that these antiquated processes can reveal and create such beauty.’ Below is a collection of portraits Roper captured with his front door camera:

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In order to communicate with his subjects outside, Roper speaks to them from inside his home using a speakerphone. Roper then affixes his photographic paper on the image box using the magnetic dry erase board and captures an image with his Nikkor lens wide open because his photo paper is ISO 3 or 6. Once an image is captured, Roper develops it in his bathroom, which he has converted into a darkroom.

Prints in the process of being made in Roper’s makeshift darkroom.

To view more Kyle Roper’s work, visit his website and follow him on Instagram.

Image credits: All photos used with permission from Kyle Roper

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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How To Take More Creative Environmental Travel Portraits

06 Aug

The post How To Take More Creative Environmental Travel Portraits appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.

Including people in your travel photos creates a stronger sense of connection for anyone who views your photos. Environmental travel portraits add depth of interest to any album, presentation or book of travel images.

Adding a person to a landscape, cultural location, or market scene will almost always add appeal to the photo. Capturing locals engrossed in what they are doing can make for a more interesting picture. Stopping to chat with them and asking if you can take their portrait means a scene takes on a whole new dynamic.

Environmental travel portraits are photos of people involved in the setting they are in. They are usually connected in some way with the location. A regular portrait will typically be cropped tighter and contain little contextual information.

Karen woman cooking for environmental travel portraits — © Kevin Landwer-Johan Nikon D800, Lens 35mm f1.4, 1/160 sec., f/2.8, ISO 1600

This is an environmental portrait of a Karen woman cooking in her home. The composition contains visual information about her lifestyle and where she lives.

Here is a portrait of a Karen woman. We were in her village when I took this photo, but there’s no visual information to tell you this.

How To Take More Creative Environmental Travel Portraits — © Kevin Landwer-Johan Nikon D800, Lens 105mm, 1/125 sec., f/8, ISO 400

Connect with your subject for better environmental travel portraits

Don’t be a shy photographer. Connecting with people will often result in more interesting environmental travel portraits. Even if you don’t have a common language, you can still relate to people. Showing an interest in someone and what they are doing, you can build a connection. Choosing the right people to photograph provides you with a better opportunity.

I saw this guy on the streets in Bangkok selling his genuine crocodile skin wallets. He demonstrated to an interested tourist that they were real. To do this, he poured some lighter fluid on the wallet and put a flame to it. I set my camera and approached him, requesting he repeat the process. He was most obliging and played up to my camera.

When candid is a better option

When encountering people who are totally engrossed in what they are doing it’s best to not to interrupt them. This is when it’s best to remain separate and capture candid, or semi-candid photos. I rarely hide my camera, instead, I prefer to have it out in the open so people can be aware that I’m taking photos. Most people will pay no attention, especially when you’re in a touristic area.

For this photo, I wanted to capture the young boy advertising their goods at the top of his voice. He and the older man (I presumed it was his grandfather he was helping) were aware of my presence and that I was taking photos. I was able to do so without disrupting the action.

Framing your subject

Environmental travel portraits need to show something of your subject’s surroundings. Where you position your subject in the frame will influence how they look in their environment. As always, aim to fill your frame only with what is relevant to the photo you’re making. Compose so your subject looks connected to their surroundings.

Photographing this Akha woman picking coffee in northern Thailand, I chose to place her near the edge of the frame. I wanted to fill most of the frame with the coffee bush she was picking from. I also placed her further back from the camera and positioned myself, so there were coffee cherries closer to my lens. This helps draw your eye to the cherries and makes them more obvious.

Choosing the best lens for environmental travel portraits

The lens you use for environmental travel portraits will depend a lot on the location you are photographing in. Often a wider lens if more effective than a longer one because you’ll capture more of the location without being too far from your subject. Remember what Robert Capa said, “If your photos aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.”

I used my 35mm lens to make this photo of a young French horn player. He was performing in a band during the Chiang Mai Flower Festival parade. Getting fairly close to him, I was also able to show other band members in my composition without including too many other distracting details in the area.

Manage your depth of field well

A very shallow depth of field will not often show enough detail in the environment. Too much information can be excluded. Your aim is to include enough of the environment so it adds meaning to the portrait.

