Portrait Photography How To

(Editor’s Note: Exploring Light is a monthly Shutterbug column featuring tips, tricks, and photo advice from professional photographers in the Canon Explorers of Light and Canon Legends education program. This month's column is by Denis Reggie with tips on how to successfully capture weddings like a news event.

Today’s modern digital cameras offer insanely high ISO options, and conventional wisdom is to avoid them and go no higher than at least two settings below the maximum. But according to one top pro, there are times when is OK to use the highest ISO setting available.

Everybody wants to avoid mistakes when it comes to photography and one of the best places to start is in the editing room. There's a tendency by beginner editors to overdo it when they are retouching their portraits and that can be the biggest mistake of all.

Nothing is worse for a portrait than a subject who looks irritated or angry when they're supposed to be relaxed. Unless that's the angle you're going for, and even then, you still need your model to look engaged in a photo. Otherwise, the image will look awkward.

Photographers often spend big bucks on prime lenses with fast maximum apertures for a reason. But if you can’t afford premium glass, the video below is for you.

Making complex masks and precise selections can be an intricate chore especially, if you’re using a Raw editor in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw. That’s why one pro turns to a Photoshop trick whenever he needs accurate control over a specific area in an image.

All photographers have their favorite techniques and styles of shooting, But pros tend to have a few tricks up their sleeves, and in the video below you’ll learn four such skills that one acclaimed photographer says “you can’t ignore.”