5 Tips on Getting Perfect Exposure for Your Glamour Images

It’s a common fact that a great glamour photo must also have perfect exposure. An image with bleak colors and flat light and shadow doesn’t draw much attention, so it is the primary task of an artist to make it look good. The bar is raised high in Artistic Glamour Photography.

This may seem pretty simple, yet in practice a perfect exposure is difficult to achieve. Our fellow beauty artists usually take about several thousand pictures only to pick 10 or 20 of them. The “surviving” pictures are normally quite well-shot and very attractive, possessing good light and flawless colors – ready and able for showing off.

If you would like to improve on your skills in getting great exposure for your Glamour Pictures, these 5 simple but effective tips may be just what you need.

1. Mind the light. Though it is a seemingly simple issue, but many photographers forget to consider the light first-hand – just to be unpleasantly surprised afterwards. It is always good to take several pictures in advance to see if the light is arranged correctly and if there are any problems. Don’t rush, as neither your model nor your equipment will run away – work scrupulously and thoughtfully on the light. Afterwards you will spend less time changing the lighting scheme and will be able to devote more to the process of picture-taking.

2. White balance – why it is important. To avoid unnatural colors and shades, adjust your white balance in advance. Your camera can be adjusted for perfect WB in the particular lighting conditions by using some menus and a sheet of paper as a sample. A manual that goes with your camera must have some step-by-step instructions to help you deal with this issue.

3. Soft light in softboxes. Softbox is a simple tool photographers use for more natural lighting: it only consists of a black body and a white screen. The light becomes more subtle and dispersed, which helps avoid deep shadows and make a photo “glow”. This tool is quite suitable for taking more appealing photographs, deprived of sharp shadows and other annoying stuff. If you are determined to get some soft light for your photos, a softbox is just the tool you need.

4. Aperture number. Along with the shutter speed, aperture number directly influences exposure. The narrower it is (which corresponds to high aperture number), the less light it admits into the camera body, but the more sharp image you get. Lower aperture numbers ensure more light gets in and create the so-called depth of field, blurring the picture’s background. You can freely adjust it as you like, so it would correspond to your artistic needs.

5. Post-production. Surely, real professionals don’t use graphic software – or simply don’t talk about it. However, doesn’t it feel a waste to discard a perfectly composed photo just because of minor flaw in its colors or lights? Some decent work with Photoshop could save such photographs. That’s why post-editing sometimes can save your hard day’s work from going right into the trash. Even though it doesn’t mean you don’t have to try and produce flawless images in the studio. Another practical advice would be to use RAW format. That way you will be able to revive your glamour photo with minimum quality loss.

Another factor to mind is the importance of simple yet effective decisions – you wouldn’t make a perfect shot with a ton of lighting equipment; you would more likely spoil it. A couple of them are normally sufficient for both quality and creativity. Finally, there’s something for a dessert – “PRACTICE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN”. You may overlook all the previous pieces of advise, but always remember this last one.