Portrait Photography and Editing

<p>Hi there. This is my first post here on photo.net Just wondering if you guys can help me out to get perfect pictures like this. Is this editing, using soft light or type of lens which they use makes the difference? Please share your knowledge on this. Thanks so much!</p>

<p>http://amberaileen.com/2014/11/tiffany-san-antonio-high-school-senior-photographers/<br>

http://amberaileen.com/2013/12/leanna-san-antonio-senior-portrait-photographers/</p>

<p>It's hard to know which of that photographer's images you're referring to, but at first glance, all of the ones I saw appeared to be shot in available light, probably without any light modifiers or reflectors. The look you see comes from understanding how to meter correctly for the subject's face, when and whether and how to allow some backlit scenes to result in a currently trendy amount of lens flare, etc. No magic tricks. Of course post-processing plays a role - that's how some of the images achieve that also trendy bit of desaturation. It's conceivable that some flare/glare effects are added in post, but most just look like what you get when you shoot into the sun.<br /><br />The main issue with respect to lens choice here is choosing an appealing focal length to allow a flattering perspective. You choose perspective by choosing a working distance between you and your subject, and then you choose a lens (or the focal length setting on a zoom lens) to frame your subject well at that distance. There are times when having a fast lens (with a potentially wide aperture, like f/2.8, or even faster like f/1.4) can be helpful in isolating the subject from the background, and producing an appealing blur there. A less expensive kit style lens will be slower, and will be forced to keep more in focus through the greater depth of field that comes with a smaller aperture.</p>

<p>As Matt says, nothing special here.<br /><br />Looks like the photographer shot with a long lens (could be a 70-200 at or near the 200 end) with the aperture close to wide open to throw the background out of focus. Backlightighting and side lighting, but I would say probably with some flash or reflector fill. The desaturated shots appear to be just lens flare to me rather than anything in post processing. (Personally I consider that much flare a failed photo and would delete it, but others seem to like the look. There are other ways to get a desaturated look without being that extreme.) In fact I don't see anything here that jumps out as post processing beyond maybe fine tuning the exposure. As for editing, I like the ones where the young woman is smiling or showing a bit of a smile. I don't think the ones without a smile are as flattering and probably would not have included them.</p>

<p>To get nice pleasent look you can shoot raw, set the contrast to minimum (like -4 in canons DPP software) and blacks to maximum (-4) or just to compensate contrast, add lot of sharpening to make the photo pop up. Color temperature to 6000K. Use longer lens wide open (like 85mm at 1.8), go to the beach or nature, shoot just before sunset and backlight your subjects or during overcast day, quite easy to every photographer. And boring to me ;)</p>

I love the baby and the mother photo!

 

On some of the shots the face looks too sharp. I often like to use a soft filter called a Softar 1 or a Softar 1/2.

Sometimes adding a prop, such as her holding flowers, can add a lot to the image. Softar is a brand name

and these are the best filters on the market. Faces don't look out of focus.

 

For this type of work I like using very long lenses. I prefer a lens between 200 to the 400mm range. However,

sometimes there simply is not enough room to take advantage of longer lenses. The worst lenses to use would be

wide angle lenses, such as a 35mm lens and wider.

 

Look up how to tilt the head and turn the body to slim down a subject. A good portrait book from the better

book stores can surely help. There are a few poses that you have to study, related to lighting and the tilt of the

subjects head, such as the masculine pose, the feminine pose, turning the body more, lighting, such as off

camera lighting can often shed pounds off of a person. Putting weight on the front leg or the back leg totally

changes the image results. There are lighing techniques such as Rembrandt that is really nice to know how to achieve.

 

For closeup work shooting downward can also help make people more attractive and shooting upwards can

often make things worse. At photo shoots I often carry a small ladder. A step stool. I've shot a lot of models,

including Miss America and non nude Playboy headshots. Miss America was taller than me, so a small ladder

is often a must. She was over 6 feet.

 

Lighting is your best friend, so practice using at least 2 lights. Your on camera flash should be used as a fill

and your off camera flash would be your main, or more powerful flash setup.

 

Wearing cloths with strips and plaids usually hurts images. Actually in my opinion it Always kills the image. Tell clients to

avoid these. I also try to avoid whites, because if you are overexposed the whites get washed out and

sometimes actually turn to a light blue tint on parts of the white cloths. If people are tanned or darker skinned

black cloths can often work well, however with light shin, peoples faces can look washed out. Hope this helps!