How to Take a Professional Looking Picture at Home
The difference between a "snapshot" and a professional-looking portrait is a big one but not one that requires a major investment in cameras and equipment. With an understanding of lighting and backdrops, nearly anyone can take portraits to be proud of.
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Instructions
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Choose your location. The best location will have strong, indirect natural lighting, such as an inside a window facing north.
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Set up your backdrop. Your backdrop should help to make your subject stand out. A solid color generally works best, while a cluttered shelf tends to be too distracting. That's a general guideline, though, and not a rule. For example, if your subject is well known as a collector, having him stand in front of the cluttered, overloaded shelves holding his collection is perfectly appropriate.
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Turn off the flash. The flash attached to the camera is the best way of getting light to a subject. But it's also the worst lighting for a portrait because the light coming directly from the camera tends to wash out the natural color and hide the details of the subject. It's also the cause of red eye in portraits.
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Position your subject so she is lit from the window on one side.
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Use a remote flash, "hot" lighting or a lamp,to add any needed light to the other side of her face. Depending on your lighting, you may need another light to keep half your subject's face from being totally in shadow.
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Position an effects light. Take a another remote flash or a desk lamp and put it on the floor behind your subject so that it throws light against your backdrop and the back of your subject's head. The light on the backdrop and the sparkle in the subject's hair, will cause a "spotlight" effect, making your subject stand out nicely from the backdrop.
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Experiment. It's very rare to get the perfect shot on the first exposure. Some tricks you can try include moving the lights and changing the color of the lights with plastic filters. See what happens with the model's face turned more toward the window or away.
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Tips & Warnings
Soft light is better than hard light because gently fading shadows look better than sharp lines between light and dark.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit girl with photo camera image by air from Fotolia.com
