The light is a powerful varible in your photos, the way the light appears in your portrait can generates an emotional response from the viewer. Shadows and lights are common in the images that our eyes captches, so it brings an reallity to the holl scene.
Know Your Subject
The first thing to do when you are going to make a portrait is to look into your subject. Stop and take some time to talk to your model if is it possible. If it doesn’t seem or look right for you, then search for characteristics that you can accentuate in the scene. For example, if the person you are going to take portrait has an affectionate look maybe a soft light with no hard shadows can be a better match, although if your subject looks like a person of attitude, some well-defined shadows caused by a hard light can reinforce this characteristic.
Look at Your Location
Open your eyes and look at your location. See where the lights and shadows are, and how you can use this light differences to control your scene. This slight difference can affect how you should put the things into your frame. For example, if your location is a little bit darker, and you have only one shade of light, but the thing you would like to your viewer should see first in this source of light, this can contribute to control your storytelling of your picture. Pay attention to the colors of your location they would say to you what colors your principal subject could use in clothes. This can improve the art direction of your shot and make it more impressive.
Shoot in Raw
Raw is the format of image in your camera that has more information, and you can work better when you are going to edit your photos. I use Raw files mainly when I shoot in low light conditions because I have more options to edit this photo and try to avoid grain in the image.
Accept the shadows
I know people who generally see fashion photograph or advertising photograph prefers to see the hole image clear, without one sharp shadow. I don’t disagree, but as I say in the beginning shadows are part of our daily vision, so it brings reality to our shoot. I think this helps a lot to make our shots more interesting and improves the story in the scene.
Tips by Guilherme Coelho
Hi everyone, I’m Guilherme Coelho, a 22-year-old aspiring photographer from Brazil. I graduated with a degree in advertising and currently working as a photographer in Osasco Town Hall.
I hope you learned something from my tips and apply it in your experience.