It's not difficult to create a lovely portrait that your friend will love. If you have no flash and no studio lights, then why not consider window light?
First of all, create stunning portrait photography is not about camera settings. In fact, if you focus on camera settings as the way to take portraits, you will be disappointed. Camera settings are part of it, but not the whole part. By all means, take notice of your settings, but do not rely on them to be the whole answer to creating stunning portraiture.
Many photographers don't actually use the light from the window to illuminate the subjects face or eyes. Instead they photograph the subject side on or with the window light from behind. This method will not work and you will be quickly disappointed with the results.
Once you have made a decision on what sort of portrait you want to create, then think about your lighting. First and foremost your lighting is the most important thing in your photography portraiture is no exception.
Changing the white balance to suit your portrait is essential if you want to create beautifully warm and fresh skin tones. It's easy to create unsuitable colour tone through a lack of understanding about white balance and how it affects your friends skin tone. In this case do a custom white balance before you shoot.
Soft light, or diffused light, is the light you see on a cloudy day. The light softens and the bright areas even out and don't leave many shadows. The intensity (brightness) of this light is fairly low. This kind of light is best for portraits. Diffused light is good for portraits because it reduces skin blemishes, evens out and softens skin tone and generally looks a lot nicer. Light also has a temperature. You'll see this in the form of colour. Have you ever noticed on some days the light looks a little bluer than other times? And have you ever noticed that at around dusk the light looks orange and yellow? This is commonly known as temperature, or hue. This phenomenon occurs because the sun shifting across the sky at different times will bring differences in colour temperature.
Now that you have the ideal exposure take a grey card and place it in front of the lens. Set your camera to the settings of the light meter. Take a photo. Set the photo of the grey card to the correct white balance on your camera. Now your white balance should be ok. It's been set for the conditions you are shooting in.
You can actually change this hue on the camera. You can make it look blue, yellow or orange. This is called white balance. You can select this range of colour hues depending on the look and feel you are aiming for. If you want to create a romantic feel for your portrait then you may chose a orange colour temperature. This is kind of like the light you see at sunset or dawn. It can influence the way people feel when they look at the photo. Don't forget about a white colour temperature, such as the hue you see at midday. Usually portraits look nice when the colour temperature is white.
If you find that you still have too much shadow on the opposite side to the window, then try using a reflector. A reflector can bounce the light back onto the persons face to fill in the shadows. This works very well in some situations.
Window light can help soften shadows and provide an "all over" direction. This depends on whether the window light comes from the person's top and side and not directly from above. If you have lots of light from above then try and find a large window. This will help throw light on the persons face evenly. Once light is spread evenly across someone's face you will have a greater chance of softening the emotion of the photo.
When shooting a portrait using window light its important to keep the emotive affects of that light clear in your mind. A soft light cast across someone's face can often create an endearing affect. This is ideal for weddings, young people and children. If you want to create something theatrical and moody, try a different direction and quality of light. However, for windows, you will find that creating an endearing affect is easier than you think.
Window light is great for portraits. Use a tripod with your shoot and get the right position before shooting. Before you shoot carefully examine the quality, contrast, temperature and direction of this light. If you work with light in this way you begin to look at all the very subtle aspects of your portrait. Once you begin this process you will begin to find the sheer enjoyment of portrait photography.
First of all, create stunning portrait photography is not about camera settings. In fact, if you focus on camera settings as the way to take portraits, you will be disappointed. Camera settings are part of it, but not the whole part. By all means, take notice of your settings, but do not rely on them to be the whole answer to creating stunning portraiture.
Many photographers don't actually use the light from the window to illuminate the subjects face or eyes. Instead they photograph the subject side on or with the window light from behind. This method will not work and you will be quickly disappointed with the results.
Once you have made a decision on what sort of portrait you want to create, then think about your lighting. First and foremost your lighting is the most important thing in your photography portraiture is no exception.
Changing the white balance to suit your portrait is essential if you want to create beautifully warm and fresh skin tones. It's easy to create unsuitable colour tone through a lack of understanding about white balance and how it affects your friends skin tone. In this case do a custom white balance before you shoot.
Soft light, or diffused light, is the light you see on a cloudy day. The light softens and the bright areas even out and don't leave many shadows. The intensity (brightness) of this light is fairly low. This kind of light is best for portraits. Diffused light is good for portraits because it reduces skin blemishes, evens out and softens skin tone and generally looks a lot nicer. Light also has a temperature. You'll see this in the form of colour. Have you ever noticed on some days the light looks a little bluer than other times? And have you ever noticed that at around dusk the light looks orange and yellow? This is commonly known as temperature, or hue. This phenomenon occurs because the sun shifting across the sky at different times will bring differences in colour temperature.
Now that you have the ideal exposure take a grey card and place it in front of the lens. Set your camera to the settings of the light meter. Take a photo. Set the photo of the grey card to the correct white balance on your camera. Now your white balance should be ok. It's been set for the conditions you are shooting in.
You can actually change this hue on the camera. You can make it look blue, yellow or orange. This is called white balance. You can select this range of colour hues depending on the look and feel you are aiming for. If you want to create a romantic feel for your portrait then you may chose a orange colour temperature. This is kind of like the light you see at sunset or dawn. It can influence the way people feel when they look at the photo. Don't forget about a white colour temperature, such as the hue you see at midday. Usually portraits look nice when the colour temperature is white.
If you find that you still have too much shadow on the opposite side to the window, then try using a reflector. A reflector can bounce the light back onto the persons face to fill in the shadows. This works very well in some situations.
Window light can help soften shadows and provide an "all over" direction. This depends on whether the window light comes from the person's top and side and not directly from above. If you have lots of light from above then try and find a large window. This will help throw light on the persons face evenly. Once light is spread evenly across someone's face you will have a greater chance of softening the emotion of the photo.
When shooting a portrait using window light its important to keep the emotive affects of that light clear in your mind. A soft light cast across someone's face can often create an endearing affect. This is ideal for weddings, young people and children. If you want to create something theatrical and moody, try a different direction and quality of light. However, for windows, you will find that creating an endearing affect is easier than you think.
Window light is great for portraits. Use a tripod with your shoot and get the right position before shooting. Before you shoot carefully examine the quality, contrast, temperature and direction of this light. If you work with light in this way you begin to look at all the very subtle aspects of your portrait. Once you begin this process you will begin to find the sheer enjoyment of portrait photography.
About the Author:
Amy Renfrey is the author of several photography ebooks and a monthly photography emagazine. She shows you how to take stunning photos every single time, even if you have never used a digital camera before. Click here to learn photography the easy way.
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