Too much in focus in an environmental travel portrait can mean your subject gets lost in the background. You must be aware of how sharp or how blurred your background is. Managing your depth of field well enables you to keep the person you’re photographing as the main subject. Done well, this will encompass enough background detail without it being distracting.

I made this portrait of a samlor (tricycle taxi) rider sitting in his cab. In the background is another samlor passing by. It’s blurred enough so it’s not distracting, but you can still make out what it is, so it adds to the photo.

Wait for the right moment

Careful timing can really make a difference. Watch and observe the person you are photographing and how they are interacting with their environment. Look for patterns of movement and repetition. This can often help you pick the right moment to make your portraits.

For this photo of my friend on National Elephant Day in Thailand, I waited for the elephant’s handler to give the command for the elephant to kiss her. The other elephants and tables with food for them set the scene.

Always be aware of lighting

Light will add feeling to your environmental travel portraits when you use it well. Look at the type of lighting in the location where you’re making your portraits. Is it conducive to the style of the portrait you wish to make? Do you need to come back at another time of the day or night? Will adding some flash improve the portrait?

Often when you’re traveling, you can’t wait for the right light, so you must make the best use of available light. When the light at the location is not great, you need to get creative and add some using a flash or reflector.

For this night portrait of a Samlor rider, I was able to position him to make the most of the light in the street market behind him. I also used my flash to illuminate him and help catch a glimpse of the motorcycle passing behind him.

Make use of props when you can

Be sure to look around for items that may enhance your portraits. Including appropriate props will help make more interesting environmental travel portraits.

I’d asked this man if I could photograph him sitting outside his home in a small village in northern Thailand. As he went to sit down, he put his crutches inside, thinking I did not want to include them in the photo. I asked him if it was okay to have them in the picture too.

Conclusion

Be mindful of your surroundings and think about how you can make interesting pictures that tell a story. Who is this person, and how can I make a portrait that captures relevant information about their surroundings?

Please share other tips you have for creating environmental travel portraits, or some of your pictures in the comments below.

The post How To Take More Creative Environmental Travel Portraits appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.

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Canon’s RF 85mm F2 Macro IS STM is ideal for close-ups and portraits

13 Jul

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The Canon RF 85mm F2 Macro IS STM is a relatively inexpensive telephoto prime lens that’s ideal for both close-up and portrait work. Ostensibly it appears similar in design to the RF 35mm F1.8 IS STM, and together with the RF 35/1.8, should make for a compelling package for wedding photographers wanting to shoot everything from groups to close-up portraits to macro detail shots. The RF 85mm can focus as close as 0.35m (13.8″) and offers a maximum magnification of 0.5x.

Optically, the lens comprises 12 elements in 11 groups, including one UD (ultra low dispersion) element to help reduce chromatic aberrations. On an EOS R or RP, the 85mm F2 offers five stops of image stabilization, but when you attach it to an EOS R5 or R6, with their built-in stabilization systems, Canon claims a benefit of eight stops thanks to the two-way communication between motion and gyro sensors in the camera body and lens. It uses a stepping motor to drive its focus group, so autofocus speeds are unlikely to be as fast as the company’s lenses with Nano USM focus drive systems, and it remains to be seen if focus drive is silent.

The lens is relatively compact, featuring a 67mm filter thread and weighing in at 500g / 1.1lbs. Nine aperture blades aid in producing circular out-of-focus highlights. The lens is not weather-sealed – you’ll need to step up (way up) to the F1.2 version for that.

The Canon RF 85mm F2 Macro IS STM will be available in October for $ 599.

Press release:

THE SECRET IS OUT: CANON OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCES THE CANON EOS R5 AND R6, THE COMPANY’S MOST ADVANCED FULL-FRAME MIRRORLESS CAMERAS EVER

The Company is Also Announcing Four RF Lenses, Two RF Lens Extenders, and a PRO Printer

MELVILLE, N.Y., July 9, 2020 – With anticipation at a fever pitch, Canon U.S.A. Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, is excited to introduce the company’s next generation of full-frame mirrorless cameras – the EOS R5 and EOS R6. These groundbreaking cameras are the result of many years of collecting and listening to feedback from Canon users and are sure to meet the needs and demands of a variety of creators. The EOS R5 is a camera designed for professional applications featuring a new 45-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor and uncropped 8K video recording up to 29.97 fps. The EOS R6 is geared towards advanced amateurs featuring a 20.1-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor and 4K video recording up to 59.94 fps. The addition of the EOS R5 and the EOS R6 cameras within the EOS R series lineup further solidifies Canon’s commitment to providing the equipment needed for users to bring their content to the next level.

