Lighting and Family Portraits - Portrait Photography
Family Portrait Photographer from West Palm Beach to Ft Lauderdale
Portrait photography in Palm Beach and Broward
Photography of Palm Beach
By: Robert H. Walker
Tele: 561-964-5036
If you would like to have studio quality portraits taken of your family at my home studio in Boynton Beach Palm Beach County or at your choice of location, then I ask that you give me a call.
Lighting is a very important aspect of picture and portrait taking and the Lighting can affect the appearance of your subject quite dramatically . By changing the direction of the lighting, you can transform the mood of the image from plain or glamorous to downright ghoulish.
Remember when you took a flashlight while camping and you put it under your chin and let the light shine up towards your face? The lighting technique gave your face a ghastly appearance. The light can make a huge difference in the mood of the photography imaging. Pictures and especially portraits are affected by the color and angles of the lighting. I have color balanced lighting for my home portrait studio in ft lauderdale and you would not believe what I had to pay for a couple of lamps. This just to take pictures for formal portraits at a studio for some family pictures.
Outdoor photography
Bright direct sunlight is considered harsh or hard lighting. Bright lighting will cast dark harsh shadows that can obscure and hide the face and cast shadows under the nose and it will help in pointing out unwanted wrinkles and other blemishes. Harsh lighting will cause squinting in the eyes and this leads to unflattering poses in the pictures. I always warn people to avoid noon time wedding pictures and family portraits outside in the overhead sunlight. If the sky is overcast and cloudy, then this problem is lessened and you still have adequate lighting for your portraits.
Light from an overcast sky or if inside, from a window, is softer in lighting and it helps to create soft shadows that will not obscure and hide the face of the subject and this assists in minimizing wrinkles and other unsightly blemishes on the portrait subject.
The softer lighting will reveal soft and subtle skin tones and beautiful hues of the skin as well as allowing your portrait subject to open their eyes while avoiding squinting and avoid creating a poor portrait pose. I have a soft flash diffuser that will help prevent this problem from occuring for portrait photography. West Palm Beach and Ft Lauderdale is very bright during the day in the summer and the portrait photographer must know their lighting.
Direction of lighting
The direction of light, be it natural sunlight or studio lighting, changes the way that people look. Which direction is best will depend upon many factors. Depending on the portrait effect that you're trying to achieve will decide what type of lighting and the angles chosen.
Frontal lighting is like harsh sunlight shining directly into a person's face and it will create squinting of the eyes and appear to flatten the subjects face.
Overhead lighing like at noon time when the sun is overhead will create and cast an unpleasant facial shadow. I always use my cameras strobe flash to lighten harsh facial shadows. To reduce the
shadow effect of bright light then you do what is called using fill flash.
Side lighting is like the early and late sun in the day and you can locate and position your portrait subject so the lighting or the sun will strike one side of their face. When one side of the subjects face is brightly lit and the other side of the subjects face is in shadow then you will create a very dramatic effect and many television studios have mastered this technique.
Back lighting is a technique that occurs when you position your portrait subject facing away from the lighting source. This serves in placing your portrait subject's face in a slight shadow and you have no problem with squinting and this will add an attractive glowing feature to the subjects hair. You can Use a strobe fill flash to lighten your subject's facial features.
Indoor lighting is the most difficult as taking good indoor pictures is the most challenging because the light is often dim and inadequate.
Natural light from the sun is so much better and brighter than most artificial light. It's usually the best idea to take indoor pictures of your subjects and people with indirect sun light from a northern exposure window or any window not exposed to direct sunlight. The window light is good due to the fact that it is soft and indirect window light is good for people portraits and images. If you find that the side of the face away from the window is too dark then you can move your subject and then reposition yourself and the portrait subject. This way more of the facial features of the subject receives window lighting.
Dim window light may cause the automatic exposure settings of the camera as it forces the camera to use a slower shutter speed. If this happens then you will need to hold the camera very steady and you may try to use a tripod.
Artificial indoor lighting is difficult to get good results as with the typical table and ceiling lights are not properly color balanced. They will not provide proper and attractive lighting for portraits for the people's pictures.
Try to avoid using the incandescent and flourascent lights and try using the strobe flash or indirect window light. If you must use the artificial lighting then you must hold the camera very steady or you may put to use a tripod. Exposure times can be very long with dim light and the average person will shake some and this will cause your image to be blurred.
Flash: A built-in camera flash is ok for indoor snapshots of people. But a built-in flash is not adequate for portrait lighting. For portraits use window lighting or you will find that strobe flashes and studio lighting is best for color balanced pictures and portrait images.
Following these lighting tips for using a flash to take better indoor pictures of people:
Position your subjects well within the flash range for your camera and the flash strobe. When your are photographing a group, make sure that all your subjects are about the same distance from the strobe flash. You can turn on some room lights to help avoid red eye. Red eye is created when the flash hits the back of the eye and reflects back into the camera lens.
The extra brightness in the room created by the extra lights will help reduce the size of your subjects' pupils thus allowing light in. This is why some cameras havea pre flash prior to the flash taking the main flash for the picture, to reduce the size of the subjects pupil.
Be on the watch out for shiny surfaces and what not like mirrors, windows, and sunglasses, as they can reflect the flash back into the lens. If you stand at a rigt angle to a shiny surface then you will help to prevent unwanted reflections of the flash in your photographs. You can ask your subjects that are wearing glasses to turn or tilt their heads slightly to a right angle.
Consider the following portrait photographers tips:
Use soft, diffused lighting just like you would see on a cloudy-day for outdoors lighting or indirect window light and use this to reveal your subject's facial features in a most flattering way.
Keep the background simpleand you will avoid distracting elements in the portrait photography. Try to make it reveal the emotions and feelings of the portrayal of your subject.
Move in close with your lens for an above-the-waist or head-and-shoulders pictorial composition. You can also move back to show the entire figure of your subject.
Try to position your camera angle at or slightly below your subject's eye level, this makes the subject the main image in the picture. Portrait photography in Palm Beach, Florida and I also travel and perform portrait photography in Ft Lauderdale, in South Florida.
Pay special and particular attention to the positioning of your subject's hands and the angle of their head and shoulders. In a portrait, you do not want the hands and head to look awkward or out of place. Portrait photographer in Palm Beach and South Florida.
Family Portrait Photographer from West Palm Beach to Ft Lauderdale
Portrait photography in Palm Beach and Broward
Photography of Palm Beach
By: Robert H. Walker
Tele: 561-964-5036
If you would like to have studio quality portraits taken of your family at my home studio in Boynton Beach Palm Beach County or at your choice of location, then I ask that you give me a call.
Lighting is a very important aspect of picture and portrait taking and the Lighting can affect the appearance of your subject quite dramatically . By changing the direction of the lighting, you can transform the mood of the image from plain or glamorous to downright ghoulish.
Remember when you took a flashlight while camping and you put it under your chin and let the light shine up towards your face? The lighting technique gave your face a ghastly appearance. The light can make a huge difference in the mood of the photography imaging. Pictures and especially portraits are affected by the color and angles of the lighting. I have color balanced lighting for my home portrait studio in ft lauderdale and you would not believe what I had to pay for a couple of lamps. This just to take pictures for formal portraits at a studio for some family pictures.
Outdoor photography
Bright direct sunlight is considered harsh or hard lighting. Bright lighting will cast dark harsh shadows that can obscure and hide the face and cast shadows under the nose and it will help in pointing out unwanted wrinkles and other blemishes. Harsh lighting will cause squinting in the eyes and this leads to unflattering poses in the pictures. I always warn people to avoid noon time wedding pictures and family portraits outside in the overhead sunlight. If the sky is overcast and cloudy, then this problem is lessened and you still have adequate lighting for your portraits.
Light from an overcast sky or if inside, from a window, is softer in lighting and it helps to create soft shadows that will not obscure and hide the face of the subject and this assists in minimizing wrinkles and other unsightly blemishes on the portrait subject.
The softer lighting will reveal soft and subtle skin tones and beautiful hues of the skin as well as allowing your portrait subject to open their eyes while avoiding squinting and avoid creating a poor portrait pose. I have a soft flash diffuser that will help prevent this problem from occuring for portrait photography. West Palm Beach and Ft Lauderdale is very bright during the day in the summer and the portrait photographer must know their lighting.
Direction of lighting
The direction of light, be it natural sunlight or studio lighting, changes the way that people look. Which direction is best will depend upon many factors. Depending on the portrait effect that you're trying to achieve will decide what type of lighting and the angles chosen.
Frontal lighting is like harsh sunlight shining directly into a person's face and it will create squinting of the eyes and appear to flatten the subjects face.
Overhead lighing like at noon time when the sun is overhead will create and cast an unpleasant facial shadow. I always use my cameras strobe flash to lighten harsh facial shadows. To reduce the
shadow effect of bright light then you do what is called using fill flash.
Side lighting is like the early and late sun in the day and you can locate and position your portrait subject so the lighting or the sun will strike one side of their face. When one side of the subjects face is brightly lit and the other side of the subjects face is in shadow then you will create a very dramatic effect and many television studios have mastered this technique.
Back lighting is a technique that occurs when you position your portrait subject facing away from the lighting source. This serves in placing your portrait subject's face in a slight shadow and you have no problem with squinting and this will add an attractive glowing feature to the subjects hair. You can Use a strobe fill flash to lighten your subject's facial features.
Indoor lighting is the most difficult as taking good indoor pictures is the most challenging because the light is often dim and inadequate.
Natural light from the sun is so much better and brighter than most artificial light. It's usually the best idea to take indoor pictures of your subjects and people with indirect sun light from a northern exposure window or any window not exposed to direct sunlight. The window light is good due to the fact that it is soft and indirect window light is good for people portraits and images. If you find that the side of the face away from the window is too dark then you can move your subject and then reposition yourself and the portrait subject. This way more of the facial features of the subject receives window lighting.
Dim window light may cause the automatic exposure settings of the camera as it forces the camera to use a slower shutter speed. If this happens then you will need to hold the camera very steady and you may try to use a tripod.
Artificial indoor lighting is difficult to get good results as with the typical table and ceiling lights are not properly color balanced. They will not provide proper and attractive lighting for portraits for the people's pictures.
Try to avoid using the incandescent and flourascent lights and try using the strobe flash or indirect window light. If you must use the artificial lighting then you must hold the camera very steady or you may put to use a tripod. Exposure times can be very long with dim light and the average person will shake some and this will cause your image to be blurred.
Flash: A built-in camera flash is ok for indoor snapshots of people. But a built-in flash is not adequate for portrait lighting. For portraits use window lighting or you will find that strobe flashes and studio lighting is best for color balanced pictures and portrait images.
Following these lighting tips for using a flash to take better indoor pictures of people:
Position your subjects well within the flash range for your camera and the flash strobe. When your are photographing a group, make sure that all your subjects are about the same distance from the strobe flash. You can turn on some room lights to help avoid red eye. Red eye is created when the flash hits the back of the eye and reflects back into the camera lens.
The extra brightness in the room created by the extra lights will help reduce the size of your subjects' pupils thus allowing light in. This is why some cameras havea pre flash prior to the flash taking the main flash for the picture, to reduce the size of the subjects pupil.
Be on the watch out for shiny surfaces and what not like mirrors, windows, and sunglasses, as they can reflect the flash back into the lens. If you stand at a rigt angle to a shiny surface then you will help to prevent unwanted reflections of the flash in your photographs. You can ask your subjects that are wearing glasses to turn or tilt their heads slightly to a right angle.
Consider the following portrait photographers tips:
Use soft, diffused lighting just like you would see on a cloudy-day for outdoors lighting or indirect window light and use this to reveal your subject's facial features in a most flattering way.
Keep the background simpleand you will avoid distracting elements in the portrait photography. Try to make it reveal the emotions and feelings of the portrayal of your subject.
Move in close with your lens for an above-the-waist or head-and-shoulders pictorial composition. You can also move back to show the entire figure of your subject.
Try to position your camera angle at or slightly below your subject's eye level, this makes the subject the main image in the picture. Portrait photography in Palm Beach, Florida and I also travel and perform portrait photography in Ft Lauderdale, in South Florida.
Pay special and particular attention to the positioning of your subject's hands and the angle of their head and shoulders. In a portrait, you do not want the hands and head to look awkward or out of place. Portrait photographer in Palm Beach and South Florida.
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