Do you want to take perfectly illuminated portraits of outdoor subjects in bright sunlight? How about in situations where they’re standing in front of a bright background? Do you hate dark shadowed “raccoon eyes?” The answer to make your outdoor portraits pop, is to expose for the sky. Use this tip to make the shot every time!

Using a SLR 35mm autofocus camera and flash, you can create flattering and dramatic outdoor portraits with ease.

Technique:

With the flash turned off and your camera set in manual mode, use the camera’s internal exposure metering system. Looking through the viewfinder, press the shutter button halfway to illuminate the internal panel. The exposure meter is generally in the center on the bottom as you look through the viewfinder. (-2…1…0…1…+2)

To make the adjustments, start by selecting either your f stop or shutter speed. Aim the camera towards the brightest part of the picture, in this case the sky. Using the meter as a guide, adjust your shutter speed and f stop until reading is centered at 0. With the exposure set, turn on your camera’s flash, stand within a normal flash exposure range (6 – 10 ft.), focus on your subject and shoot.

Your flash will fill in and illuminate your subject nicely. If you desire more or less exposure on your subject, step forward or backwards accordingly. Some flash units can also be adjusted manually to allow shorter or longer bursts. This is also an option.

Very important, — always pay attention to the changing light. The sun going behind a cloud while you are shooting can affect the results of your image. The sky is no longer as bright as when the full sun was exposed so you will need to check your exposure meter again for the change in light.

Last, but certainly not least, be kind to your subject, don’t have them facing so they are looking directly into the bright sunlight. They will appreciate it and it will help to avoid squinty, closed looking eyes.

Examples

The image examples below were shot using a Canon 5D Mark II and Speedlight 580 EXII mounted on camera. The lens – 28-135 3.5-5.6 IS.

Photograph 1, was shot using the camera’s internal exposure meter as a guide. ISO was set at 100, f/13 the aperture with a focal length of 135mm. The meter centered at 0 at 1/125 of a second for the shutter speed. Here’s the result:

Photograph 2, shows the camera aimed toward the bright sky behind my subject, adjusting the shutter speed and f stop until the camera’s internal meter was perfectly centered at 0 . This recorded at 1/400 sec, f/13, ISO 100, 135mm. Here’s the result:

Photograph 3, the exposure meter was set for the sky, flash turned on, aim, focus and fire. Here’s the result:

Sum it up: 1/400 sec, f/13, ISO 100, 135mm with on camera flash. Pretty Blue sky, white billowy clouds, nicely illuminated subject…that’s a wrap!

Tilt shift lenses focus on a single part of the photo and shift (blur) the surrounding area to create an optical illusion of miniaturized scenery. Real tilt shift lenses are quite expensive, but a similar effect can be achieved by using Photoshop after you take the photo.

Tilt shift photographs create an optical illusion that makes scenes appear as if they are actually miniature models (like your uncle’s train set). The outer edges are blurred which tricks the eye into perceiving everything in the unblurred parts as miniature. There is a Flickr group dedicated to this technique. It’s a fun post processing trick – and it’s quite easy to reproduce.

Here is my (and Drew’s) Photoshop tutorial for creating fake tilt shift photos.

1. Taking the photo. An above ground shot is usually best for this type of technique. Cityscapes, crowds, streets, and similar things are perfect.
2. Open the shot in Adobe Photoshop and click onto “quick mask mode”.
   
3. Select the gradient tool.
4. Select the “cylindrical gradient reflected gradient”.
   
5. Draw vertically upwards from where you want the point of focus to be up the screen to the top of the window, and release the mouse button. A red transparent line should appear.
   
6. Go back into “Standard Mask Mode”.
   
7. In Photoshop CS2 or CS3 go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur (Or if you have Photoshop 7.0 you can use Gaussian Blur). Then select the amount of blur you’d like. You can experiment with the radius value a bit to see what amount of blur looks best.
8. (Optional) For a more “plastic” feel you can increase the saturation and contrast in the photo.