Canon is also introducing four RF lenses and two RF lens extenders: The Canon RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM, Canon RF600mm F11 IS STM, Canon RF800mm F11 IS STM, and RF85mm F2 MACRO IS STM lenses. All four new lenses were designed to meet the ever-expanding demands of the skilled creatives who capture amazing imagery using EOS R series cameras, including the new EOS R5 and EOS R6. In addition to the lenses, there are two new RF lens extenders, a 1.4x and a 2x model, allowing for users to take their compatible RF lens focal lengths even farther, and a 13-inch professional printer, the imagePROGRAF PRO-300, to bring photos to life through the power of print.

“For all of the Canon research and development team members who worked tirelessly on the production of these new products, today marks the culmination of a long journey. For those people looking for the next great tools to work with to expand their creative possibilities, the door is now wide open,” said Tatsuro “Tony” Kano, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Canon U.S.A.’s Imaging Technologies & Communications Group. “The industry has asked for new products that can push their levels of creativity to new heights, and we are confident that the EOS R5 and EOS R6, alongside the new lenses, lens extenders, and the pro printer, will fulfill those needs and more.”

Canon EOS R5 and EOS R6
Both the EOS R5 and EOS R6 cameras have the ability to capture the action of a variety of fast-moving subjects with impressive accuracy and speed. When using the mechanical shutter, each can shoot up to 12 fps and up to 20 fps when using the completely silent shutter. Both cameras are the first to be outfitted with Canon’s advanced Dual Pixel CMOS AF II which utilizes up to approximately100 percent coverage of the AF area and EOS iTR AF X incorporating AF tracking algorithms using deep learning technology and enhanced readout speed of the CMOS sensor and processing speed thanks to the DIGIC X image processor. The 1,053 automatically selected AF Zones are made even more potent by the ability to detect the human eye, face or head as well as the eye, face or body of animals such as dogs, cats and even birds. Adding to the feature set is the 5-axis In-Body Image Stabilizer, having coordinated control with Optical Image Stabilizer in IS equipped RF lenses. This provides up to 8 stops of shake correction, a feature that many creators have long asked for from Canon. Both the EOS R5 and R6 cameras come with a new LP-E6NH battery with a higher capacity than the previous model.

As the new flagship model in the EOS R series lineup, the EOS R5 camera has features that pack a punch for a variety of users who create both still and video content. It has a powerful 45-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor and is driven by the speedy DIGIC X image processor, giving wide dynamic range as well as boasting an ISO range of 100-51,200 that is expandable up to 102,400. In a camera full of eye-popping features, one that really stands out is the ability to record uncropped 8K RAW internal video recording up to 29.97 fps and 8K internal video recording up to 29.97 fps in 4:2:2 10-bit Canon Log (H.265)/4:2:2 10-bit HDR PQ (H.265). The camera can also record 4K internal video recording up to 119.88 fps in 4:2:2 10-bit Canon Log (H.265)/4:2:2 10-bit HDR PQ (H.265). External recording in 4K is also available up to 59.94 fps. When in DCI modes, the 8K and 4K video recording is uncropped and Dual Pixel CMOS AF II is available in all 8K and 4K recording modes. Additional features of the EOS R5 camera include:

Dual-card slots: 1x CFexpress and 1x SD UHS-II
Built-in 0.5-inch OLED EVF with approximately 5.76 million dots and a 119.88 fps refresh rate
3.2-inch 2.1 million dots vari-angle LCD touch screen
5GHz/2.4GHz Built-in Wi-Fi® and Bluetooth Technology with the ability to utilize the image.canon application, as well as optional WFT-R10A wireless file transmitter with Ethernet support
Enhanced operating controls such as rear-dial, multi-controller • The ability to voice tag photos and videos
Weather, drip and dust sealing on par with the EOS 5D series

