Lighting How To

These days, everyone likes throwbacks. Whether it's retro-style cameras, vintage lenses, or even analog photography and film, classic things, by their very nature, never go out of style.

One of the key starting points for capturing great images is exposing a scene properly. And that holds true whether you’re photographing portraits, outdoor sports events, landscapes, indoor concerts, or other types of photos.

Many photographers prefer to use natural light, whether they’re shooting portraits or other types of images. But that can be a difficult challenge under high-contrast light—unless you know the proper technique.

It’s not uncommon for photographers to avoid using a flash when shooting outdoors. Sometimes that’s because they prefer the look of ambient light images, while other times it’ a matter of not understanding how to properly employ supplemental light.

Not everyone who shoots portraits can have a fancy studio. Sometimes, you have to work with what you have, which can be a small space at home or even a room in an apartment. Just because you're shooting portraits in a small space doesn't mean you can't have professional-looking lighting though.

If you’re a regular on this page, you know that we don’t subscribe to the notion that Manual Mode is the only way to go if you’re serious about photography. In fact, we recently posted a tutorial in which one pro insisted that Aperture Priority Mode is often a better choice.

We've heard some people complain their portraits look blah because they can't find good locations to shoot them in. We're sorry but that's a poor excuse because, as pro photographer Manny Ortiz shows you below, good portraits can happen just about anywhere.