There you have it – you should have a nice “fake tilt shift” photo. You can experiment with lots of different photographs – some are a lot better than others for “miniaturization”. Below are a few more examples. Feel free to link to your own tilt shift photos in the comments. Happy shrinking!

In the video the steps are:

Set the dial to “P” “A” (aperture priority – per Helmut’s comment)

Go to “Menu”, Settings (pencil on the left), and scroll down to #12 (BKT Set), press the dial right, Go down to AE & Flash, press the dial right, Select 2.0 Step, and press the dial right “OK”.

Now you will see a BKT setting on your top LCD panel that looks like this:

Take 3 photos (each little black bar disappears once you take them in turn). Voila – you have the photos you need for your HDR.

The 3 consecutive photos taken from the shot in the video are here:

Each one is taken with a different exposure setting – the EV Steps. Once you combine them all in HDR processing software (I use Photomatix) and tweak the settings, the resulting photo should look like this:

Maybe next time I’ll take a photo of something more exciting than some garbage cans and a driveway

In the first part we covered what an HRD photo is, now we’ll go into a basic tutorial about how to create your own HDR (High Dynamic Range) photo. Please keep in mind that I’m very much an amateur – I just started experimenting myself so this is more of a “how to get started” type of guide.

The photo shoot

What you need:

• Camera (with ability to change exposure settings)
• Tripod (not required but highly recommended)
• Photomatix Pro ($99, but you can get it for $85 with Photomatix coupon code VPG15) or Photoshop CS2/CS3

Most modern digital cameras have exposure settings so you should be able to do this even with a normal digital point and shoot camera. SLR cameras usually have a bracketing feature which makes it easier to change the exposure settings automatically. If you are using a point and shoot, you’ll need to find a way to keep the camera as steady as possible when changing settings.

I’d recommend using the following settings:

• Lowest ISO setting (200)
• Aperture Priority Mode (usually a big [A] on the wheel)
• 3 exposure settings
  • EV 0 for the first picture
  • EV -2 for the second picture
  • EV +2 for the third picture

Instructions for the Nikon D50

I personally use a Nikon D50 so these settings are achieved by rotating the top wheel to [A], pressing the “menu” button, going to camera settings (the wrench icon), making sure “CSM/Setup” menu is set to “Detailed”, then going to image settings (pencil icon), scrolling down to #12 “BKT Set” – and setting it to “AE & Flash” with “2.0 Step” setting. This puts the camera in a mode where the 3 consecutive shots will each have a different exposure setting.

Once you have the camera set and on a tripod, take the 3 pictures, each with a different exposure setting. If you have a remote, I’d recommend using that, but if you don’t (like me) then try to not move the camera each time you take the photo. See my HDR tutorial video.

High Dynamic Range Processing

After the shoot, download the photos to your computer. Photoshop CS2 comes with a “merge to HDR” feature, but the tone mapping features are a bit more complicated to get a hang of. If you are feeling brave, check out the “Creating A 32-Bit HDR File In Photoshop CS2″ section of the High Dynamic Range lesson (about halfway down the page).

If you don’t have Photoshop CS2+, and/or want an easier way to process the photo (and have $99) I’d recommend buying a copy of Photomatix Pro. Once you have the program installed you can fire it up and follow the directions. The tutorial at the start of the program (which can also be found online) is pretty good at stepping you through the process. Note: HDR Soft also has a Photoshop plugin, but I highly recommend using the standalone Photomatix Pro to generate the photo. You can download a free trial of the program to test it out but it will create watermarks on the photo until you buy a license.

I looked around at other options for processing HDR photos but didn’t really find anything I liked besides Photomatix and Photoshop CS2.

Modern HDR photography is a fairly new field so I expect this process will be made easier in the future. Please feel free to offer any suggestions, feedback, or your own experiences. Happy shooting!