The EOS R6 camera is well-equipped with a host of new features to push the limits of creativity for imaging enthusiasts. The combination of the EOS-1D X Mark III based 20.1-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor and the DIGIC X image processor produces an ISO range of 100-102,400 and is expandable to 204,800. Internal video recording at 4K is capable up to 59.94 fps or 1080p up to 119.88 fps in 10 bit 4:2:2 Canon Log(H.265) or HDR PQ(H.265). The camera also features a built-in 0.5-inch OLED EVF with approximately 3.69 million dots and a 119.88 fps refresh ratevi. Additional features of the EOS R6 camera include:

Dual UHS-II SD card slots
3-inch 1.62 million dots vari-angle LCD touch screen
2.4GHz Built-in Wi-Fi®vii and Bluetooth Technologyviii with the ability to utilize the image.canon application
Enhanced operating controls such as rear-dial, multi-controller
Weather, drip and dust sealing on par with the EOS 6D series

Battery Accessory
The optional BG-R10 battery grip accessory will be available for both the EOS R5 and EOS R6 full-frame mirrorless cameras. The BG-R10 accommodates up to two batteries and is compatible with the new LP-E6NH, LP-E6N and LP-E6 batteries. The convenient BG-R10 grip accessory can also improve handling for users while capturing portrait photography.

Canon RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM
The Canon RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM is a high-performance and versatile super-telephoto zoom lens that will find its way into the bags of many photographers. The compact and lightweight lens features optical image stabilization of up to five stops* of shake correction with three different IS modes, including standard, panning and during exposure only. Two Nano USM motors are at the heart of this lens and provide users with high-speed, smooth and quiet auto focus with a minimum focusing distance of three feet. Additional features of the Canon RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM include:

Rotation-Type zoom ring and torque adjustment allows for precision control and feel
Customizable control ring that enables photographers to adjust exposure compensation, shutter speed, aperture or ISO
12-pin Communication System
Canon L-Series grade dust and weather-resistant construction with a fluorine coating
Lens hood with side window allows specialty filters to be adjusted even while Lens Hood is attached
Compatible with the new 1.4x and 2x RF lens extenders (from 300 to 500mm focal length)

Canon RF600mm and 800mm F11 IS STM
The Canon RF600mm and RF800mm F11 IS STM lenses are the first fixed focal length super-telephoto RF lenses and are incredibly compact and lightweight. The portability of the new lenses is made even greater due to the ability for the lens barrel to retract and lock in place when the lenses are stowed away and not in use. Diffractive Optics technology helps to reduce the necessary number of lenses and greatly diminish the cost of the lenses, making them affordable for a broader group of photographers. Additional features of the Canon RF600mm and RF800mm F11 IS STM lenses include:

Lightweight – the RF600mm weighs approximately 2.05lb and the RF800mm weighs approximately 2.78lb, respectively
Compact size, RF600mm measures approximately 7.85inch and RF800mm with measures approximately 11.09inch when retracted, respectively
Fixed f/11 aperture
Optical image stabilization of five stops* for the RF600mm and four stops* for the RF800mm of Shake Correction
Lead screw-type STM enables smooth auto focusing for still-image and video shooting
Customizable control ring that allows photographers to adjust exposure compensation, shutter speed, aperture or ISO
12-pin Communication System
Compatible with the new 1.4x and 2x RF lens extenders

Canon RF85mm F2 MACRO IS STM
The third RF85mm lens in the RF lineup, the Canon RF85mm F2 MACRO IS STM is compact and lightweight, featuring a bright f/2 aperture helping to capture images that have exceptional bokeh. The lens features a maximum magnification of 0.5x and a minimum focusing distance of 1.15 feet, providing users with macro-photography capability. Additional features of the Canon RF85mm F2 MACRO IS STM include:

Optical Image Stabilization with up to five stops* of Shake Correction
Hybrid IS compensates for angular and shift camera shake during macro photography
Control Ring for Direct Setting Changes.
12-pin Communication System
Nine blade Circular Aperture

RF Lens Extenders
Lens extenders have long been a practical and useful tool for a variety of photographers. That story continues with the introduction of the Extender RF 1.4x and Extender RF 2x. The new lens extenders inherit the same high image quality, precision AF and reliability, such as being drip and dustproof, of EF lens extenders. When used in combination with the newly-released compatible lenses, the capturing range can be dramatically increased, providing consumers with additional use cases for their existing RF lenses.

Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-300
Completing the lineup of professional printer options from 13 inches through 60 inches, Canon also unveiled today the new 13-inch Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-300 Inkjet Printer along with a new Premium Fine Art Rough paper. Providing an improved workflow and high-quality output within a smaller footprint compared to previous models, this new printer excels at professional printing performance. Combined with the new Premium Fine Art Rough paper that features a textured surface to express the depth of an image, the printer along with the paper and new EOS R5 or EOS R6 camera introduces a new powerhouse professional imaging trio that meets creators’ demands.

Pricing and Availability
The EOS R5 full-frame mirrorless camera is scheduled to be available at the end of July for an estimated retail price of $ 3899.00 for the body only and $ 4999.00 for the R5 and RF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM lens kit**.

The EOS R6 full-frame mirrorless camera is scheduled to be available at the end of August for an estimated retail price of $ 2499.00 for the body only, $ 2.899.00 for the R6 and RF 24-105 F4-7.1 IS STM lens kit or $ 3,599.00 for the R6 and RF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM lens kit**.

The BG-R10 battery grip accessory and WFT-R10A are both scheduled to be available at the end of July for an estimated retail price of $ 349.99 and $ 999.99**, respectively.

The RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM lens is scheduled to be available in September 2020 for an estimated retail price of $ 2,699.00. The RF600mm F11 IS STM and RF800mm F11 IS STM lenses are scheduled to be available at the end of July 2020 for an estimated retail price of $ 699.99 and $ 899.99, respectively. The RF85mm F2 MACRO IS STM lens is scheduled to be available in October 2020 for an estimated retail price of $ 599.99 **.

The RF Extender 1.4x and 2x are scheduled to be available at the end of July for an estimated retail price of $ 499.99 and $ 599.99** each.

The imagePROGRAF PRO-300 Printer will be available later in July for a suggested retail price of $ 899.99. Premium Fine Art Rough paper will also be available later in July for a suggested retail price of $ 44.99 for Letter size, $ 109.99 for 13” x 19” inches and $ 169.99, 17” x 22” inches**.

For more information please visit, www.usa.canon.com/virtualproductlaunch

** Specifications, availability and prices are subject to change without notice. Actual prices are set by individual dealers and may vary.

Canon RF 85mm F2 Macro IS STM specifications

Principal specifications
Lens type	Prime lens
Max Format size	35mm FF
Focal length	85 mm
Image stabilization	Yes
Lens mount	Canon RF
Aperture
Maximum aperture	F2
Number of diaphragm blades	9
Optics
Elements	12
Groups	11
Special elements / coatings	One UD lens
Focus
Minimum focus	0.35 m (13.78″)
Maximum magnification	0.5×
Autofocus	Yes
Physical
Weight	500 g (1.10 lb)
Diameter	78 mm (3.07″)
Length	91 mm (3.56″)
Colour	Black
Filter thread	67 mm

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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How to Achieve Great Portraits with Window Light

21 Jun

The post How to Achieve Great Portraits with Window Light appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Mat Coker.

When you learn to do portraits with window light you can set up a studio anywhere there is a window.

In this tutorial, I’ll give you all the important information, including what to do with different window sizes, where to position the person, and how to make their eyes sparkle.

You’ll see examples of newborns/infants, children, professional headshots, and candid moments.

The bigger the window, the nicer the light

The first thing that you should know about making portraits with window light is that the bigger the window, the nicer the light. What each photographer considers to be “good” light is relative. But many photographers want soft light for portraits.

If you would like soft light for your portraits, then you need a large window. If you want harsh light, look for a smaller window.

This principle is true for all light sources; the larger the light source, the softer the light will appear on your subject.

Natural light portrait — Notice how dark and crisp the shadows are when using a small window (approximately 12 inches by 12 inches). ISO 1600 f/2.5 1/320 sec

window light portrait — But the window in this photo was about ten times the size, resulting in brighter light and softer shadows. ISO 1600 f/2.4 1/500 sec

Remember that small windows are more likely to create harsh looking light with dark, crisp shadows, while larger windows will produce softer-looking light with gradual, subtle shadows.

A larger window will also create more sparkle in the eyes (you’ll learn how to do that below).

Where to position the person

Now you know how to get soft light or harsh light for your portraits.

