In this video
I'll show you three ways
you can include windows
in a portrait shoot.
Hello I'm Gavin Hoey
and you're watching AdoramaTV
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for us photographers
and in this video I'm going to show you
how you can include windows
in your portraits to create three entirely different looks.
And when it comes to gear
I'm going to keep this super simple
and straight forward.
I'm going to use my camera
and natural light.
Let's get going.
So to help me out today
I've been joined by Jade .
Jade is going to be the model
for this and as you can see
she's dressed in a style that kind of complements
the Rowfant House we're in here
as one of its many interesting periods of history
and we're going to begin
by doing a nice simple silhouette.
It's perhaps the most straightforward
of the shots to do because all you need
is a bright light source
like the outside world
and then your model to be in somewhere darker
like the inside of this room.
Now if you've got a brightly lit room
then you might want to turn the lights out
and also if your room is really white,
then that can cause this
to be a little bit more tricky
but we got quite a dark room to work
with here so this should work really well.
Now if I just let the camera do its own thing
at this point and just say okay,
take a picture at the standard exposure
whatever you think is right camera,
it's going to come out with a shot
that's, well I've got some detail outside.
I've got some detail inside.
It's not really
giving me one thing or the other.
That's what auto exposure does.
In this case I need to take control
of the exposure
and I'm going to do that by switching to manual mode
and then I'm going to use the shutter speed
to adjust the exposure.
I'm going to deliberately under expose Jade
and I can see it actually on the back of my camera
or I could use the cameras built-in spot meter
whichever way you prefer
and I'm going to under expose
by maybe a stop and a third,
up to two stops depending on taste
and the brightness of your background
and that's going to give me a really dark exposure
on Jade but still detail in the outside world.
When it comes to focusing,
I'm using a shallower depth of field
and it's important that you focus on your subject
not on the background
and lastly I think these pictures work great
as black and white images,
so I could do that in post-processing
or I could do it right here in camera
so that's what I'm going to do,
let's take a few pictures.
As you're doing your silhouettes
if you notice that it's not quite
as "silhouettey" as you would like
one thing you can do is actually move
your subject away from the window.
The further they are away,
the less light from the window
will reach them and the more of a silhouette
they will become.
So for this setup
we're going to do something completely different.
We've changed to a different room,
we have found the coldest room
here at Rowfant house, it's freezing.
Last time we exposed for the highlights.
This time I'm going to expose for the shadows.
Now what that will do to the windows
is it'll make the windows
go really bright white.
Now this is a perfect technique
if the world outside your windows
is less than glamorous.
Now to achieve it I need to do some work
on the camera,
so let's come around the back here.
If I let the camera just do its own thing
in aperture priority mode
or something similar
evaluative metering means
I get a picture that is okay.
I can see detail in Jade's face
but I can also see detail in the windows
and remember that's what I want to get rid of
now I could use exposure compensation
but I'm going to switch to manual mode instead
and take full control of my settings.
I'm not going to just my aperture,
I'm going to adjust my shutter speed and ISO.
So if I take my shutter speed
to a slower setting
my picture gets brighter
now to work out whether it's right or not
I can either judge on the screen
or I can use spot metering.
Spot meter off of Jade's face
and that will allow me to get a great exposure.
So that's the basic technique
let's take a few pictures like this.
This works really well
if your model keeps their back to the windows
and those windows aren't in direct sunlight,
and finally we come to balancing
the light and that's where I'm trying to get
the same amount of light
on Jade's face and on the windows
so I can see detail in both.
Now to do this again I'm going to try
and avoid harsh direct sunlight
and I'm going to try and use
one extra thing.
It's..
It's basically this which is
a big silver reflector.
You could use a flash
if that's your preference
but a silver reflector
is a great tool.
Now what this is going to do
is act like a mirror.
It's going to bounce light back on to Jade.
It needs to go very close to make this happen
so the closer I get it,
the more even the illumination will be
so here's what it looks like
exposed for the windows
but without a reflector
and then when I add the reflector in,
you can see how much of a difference
that makes. When it comes to the shooting mode
I could happily
use aperture priority right now
because it's a nice even exposure.
You can use manual if you prefer
but one thing I'd highly recommend is you shoot in RAW.
Okay let's take a few pictures like this.
If you're lucky enough to have a bit
more space you can make more dramatic
use of this reflector
by moving it around. For us we're a little bit limited
on space but fortunately
I've got Jade doing amazing work,
so I'll keep shooting.
So there you go,
having windows in your portrait photography
can make a big difference to your photos
but even bigger is being able to control
what you see or don't see through them.
Now if you've enjoyed this video
don't forget to leave me a comment below,
click on the bell icon
and of course click on the subscribe button,
I'm Gavin Hoey
thanks for watching.