 Jessica K. Cunningham |
How to shoot contasting couple I will be doing the portaits of my cousin, her husband and her stepdaughter. I am still a novice at portait photography, only having a couple of families under my belt, all warned before hand that I am no pro. My concern about this family is that she is very white and red headed, he is very black, and the stepdaughter is right in the middle. I guess I am just wondering how to balance them out. I am worried about washing her out or loosing him in shadow. We are also not sure what colors they should go with, leaning towards black shirts (they want to wear the same colors). These will be outdoor shots. Any input would be more than appreciated! Jessica
|
|
|
|
||
- Carlton Ward Contact Carlton Ward Carlton Ward's Gallery |
Hello Jessica. I highly recommend using a white balance card and this will do the trick. You shoot with the white balance card which has white, black & 18% gray sections and this will show on your display with 3 distinct vertical lines on your histogram. Once you have the 3 lines centered in their re4spective areas of the histogram, you will have the correct white balance. Then go to the custom white balance on your camera and select it, it will pull up the last shot you took of the white balance card and then you select that image and you will be set for shooting the portraits. I use a white balance card from Photovision that comes with a DVD to explain what I just told you. http://www.photovisionvideo.com/ Good Luck, Carlton
|
|
|
|
||
|
John H. Siskin |
Hi Jessica, I would use a very large soft light source on his side of the shot. The slow gradation should flatter her. Depending on the amount of detail in his face with the large light I might add a second light in him with a grid spot. The daughter should be in the middle of the shot and will probably be fine. The thing is every portrait should be done to fit the subjects, and this will just take a little more work at balancing the light. If you can tether the camera to a laptop this will be easier to set-up. I think all the Canon dSLR cameras come with this software, and there are at least a couple of options for Nikons. Thanks, John Siskin
|
|
|
|
||
|
This old forum is now archived. Use improved Forum here
Report this Thread |
||