On Location Photography: Alley Shoot

Step Seven

Tom Bols

I liked several images from this shoot but my favorites were those of Victoria looking up toward the light. This angle really brought life to her eyes—a critical element in any portrait. Generally, you want to catch lights and sharpness in the eyes to make the shot work. If you’re shooting a single, high, overhead light, your subject has to look upward to get light in her eyes, but you could also use a reflector or another light aimed up from below. Just make sure there are no dark shadows in the eyes. 

For the final image, I added a little contrast and clarity in Photoshop. This helps bring out the texture in the brick walls and adds a little snap to the shot. 

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Here is Tom Bols on “The Grid” doing blind critiques with Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski.  For more on location photography try this course from Rick Sammon. We have a free tutorial here for adding smoke effects to your image to enhance that on location image. 

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