In this article I’ll show you how to edit a photo from a nighttime portrait, and I’ll give you a RAW file on which you can try out the whole approach for yourself. This time around, you’ll be concentrating on work in the Develop module. You’ll learn how to rescue night photos that turned out too dark, improve their colors, and give them some spark using effects and local edits.
Permanent lights for photography come in a variety of colors and shapes. Among the more exotic of these lights are LED ring lights. And we were interested in seeing what all you can conjure up with ring lights, so we gave one of them a thorough test run. Naturally we didn’t keep the results just for ourselves. We were surprised to see how much this light could do—the effects it produces are attractive, and it’s easy to work with. But we won’t stick to just theory; we’ll also show you how to work with ring lights in practice.
The most important thing in portrait photography is your subject. But that doesn’t mean that their environment doesn’t have any role to play. Not at all! The things that a picture shows in its subject’s surroundings have a share in how that picture feels overall. Even an ordinary bush can ruin an entire portrait—or bring it to perfection.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re taking your pictures with an expensive camera or an old phone. In portraits, the same rule of composition will always apply. And your portraits will look a lot better if you stick to them. Rules are made to be broken, of course, but before you break them, you should know them. So let’s take a look at the basic ones. As you’ll see, knowing them can dramatically improve your pictures.
Quality portrait retouching doesn’t have to just mean removing a few pimples. It can be more comprehensive—and there are several different processes involved in achieving a professional portrait. So take a look at how to get ideal faces in portraits by improving not only the skin, but everything else as well.
We all have a favorite photo style or a dream photo. And for many photographers, that’s a window-blind portrait. But there’s one little problem. Sometimes when you’re getting ready to take this kind of photo, the weather suddenly just isn’t cooperating. Got everything ready, but the sun just won’t shine the way you need? We know a way around that. Create a dark-stripes setup in your own home or studio. It’s very easy!
In our last infographic, we described the difference between an umbrella, a softbox, and a beauty dish. So this time around, we’ll focus on where to position your artificial light. Now that you’ve got your equipment, you need to also keep in mind how to use it. Let’s take a look at a few traditional and very useful ways to position your lighting in portrait photography.
Even when you’re shooting portraits outdoors, you can still have your light under control. You just have to take advantage of combined light—that is, artificial plus natural light. It’s generally ideal if you can keep the two light sources in balance. It’s best of all if your audience can’t even tell that you used both types of light.
Artificial light has one large advantage—you have it entirely under your control, and there’s nothing to hold you back from your creative goals. So learn to master flashes and continuous lights, and you’ll take your portrait photographs to the next level.