The next thing you need to know is where to position the person for the portrait.

If you have beautiful soft light, but you position the person wrong, then the light won’t look pleasing on the person’s face.

Portrait lighting usually looks best when the light source is in front of the person, but off to the side. It also helps if the light source is a little higher up.

portraits with window light — Notice that the window is beside the infant and that she is placed back a bit.

Natural portraits portrait with window light — This is the resulting portrait. 50mm ISO 1600 f/4.0 1/500 sec

laying down portraits with window light — In this case, I laid her down with the window above her. I could have turned her to the side a little bit, but decided not to because I like the way the catchlights will appear in her eyes.

Do not sit them in direct sunlight

If there is direct sunlight coming in the window, make sure that you do not sit your subject in the direct sunlight. If you do, the window will no longer be the true light source; rather, the harsh sunlight will now be the light source.

infant portraits with window light — Notice how the two girls are positioned in this photo. The one on the left is in direct sunlight, while the one on the right is out of the direct sunlight.

How to make their eyes sparkle

The sparkle in the eye that you see in portraits is called a catchlight. You create catchlights by making sure that the window is reflected in your subject’s eyes.

catch lights portraits with window light — Do you see the sparkle in the top left corner of her eyes? This is the window reflecting in her eyes. 50mm ISO 1600 f/4.0 1/500 sec

Position of catch lights — You can tell where the window is positioned by where the reflection is in her eyes. Now that she has turned her head, the catchlights are in the lower part of her eyes. 50mm ISO 1600 f/4.0 1/500 sec

When doing portraits with window light, be sure to bring your portrait to life with catchlights.

How to get rid of unwanted shadows

It can be hard to take a portrait using a window and have no shadows on the face. But you can fill in those shadows or make them disappear using a reflector. Remember, you can use any large white surface as a reflector.

portrait with window light — You can soften or reduce shadows by using a reflector. If you don’t have a professional reflector, you can use a large sheet of white paper or poster board.

how to use a reflector for portraits — You can soften or reduce shadows by using a reflector. If you don’t have a professional reflector, you can use a large sheet of white paper or poster board.

Window light for headshots

At this point, you understand that large windows create soft light, you can use a reflector to fill in shadows, and that catchlights create a sparkle in the eye. You’re on your way to having a pro studio set up in your living room!

Here is a setup that you can use for headshot portraits with window light.

window light headshots — Notice the soft light and nice catchlights. A reflector was used for this portrait.

candid portrait with window light — No reflector was used for this portrait.

Window light in everyday life

Now that you know the principles, you can use window light with candid photography as well.

Remember that it is often good to have the light source coming from the side. However, you can experiment by putting the window behind your subject to make creative silhouettes. You can also get creative by allowing direct sunlight to fall on your subject.

How to Achieve Great Portraits with Window Light

Did you know your home was filled with such great light sources?

Studio strobe lights are wonderful to use, but they’re not always affordable or practical to drag around.

Once you know the principles, you can use windows just as effectively and creatively as strobe lights.

Remember these principles when making portraits with window light:

Larger windows create softer light
Smaller windows create harsh shadows
Do not sit your subject in direct sunlight
Have the window to the side and in front of your subject
Use a reflector to fill in shadows
Catchlights create a sparkle in the eyes
Use a backdrop for professional portraits
Get creative with backlight and candid moments

One of the best ways to get started is to use a toy as a model. Go and have some fun with this and share your results with us in the comments!

The post How to Achieve Great Portraits with Window Light appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Mat Coker.

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Video: Taking virtual portraits of Major League Baseball players under quarantine

20 Jun

Billie Weiss, the Senior Manager of Photography for the Major League Baseball team the Boston Red Sox, had to get creative for this year’s team portraits due to lock-down restrictions. So, as many photographers have, he resorted to FaceTime to capture team portraits of eight players from afar.

‘I was with the team in Florida covering the tail end of Spring Training when the initial Coronavirus outbreak hit in the United States,’ Weiss told DPReview. ‘Games and all other activity at the training facility pretty much shut down immediately, so I flew back home to Boston. Days later, we learned the start of the MLB season would be delayed, and since basically everything in Massachusetts besides the essentials were shut down, I ended up not really leaving the house or shooting much of anything for about 3 weeks.’

