![]() ![]() Some of the most beautiful portrait lighting occurs naturally. Add a large white reflector below the subject’s chin, roughly parallel to the floor, and this butterfly lighting becomes clamshell lighting-a popular beauty technique precisely because it fills in dark shadows and makes skin look beautiful. ![]() The frontal light fills pores and wrinkles and sets off the chin and cheekbones. This "butterfly" lighting pattern has been used in beauty shots for more than a century. Oh, and lest you lament a lack of large sources, bouncing a speedlight off a white wall or positioning a subject near a north-facing picture window produces a beautiful, big, soft source.įor all kinds of faces and almost any kind of skin, one of the most flattering lighting techniques places the main light directly in front of and above the subject to produce a butterfly-shaped shadow between the nose and the upper lip. And a close source produces falloff that keeps the light interesting and avoids flat lighting. Using a large source very close to the subject produces wraparound lighting that’s almost always flattering for skin. Still, any sidelight can enhance unflattering textures, so the main light should remain fairly frontal for subjects with less than ideal skin. Soft light like light diffused through clouds or bounced through the diffusion of a softbox, umbrella or silk minimizes texture and contrast, and generally produces soft, appealing lighting on all kinds of skin and from all kinds of angles. The light that’s easiest to use and that consistently produces the most flattering skin tones is a diffused, indirect source. Generally, hard-edged specular lights can be tricky to work with, but done well, the results produce beautiful, glowing skin. That amplifies the appearance of texture-like wrinkles, pores and blemishes. Specular light sources are trickier to get right because they can be so unflattering on skin if they’re positioned toward the side at an angle that rakes across the face. Hard light-a bare bulb-can be flattering, but only if it’s positioned near the camera axis. The first choice is between a hard and a soft light. In the old days, that blur often was done with diffusion on the lens now it easily can be achieved in post with Clarity and Sharpness adjustments during RAW processing, or with Photoshop’s comprehensive Blur filters. When it comes to skin, more sharpness isn’t usually better, so blur often improves skin tones. The subtle camera movement that occurs with a too-slow-to-handhold shutter speed, like 1/10th, can impart a bit of ambient blur even when working with strobes. It’s "dragging the shutter" to add blur in order to remove sharpness and edge definition from pores, wrinkles and blemishes. There’s a somewhat counterintuitive skin-flattering technique I learned from a fashion and beauty photographer. Better still, shoot RAW and refine the white balance precisely in processing. Then set the camera’s white balance setting to Custom, and direct the camera to this frame. Simply shoot a white or neutral gray card under the subject’s lighting, and be sure to fill the frame with the card. In mixed lighting-say, blending flash with indoor bulbs-try setting a custom white balance. But if the camera is set to automatic white balance, it may remove some of that lovely hue. A manual daylight white balance would render the golden glow appropriately to produce warm, flattering portrait light. Imagine you’re photographing someone with beautiful sunset lighting as the primary illumination. There’s nothing less flattering for a face that’s too green or too magenta, which can happen if the auto white balance misses. Whether you’re working with ambient light or strobes, window light or a softbox, it’s imperative to set the camera’s white balance manually in order to produce the most accurate color. So learn how to light to minimize flaws and produce smooth, flattering skin tones. Young and old, men and women alike, everybody hates to see their wrinkles and blemishes on display. There’s one thing all portrait subjects share in common: They want to look good. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |