Review Digital Camera World 05-22-2013

Digital Camera World

Headshots: how to shoot passport photos social media profiles and other informal portraits May 21st 2013, 23:01 In this ultimate guide to taking headshots, we explain how to shoot passport photos, profile pictures for social media and dating sites, and other types of informal portrait photography. First impressions count, and the headshot that accompanies an online profile can be as important as the words. A blurred shot taken on a night out won't create the right impression for many sites, so we're going to show you how you can produce headshots for a variety of uses. Taking control of the lighting is the key to taking really effective portraits. This control also enables you to produce shots in a similar style time after time. We'll demonstrate how to use a basic flashgun plus some simple accessories. Once you've mastered the basics of taking headshots, we'll use backgrounds and a second flash to give your headshots extra impact. Finally we'll run through how to shoot passport photos that can be used for many types of documentation. Remember that you should use a pose and style of lighting that suits the type of site, medium and purpose that the portrait photograph is going to be used for. How to set up your home studio to shoot headshots You don't need all this kit to shoot the most basic headshots, but with it you have more versatility 01 Radio trigger A radio trigger is the most convenient and reliable way to fire your flashgun off-camera. It gives you complete freedom to move around without having to worry about the length of cables. 02 Softbox A softbox is an easy way to soften the light from your flashgun without losing too much light. Even with the softbox attached, you need to position the flash as close as possible to the subject. 03 Reflector A silver or white reflector is useful for lightening the shadows on your subject. Position one on the opposite side of the subject to the flash. If necessary you can get the subject to hold one under their face. 04 Background A coloured wall is perfectly okay as a background, but you can also use card or cloth for brighter-coloured backgrounds. Stick these to the wall or use a tripod or lighting stand to hold them in place. 05 Seat Your subject will probably be more comfortable sitting down than standing up. When seated they are also much less likely to change position, making it easier to get consistent lighting. 06 Tripod or stand Most radio triggers have a socket underneath to allow you to attach an off-camera flash to a standard tripod. If you are using an umbrella attachment bracket you'll need to use a lighting stand. 07 Get close When firing a flash directly at the subject, the light gets softer the closer the flash is to the subject and harsher the further it is away from them. For the most flattering results, position the flash as close as possible to the model. PAGE 1: How to set up your home studio to shoot headshots PAGE 2: How to set up your flash to shoot headshots PAGE 3: Shooting headshots with a one flash setup PAGE 4: Shooting headshots with two flashguns PAGE 5: How to shoot passport photos PAGE 6: Capturing informal looks for social media profile pictures READ MORE Studio Lighting: 4 seriously simple lighting techniques to try at home 6 simple simple lighting setups for shooting portraits at home (plus free cheat sheet) 14 portrait photography tips you’ll never want to forget Camera Raw sharpening tools: how to restore fine detail and keep noise at bay May 21st 2013, 10:00 In our latest Raw Tuesday series post on editing raw format images we explain a simple technique for using the Adobe Camera Raw sharpening tools. Find out how to preserve fine detail in your raw files while banishing noise. By shooting in your camera's raw quality format you have much more tonal and colour information to work with, which enables you to produce better-looking results in your final image. In our raw start image there are some very delicate midtone details such as the incense sticks and ash that we'd like to subtly sharpen, but this runs the risk of adding more noise to the shot's soft bokeh. Fortunately, Adobe Camera Raw has some handy additional sliders that will help you to reveal midtone texture and detail while masking out the unwanted noise. Here, we'll also show you ways to preview which areas are being sharpened, so that you can get a balance between revealing detail and losing noise. How to use the Adobe Camera Raw sharpening tools Zoom in Go to File>Open and go to your start image. It will open in the Adobe Camera Raw editor. To sharpen, grab the Zoom tool and right click. Choose 100%. Much of the shot is deliberately soft due to a shallow depth of field. Use the Hand tool to view the foreground incense stick.   Adjust Amount Click on the Detail tab. Drop the sliders to 0 and drag Amount to 91 to increase the contrast around the edges. Increase the spread of the edge contrast change by setting Radius to 2.0. Click the Preview box to compare the before-and-after versions.   Restore detail The change is very subtle. To reveal more of the delicate texture on the ash and incense sticks, drag Detail to 45. If you Alt-click as you drag this slider you'll see a greyscale preview. The darker areas will become sharper and the grey areas will remain unsharpened.   Mask out noise To prevent the soft background bokeh (and its picture noise) from being sharpened, Alt-click as you drag the Masking slider. Now only the lighter areas in the preview will become sharpened, leading to less noise. A value of 65 produces a good compromise. READ MORE 10 reasons your photos aren’t sharp (and how to fix them) 34 Photoshop effects every photographer must try once Crop photos the right way: classic mistakes and how to avoid them Adobe Lightroom: what every photographer needs to know about the ‘alternative Photoshop’

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