It was during this time, in calls with other members of the Red Sox content team, the idea of doing virtual portraits was brought up and agreed upon. Weiss said of the concept (emphasis his):

‘I think the idea came mostly out of a desire to shoot something after sitting at home for nearly a month and missing being able to do what I love — interact with people through photography. I felt like this was a way we could still do something creative involving photography that worked within the limits of social distancing, quarantine, and lack of sporting events.’

For his setup, Weiss gathered up as many Red Six items as he could from around his home and built a mini studio to use as the backdrop. With a basic backdrop ready to go, he arranged the various pieces of equipment and memorabilia, switching it up with each player he photographed. Weiss told us the following about the gear he used:

‘I shot these on a Nikon D5 with the Nikon AF-s Nikkor 105mm f/1.4E lens. For lighting, I used a combination of both a Dracast LED 1000 Pro Daylight continuous light panel with a Profoto B1 Air 500 watt strobe light covered with colored gels. I switched the props and used different color gels from player to player to give the series a bit more variety. Overall, it was a pretty modest setup, but without access to the rest of my gear stuck at the Spring Training facility in Florida, I worked with what I had!’

Weiss photographed eight players, which thankfully ‘thought the concept was strange but cool!’ He attributes the willingness of the players to participate with the relationships he’s built over the years with them. ‘Our relationship is at the point where they trust me with most of our shoots, even something as weird as this,’ he told us. Even better, the players were happy with the results and some even shared the images across their social media profiles.

As for his final takeaways, Weiss told us the following:

‘Overall, I wanted to shoot something with our players that was representative of this crazy time we’re living in, and hopefully this achieves that goal. I think it’ll be interesting to look back on these photos years from now and be reminded of what a strange time this was.’

You can keep up with Weiss and his work on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and his website. You can also subscribe to his Youtube channel for more behind-the-scenes videos.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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How to Edit RAW Portraits in Lightroom

07 Jun

The post How to Edit RAW Portraits in Lightroom appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.

What’s the best way to edit RAW portraits in Lightroom? Is there one correct way to do this?

As with many aspects of photography, there is no right or wrong way. What is most important is being intentional with the edits you do make. Start with a clear idea of what you want the completed photo to look like.

You want to feel satisfied when you’re done. You’ll also want your subject to appreciate the portraits you’ve taken of them.

In this article, I’ll walk you through some Lightroom techniques to help you create well post-processed portraits from your RAW files.

Young Thai woman traditional dancer — © Kevin Landwer-Johan. Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8, 1/400 sec, f/3, ISO 400, Manual Mode, Pattern Metering.

Know what you want – a realistic look or not

Whenever you start to edit RAW portraits you must decide first the style of photo you want to end up with. RAW files from modern cameras contain a huge amount of data. This data can be manipulated extensively in Lightroom to alter the appearance of the photo.

It’s up to you how you edit. You can aim to work on the RAW file to get the photo looking as realistic as possible. Or you can alter it in such a way it’s transformed into a very different-looking image from the unedited RAW file.

Your intention will guide you to achieve the look you want. If you’re not sure how you want the finished photo to look, you can waste a lot of time messing around.

Keeping in the style of how you lit and composed the portrait is the easiest approach to take.

To edit RAW portraits created with soft light and a warm feeling, you’ll often want to retain the feeling of the photo when you make your adjustments. It would the same for a portrait lit with hard lighting with a more dramatic look.

Editing in Lightroom, you have the opportunity to alter the image to achieve the look you want. Knowing what you want is a good first step – even before you open Lightroom.

To illustrate the process I use, I will aim to produce a natural-looking edit of this portrait.

RAW file image for article edit RAW portraits

White balance for correct skin tone

Most of the time, I have my camera’s white balance set to Auto. I find this setting produces photos with correct colors most of the time.

With RAW files, it’s easy to correct the white balance when it’s a little off. I will start with the eyedropper tool and click it in a neutral area. If there’s not suitable white in the photo, I’ll pick a grey area.

In this photo, I needed to adjust the Temp slider towards the left because the eyedropper overcompensated for the slightly cool tone of the original. I have made the adjustment so her skin tone looks as natural as possible.

Crop and straighten

Next, I crop and straighten the photo. I prefer to crop my portraits early in the editing process, so I only see what I want.

