It's time to take a portrait and we have here are lovely model whitney to help us out thank you so much whitney for coming along now whitney is dressed in this lovely little setup I'm so proud of I picked it out myself we're going for this nice little boat I've said that like five times now it's ok we're going to this lovely little boho kind of flower look bohemian I found that boho stands for booking me and I knew what he meant I never went boho meant it sounded just short for bohemian all right so it's kind of that nice whimsical flower child type of look like a sixties look and we have the perfect backdrop for it but with this shot what we're gonna do is we're not going to show so much of the background we're going to go for a tight close up portrait and we're going to use it first using the portrait mod built in your camera so we're going to go ahead and flip to that now and you can see me flipping to it look it's a little girl's face what is a girl because it's girls are prettier ...

look at what's in that little guy's face I don't understand no I think it's kind of sexist that's ridiculous all right so and we're in port ramon out what I'm gonna do is I'm going to show you guys basically what not to do kind of first ok, now the first thing we would typically do is when we get into a portrait, especially if we haven't done much photographer before is we would just say, oh, this is such a beautiful background and seen honey, and you look amazing, honey, like if she were my wife but she's, not my wife. So if my wife is watching, let me just clarify that, okay? So what we're gonna do is I'm going to take a quick fortune again. What we're doing here is more of, like, a headshot, okay, so I want to kind of crop right here on the top of her head. We're going to go down to basic the necklace. What we don't want to do is you typically you're okay cropping off the hair, but you don't want to crop typically the forehead where you don't have that kind of hairline, you also typically don't want to crop like above the chin. Okay, so we're gonna do this nice little crop here, but I'm not going to anything of my lighting or anything like that. Now we're in portrait mode, and you can see that the flash just popped up and why did the flash pop up? Well, because the camera is seeing that we have these deep and dark shadows now I didn't even turn her towards the sun or away from the sun I just turned so that the sun is kind of falling partially on her face we have a very hard light from this sunlight and you can see that by basically the sharpness of the shadows the shadows are super deep and dark and that's why the pop up flash came up to give us a little bit of fill light but thing is that that feel like not gonna look that great? Let's look at the other settings that it's done. So it's basically shooting this at f twenty okay? And two hundred shutter speed and that's probably because basically they get the shutter speed down so conf filled with flash that's. Why I went up to f twenty typically in this kind of portrait mode it's actually going to use a lower after when it's not encountering a scene like this with these crazy hard light. Okay, let's, do this now. This is what most people that are basically starting out in photography they know to do already and what that is is we're going to place. Whitney is back against the sun. So on this side the sun acts as a nice little hair light now when I take the shot let's, go ahead and pop the pop up flash down and we're gonna scoot back just a tiny, tiny bit it looks like we're still getting pop up flash every camera is going to treat these scenes just a little bit differently. Okay, so right now the pot of flash came up maybe if I get closer if I get closer and I eliminate a lot of this backlight the camera might not freak out it might give me just a kind of a natural shot so let me get close there we go way we got it we had to get very close but we got it now what happened is when we got close basically we eliminated that heavy, heavy backlight and so the camera internally said okay, now that I don't have that backlight it's okay I don't need to flash and it took the shot regular and basically it dropped down to f too and it used one one thousandth of a second at is a one hundred and again the reason why it's going down f two is it's trying to create that separation from the background so when we're shooting portrait we typically go to a lower apter will want to create that separated kind of background blurred wait a second pai explain that really, really quick and why the two shots different so let's just quickly review this let's try to understand what the cameras doing for a second and automated portrait mood in that first shot the camera popped up the flash because it's all very dramatic difference between the model's face, which is in the shadow versus that super duper, bright, super backlit background. So the camera says, well, I can balance that out. Let me use a little bit of phil flash from the top of the camera to get a better exposure now, using the papa flash to fill the shadows like that. Okay, it's better than having a model with a dark and underexposed face, of course, but you know what? We can get a more natural and better look just by exposing for the skin, not using the flash and then letting the background blow out a little bit, but pious still in full auto mode with a portrait setting. So how would he do that? Well, he stepped in a little bit closer to the model, and what that does is eliminates that bright background that the camera was seeing, and once that was done in, the camera can focus on the exposure and settings just on the model's face. Well, I feel so much more natural. Look again, the camera is still in full auto. We're just working a little bit to help it understand what we needed to do, okay, so now let's, watch some more because it's about to get better. What I'm going to do that to add a little bit of dimension to our overall shot is I'm going to add some light. And in this scene, we have this bright sunlight. I can add a nice main light using the silver side of our reflector again. This is a standard thirty dollar reflector going. Olivia, who is currently wearing the reflector, is a hat. Bring the reflector in. I hope you got that on camera. That was awesome. Okay, look, you're gonna come in step right about here. Perfect. Now, wouldn't you look towards me, my dear? Okay, lighter up with that full goodness and kind of try and direct it right on ly to her face right there. Okay. And then whitney, you're going to go chin down a tiny bit. There you go. Right there. Beautiful. Okay, we had a great shot again. This was all done in just this automated mode. Now, the one thing here is that I don't really have control over where it's focusing, which is kind of fine, I think it's going to get it right on, but for the most part, it exposed it perfectly. He had a history and looks absolutely amazing, and the in camera automated portrait work mode worked incredibly well. We just had to set up our lighting do the work for the camera because the camera can't change your lighting. I can't pose your model, it can't choose the composition it can on ly expose the shot, and here when we gave it that final shot, it actually looked really nice. Now what I'm gonna do is I'm going to go ahead and flip into manual mode now lets take over everything from the camera because what I want to do is we're going to get a few different types of shots, I'm going to make adjustments and I'm going to shoot it the way I want compositionally, so I'm going to slip into manual and I'm going to go ahead and bring up the back of the camera I'm gonna flip into ah, let's, go into spot mode, we're going to a spot meter here, run spot metering with spot meaning we're only going to be getting information or light information from this very small part of the face. I'm going to get close with my eighty five millimeter and we're just going to get a reading and I have to get that reading when we put the light on, okay, so you're going put the light on right there, I'm gonna meet her right from the bright side of her skin and I wanted to be around f two against I do want to have that nice that nice depth of field their case let's. Go down to one two thousandth of a second. We're gonna keep it. We could have just used the automated setting because that's, what the army's saying gave us. But I want to make sure we dialed incorrectly here. All right, so we got our shot. Now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go ahead and we're in this lovely scene. I'm going to actually play on some different props. We might go to a white hat and do some other stuff to using the exact same settings, the exact same lighting and so forth. You guys can check out those images, but I want you guys to go out and do your assignment and the assignment this go around. Well, it's, of course, to go out and shoot a portrait. I want you to start shooting that portrait first in the portrait mode, so use your automated mode. Learn how it works in your camera. Some cameras will be a little bit different from others. This camera basically gives me no control whatsoever. While other cameras may allow you to control, say the focus or so and so forth. When you're in that scene, set up the scene, set it up for the best light. Set up your posts, set up everything so that the camera is not well, making compositional and artistic choices for you. Let the camera just do the exposure afterwards. Switch over to manual and try the same thing. Guide and direct the camera to get the right exposure, using one of the techniques that we've shown you all right, so that's it. When you guys get a set of images that you like from this portrait tutorial, then go ahead and upload himto s our lounge dot com and tell everyone about it. You guys go ahead on the next video now.

