Sharing is caring. As my mentors have never kept their top right secret to themselves, I am taught to give my best too when come to a sharing session.
My most recent sharing session was in Bintulu, with 15 photography lovers. It was a fruitful one, as I had my little time to share my humble experience as a wedding and portrait photographer. The whole session covered quite a number of things, from the most basic principle to posing and many more. I hope I didn’t disappoint too much anyway, as it was my very first time to share in Mandarin. Oh yes, to have a public presentation in Mandarin is never easy. My tongue just couldn’t twist as much or as flexible while I had to translate my ideas straight from English to Chinese. Having my brain to work two ways was a good challenge.
Below is just one of the most simple techniques I shared about capturing portrait from a single light source:
1. What would you do if you are placed in a room with insufficient light source? Below is one good example I used on the spot to recognise the light through a window. Without flash, or any other external light source, I simple had this created in minutes.
First, I placed the model, Xiao Jia at the spot that I see good light flowed in through the window. Had my camera setting done properly with right exposure like what is shown above, this is what I had in the shot. Sufficient light just shone on her to create a dramatic look portrait like the above. It was simple, and straight forward.
What if I needed a more fashion look portrait? Oh well, what I did on the above photo was simply to turn her body facing me, had her face tilted towards the only light source we had, which was on her left. In this photo, sufficient light shines on her part of her face, while the other part of face is under shadow. Shadow makes this photo had a feel of more mysterious, and eventually slimmed the subject to a more reasonable good shape. On the other hand, her eyes are visible and the details on her attire are maintained. Another reasonable portrait shot had been nailed down.
2. Many clients would request us to ”make” them look slimmer using the Photoshop effect. Liquifying using Photoshop is possible, but you need a lot of time. Hence, I’d prefer to save much more time by “slimming” my subjects instantly on the spot when I nail down my exposure. How to make a person looks slimmer?
I placed this gentleman, who was willing to be my subject in front of a big window light source. What do you think of this photo? Broad light was shone on his body, and he was well exposed in front of the camera. We could do better than this, definitely.
Then, I turned his body and face slightly tilted facing the window. This time, the result is more favourable. Having his body and face slightly tilted this way, there was a shadow on the face. Shadow is our ‘good friend’, as instantly it implies an slimming effect. It is quite good now, but can we do better again?
Now, to improve from the above photo, I turned the model’s body totally against the light source, while turning his face toward to the light, having the light lit on the face. This time, shadow covered half of his body at least, so body slimming session through posing is done. Half of his face is also under shadow, that also instantly eliminated the unnecessary part.
Much improved slimming effect is done! Liquifying using the Photoshop is no longer needed. 
by shen yeo
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