Do It Yourself Portraiture
A series of free portrait lessons on how to photograph your friends and family
Many of my clients are enthusiastic photographers, but complain that they are “no good” at photographing people. They have photographed their children or partners many times, but they are usually unhappy with the results. Portrait photography, particularly portraits of those most dear to us, can be immensely satisfying.
This series of lessons attempts to show you how to improve your people photography skills to the point where you can photograph your friends and family yourself – without paying me to do it for you!
If you have any questions, or would like to be informed when new lessons are published;
Lesson 1: Seeing the light outdoors
Seeing the light, means looking for and recognizing, the quality and quantity of light, and the direction from which that light is coming.
Quality
For the photographer, quality of light means the colour temperature of light. You can measure this with a colour temperature meter, which professionals use to accurately measure the light for shoots such as architectural interiors, but you shouldn’t need one for outdoor portraiture. Just realize that open shade is colder light, and an overcast sky is even colder, which translates into skin tones that are more blue and green. I.e. cyan.
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| no correction | white balance set to shade |
Oh no! So what do we do? Before digital we used warm up filters – like 81B – similar to your sunglasses, to correct the cold light. With a digital camera you can shoot on automatic White Balance (WB), but this is not such a good idea, as it will also measure the colour of the background. All we are interested in, is achieving a good rendition of the skin-tones of the people we photograph. You can either set the WB with a white card – see your camera instruction booklet – or easier still, set the camera WB on clouds or shade; usually shown with picture symbols on the camera.
Quantity
As people, or portrait photographers, we seek the shade even though the colour temperature needs correcting, because too much light (the quantity of the sunlight), results in closed or squinting eyes, harsh shadows, and burnt out highlights which even Photoshop can’t fix. Which brings us to the third factor, the direction of light.
Direction
If it’s sunny, seek shade – not deep shade – and perhaps find a place where you can shoot against the direction of the sun. This way you can achieve wondrous rim or hair-light, and you can always use a reflector to direct light to the front of the face.
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| hair-light | overhead cover |
On overcast days it will be easier. Yet it would still be advisable to have overhead cover for your sitter; it softens the bags under the eyes, and other lines. A doorway, an umbrella, a tree, a pergola (not the green plastic variety), can all be useful. The overhead barrier changes the direction and quantity of the light.
Photographers call studio-lighting, additive lighting, because you add light to where you want it. Outdoor-lighting is called subtractive lighting, as you must take it away from where you don’t want it to be..........and in our next lesson we will look at seeing the light indoors