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SLR Lounge

SLR Lounge is a free online resource created by photographers for photographers featuring tutorials on Lightroom, Photoshop, Shooting, Lighting and much more.

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Pye Jirsa

Pye Jirsa is a lifelong learner who has made a career out of creating frameworks.  These frameworks have helped millions learn languages, develop creativity, master photography, succeed in business, and even improve their communication within personal relationships.

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topics covered in this class

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Ratings and Reviews

P K

I watched this class "live" and was simply amazed at the amount of information Pye covered. Yes, he talks a little fast, and since I was streaming the class I couldn't stop it to review anything, but this guy really knows his stuff and explains it very well so I absorbed quite a bit. Bye is enthusiastic, clearly enjoys his craft, and delivers excellent information to students in a light heartedI and fun way. I think some reviewers are a bit harsh about his humor. Lighten up, people! His examples and the additional information his co-host provides are very worthwhile and you can tell the course was well thought out. I plan to buy the class to help me get back into DSLR photography.

user-7d0810

I really enjoyed this class. I am not a beginner, but there were still things I learned here that I found helpful. I really enjoy learning from Pye. He is quick, gets to the point and doesn't spend a lot of time going over and over the same point. There is a wide variety of things that he covers, so really something for everyone. I would recommend purchasing this class if you want to understand your camera better, improve your technique and start taking better photos.

Joy Bobrink

I have tried to learn photography myself via the internet / YouTube but always felt like I was missing something in my foundation. Sure I can zero out my meter...but why? How do I know the settings I've selected are the correct ones? I've been circling this drain for a year until this course. WOW! Pye has SO MUCH information in every video. He doesn't just stand in a classroom and talk, he's out in the field actually putting his settings into his camera, talking about why and why not and then shooting. He's hands on the entire course. You don't just hear him, you see exactly what he's doing! I'm a visual / listening learner and this is my eureka moment! Thank you Pye! Watching the Exposure video and how you changed the settings yet maintained the exact same exposure was mind blowing. Awesome course! I would recommend this to anyone new to photography or anyone that feels like they don't have all the info.

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Portrait Mode on a Fashion Shoot

Portrait Mode on a Fashion Shoot

Lesson Info

19. Portrait Mode on a Fashion Shoot

Lessons

Introduction

The Camera is Simply a Tool

How Does a Camera Work?

How to Adjust Shutter Speed, Aperture, ISO

Exposure Triangle

What is a Stop of Light

Reading Exposure Via the Histogram

Blown Highlights or Clipped Details

White Balance & Color Temperature

No Such Thing as the Correct Exposure

How To Measure or Meter Light

8 Key Points to Understanding ISO and Image Quality

Understanding the 3 Primary Metering Methods

How to Get Perfect Exposures in One Shot

Equivalent Exposure but Different Images

Compensating for Light and Dark Scenes

Starting with Automated Modes

Auto Mode and Flash-Off Mode