Bringing Light To Ideas

Let me start out by saying I always loved taking photos. Since then I've mostly done landscape/nature photography. I'm starting to branch out and try new things. Lately I've really enjoyed looking at portrait model photos on website and magazine so I thought I would give it a try. I spent a lot of time reading about portrait photography but even with all my preparing I still learned a lot. I thought I'd share my experiences for those of you also thinking about giving portrait photography a try.
     I do have to thank the AverAwards Sdn Bhd who organized the workshop, as they helped me throughout the shooting and made things much easier for me, and thanks to the models and the photographers who set up the lighting equipment. Overall, it was a good experience. Can't say I'll be much more improved for the next shoot but I'm sure it'll come easier for me the more I do it.

Well, that day was a big step for me, I have been asked quite a few times for doing portrait with the right lighting equipment from friends but never taken any seriously until today. To be honest, I am pretty glad for whole the process and outcome, and I have to say doing portrait is actually a lot more fun than I thought. I never believe that I can do other styles of photography. 

I have learn that shooting portraits isn't just taking a photo, its a act to get the model feeling right, posing right, enjoying herself and getting the results they want. But then I started to learn using a flashgun in a proper way and became addicted to the fact that having a flashgun in your bag makes it your own available light that you can carry with you where ever you go and use it whenever you need it. But as exciting as it is when you start to get nice balanced shots, you tend to go all the way with flash only and forget the natural light. Don't forget that lighting with flash is not the way but just a way to light your image. So recently I forced myself to include natural light shots in my sessions.

At that time I was still thinking that the best light was the natural light as flash photography always gave me bad results. Lighting is one of most important aspects in creating a great portrait. Good lighting is easy to achieve, but requires skill and an off camera flash. Getting that flash off your camera and onto a light stand with a shoot through umbrella may seem a bit daunting, but trust me, it’s the only way to guarantee that your photos are going to look professional.

When I started, I studied the best portrait and headshot photographers and practiced replicating their work shot for shot. There is no shame in copying others composition, lighting, and settings when learning, and I strongly encourage it. Once you’ve learned the basics and have a good handle on angles and set-ups that works, you can start to explore your own style.

Photography, at its core, is the creating and capturing of images, and light is the foundation of making such images amazing. It is the direction, absence, intensity, color, and size of the lighting that alters the look of a photograph and creates stunning art work. What we do with light in our work can either create bad or great looking images. 

The lighting so far is not producing great looking images, but we can use this flash to start taking better images by simply modifying the light. And that is where light modifiers come in. Light modifiers come in two types: diffusers and reflectors.

Natural light

When things were moving along, it was alright. Mostly anyway  I was more nervous than any of the models. The only directions I could provide were "do what you do", and while it was more than adequate given each model's experience, I wasn't very communicative, because, of course, I'm shy. Wasn't really sure what to say to break the ice or make things more relaxing, basically. The models were understanding, though, as I told them it really was my first time doing any of this. Like I expected, I was more focused on making good shots