The software has been shown hundreds of examples of beautiful photographs of human faces, and using sophisticated statistical techniques, it has learnt how to subtly enhance photographs to make them more beautiful.
7.Portrait Professional is a sophisticated computer program that has been trained in male and female beauty. If you don’t have a photographic background, a plain white wall works just as well. By moving the subject away from the background by about 1-1.5m you’ll get a nice medium grey background because the fall off in light renders it underexposed. A white background can actually be captured in varying degrees of grey all the way to black, and it all depends on the distance between the sitter of the portrait and the background, and the angle of light. But if you’d like to use a grey background instead don’t go rushing to your favourite online background retailer just yet. Most people have a white background, and they certainly work well for headshots.
One thing worth noting with the latter is that some cameras will struggle to autofocus with four stops of light being blocked, so you will have to be more patient when it comes to focusing or switch to manual focus. You can then either use a two-stop ND filter to open the aperture up to f/4, or a variable ND to go as wide as f/2.8 or f/1.8. The way to get around this is to set up your lighting so everything looks exactly how you want it with the aperture set to f/8.
When using studio flash or even a flashgun off-camera, reducing the power output enough to both sufficiently illuminate the sitter and be able to shoot at a wider aperture can be difficult, often impossible. If you’re shooting at the lowest setting possible and the image is still too light, stop down the lens to f/11 and/or move the light source further away from the sitter. Working out correct exposure from the starting point is pretty easy simply reduce power output if the resulting image is too light, or increase it if it’s too dark. With studio flash start in the region of ¼ power and adjust accordingly, with flashguns begin at ½ power and work from there. The best way to work is to set up your camera first with the desired exposure settings, and then either take test shots before adjusting the output until exposure is correct, or by using a light meter. It’s impossible to give precise settings for the power settings for flash because different studio flash heads and flashguns have different power outputs. Learn more: Studio lighting: 4 seriously simple lighting techniques to try.To reduce shadows you can introduce a reflector and/or a second rim/hair light using a silver umbrella or honeycomb grid.
The idea is to have an upside down triangle of light under the eye on the opposite side of the face to the light source.
For this, position a flash with a softbox at a 45° angle in front and to the side of the sitter. If you’d like more definition Rembrandt lighting is another simple single light technique where there’s more shadow on the face to add definition. A reflector facing upwards on the sitter’s lap will reduce the shadow under the chin. This works well because it provides even light and a pleasing shadow below the nose. Lighting can be as simple as a single light set-up where you position a softbox at a height just above and in front of the sitter’s head and pointing down at a 45° angle. Two lights will always provide more control and options than a single light source, but if you only have one flash you can use a reflector to reduce shadows as required. If you don’t have a studio kit, off-camera flash can work just as well, but a softbox remains essential for producing an even spread of diffused light. The most common way to light portraits is using one or two studio lights with a softbox providing diffused key light.