This portrait needed very little cropping. There was a bright area on the left that was distracting. I have cropped this out and, in doing so, the model’s right eye is closer to the one-third guideline on the right of the image.

When I crop, I am looking to eliminate parts of the photo that don’t add to it. I also look to improve the shape of the composition.

Crop image example for edit RAW portraits article

Correct highlights and shadows

Portraits taken outdoors in the shade, as this one is, often have a limited tone range. They do not contain much difference in tone value between the brightest and darkest areas. This makes them easier to work with than portraits made in hard light.

My model’s hair is very black, but it looks dull. Moving the black slider to the left darkens her hair a little too much. I then use the Shadows adjustment slider and move it to the right. This brings back some of the detail while retaining the blacks.

When you edit RAW portraits, you must consider how the brightest areas of the photo look as well. In this picture, I am happy with the look of the highlights, so I have not made any adjustments to them.

Highlights can be challenging to adjust and keep them looking clean. If you have very overexposed highlights and attempt to adjust them with the Highlights and/or Whites sliders, take care they do not end up looking grey. It’s best only to make adjustments when there is actually detail in those areas.

adjust the shadows for article on edit RAW portraits

Removing spots and blemishes

This young woman has beautiful skin and applies her make up very well. There’s not much post-processing required. Often this is not the case. People will often have small blemishes on their skin. Removing them will not change the feel of the portrait, but it will help your subject feel better about themselves.

When I edit RAW portraits in Lightroom, I use the Spot Removal tool and zoom into my photo to the area I want to work on. Adjust the size of the tool so it’s a little larger than the spot you want to remove. Simply click on the spot and Lightroom removes it.

Check to see the area you edit blends well. On smooth skin, Lightroom usually does a great job of this. Sometimes there will be some noticeable contrast in the area you apply the brush too. If it’s too obvious, undo that step, adjust the brush size a little, and try again.

Fine-tune with the adjustment brush

The Adjustment Brush is a powerful tool to use when you edit RAW portraits. You can use it to diminish or remove wrinkles, enhance eyes, whiten teeth and a whole lot more. Here I’ll show you how I use it in some of these ways.

Soften dark bags under eyes

As I begin to paint with the Adjustment Brush, I push the Exposure slider to the far left or right. This allows me to see clearly the area that I am painting over.

Adjustment brush example for edit RAW portraits article

Once I have the part of the image painted that I want to work on, it looks pretty terrible, as in this example.

Now, I’ll work with the various sliders to bring up the dark parts I’ve painted over so there’s not so much contrast. Doing this, be careful not to overcompensate and make these shadows look unnaturally light.

Whitening teeth

Paint over the teeth with the adjustment brush. Be as precise as possible and not cover any of the lips or gums.

To make the teeth look clean and white, I use a combination of sliders. I start with the Exposure Slider as it will often make the teeth look good. You can also make use of the Dehaze and Temp sliders. Dehaze will lighten and soften dark areas. Moving the Temp slider to the left will reduce yellowing.

Brightening eyes

It’s important to edit RAW portraits so your subject’s eyes look right. Too much editing, or not being careful enough when you do edit eyes, can ruin a portrait.

In my example portrait, I have made minimal changes. There are so many tutorials available about editing eyes that I will not go into detail for this article.

All I have done on this portrait is to brighten the whites of her eyes using the Adjustment Brush. I have painted the whites of her eyes and boosted the exposure slightly. This was enough.

Dark-colored eyes are more challenging to manipulate than lighter colored eyes. With light eyes, you can alter the color of the iris and control the way the eyes look more than with dark eyes.

Conclusion

The possibilities when you edit RAW portraits are almost limitless. Knowing the look you want helps you keep on track and saves you time.

Duplicating a file in Lightroom allows you to make copies to experiment with. Right-click the photo and choose Create Virtual Copy. Now you’re free to experiment with a completely different look and feel for your photo.

Being intentional as you edit and not pushing any slider to it’s extreme will help you create better-looking portraits in Lightroom.

Do you have any other tips for editing RAW portraits in Lightroom that you’d like to share? Perhaps you’d like to share your resulting images with us? Please do so in the comments!

The post How to Edit RAW Portraits in Lightroom appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.

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