My Sunday Series on Outdoor Portraits remains remains on hiatus as I consider changing this day’s theme to Available Light Portraiture, which is what today’s post is about.
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Previously on Saving the World One Pixel at a Time: When I was a young photographer I asked my mentor what was the worst thing I could do during a photo shoot. To my surprise he said the worst thing I could do was“not talking to the people.” He thought if you didn’t talk to them you were never, ever going to make a good portrait.
Let’s Start with Some Basics
Even when in a group shoot, you should always introduce yourself to the model that you’re photographing and be sure to use her name while making images of her. This image of Tasha, for example, was made at a group model shoot in Arizona and one of the things we talked about was whether her eyes should be open or closed when I made this particular photo. Together we decided to make shots of each option and while the variations dramatically changed the mood of the images, I liked both versions.
I can’t emphasize how important this one simple tip is. My experience has shown that models better relate to photographers who care about them and trust them to make good photographs and will often play to you before other photographers in the group who haven’t made the same effort.
Here’s another tip: To show a model how to stand or where place her hands, I often put myself in the pose so she can see what I want but I always let her give me her own interpretation, which invariably is better. Then, from camera position, I will refine the pose, using my “shoot through a pose” technique, explaining when I say, “look left” or “look up” what I mean is to move her face gradually and slowly in that direction. These small variations can make the difference between a good or a great portrait..
How I made this shot:Tia Stoneman is undoubtedly one of my most popular models; you can read more about her in this post. I never considered her to be a glamour model, although from time to time we made some glamour images. Instead Tia was my first muse, someone who inspired me to try different genres. I wish had the technical skills I have now during the time we spent together compared to when I made the above image.
I photographed Tia using only available light coming from two South-facing windows in the living room of my former home. Is this a great pose? It’s OK but in this case the fact that she was comfortable shows in her expression and as the cliché goes, Expression Sells Portraits. The camera used was a Canon EOS-1D Mark IIN with the EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III lens (at 85mm,) which seems like an odd choice to use indoors. EXIF data doesn’t lie; or does it? The exposure was 1/125 sec at f/5 and ISO 640 with a minus one-third stop exposure compensation.
Perhaps due to the exposure compensation, the original JPEG was slightly underexposed. To correct it, I used the layered dodging tools that are part of the now-free PhotoKit plug-in to even out the exposure on the top and bottom of the image. Then I used the Dfine plug-in to minimize the little bit of noise that was present.
My book, Joe Farace’s Glamour Photography, is full of tips, tools and techniques for glamour photography and includes information on the cameras and lenses I used as well as the complete exposure data for each image. New copies are available from Amazon for $25.86 with used copies starting around ten bucks as I write this. The Kindle version is $19.99 for those preferring a digital forma