2.1 Photography: Shooting Workflow

1. Fresh, Light Portraits

1.1. What Is the Fresh, Light Style?

A simple color palette, low saturation, and low image contrast, giving a quiet, comfortable, and calm feeling.

1.2. Fresh, Light Scenes

A simple color palette, such as a cyan or blue tendency: blue sky and sea, campuses, parks, woods, and lawns.

1.3. Fresh, Light Clothing

Simple colors.

2. Photography Methodology

2.1. Set Up In-Camera Output

2.1.1. Portraits

1. Sharpness and clarity both affect the visual impression, but they mean different things: sharpening mainly enhances detail edges, while clarity is more about local contrast. Camera Picture Control and post-processing software may both provide similar controls, so it cannot simply be understood as “sharpness belongs only to shooting and clarity belongs only to post-processing.” The values below were style experiments at the time, not fixed recipes.

A 10-second way to judge it yourself later:

1️⃣ Zoom to 100%.
2️⃣ Look at "small details":

Eyelashes

Building window frames

Leaves

Judge:

They can be separated clearly → there is sharpness.

A white halo appears around the edge → fake clarity.

It looks blurry when enlarged → no sharpness.

2. Contrast: controls differences between light and dark. The fresh, light style usually avoids overly strong contrast, but the exact value depends on the lighting, Picture Control, and post-processing latitude.
3. Saturation: controls how vivid the image is. There is no fixed saturation answer for landscapes or portraits; adjust according to skin tone, environmental colors, and the intended expression.
4. Hue: the exact meaning depends on the camera’s Picture Control; it is not a universal rule that “low values are rosy and high values are retro.”
5. White balance: when the camera Kelvin white-balance value is increased, the image is usually compensated to look warmer; skin-tone style also depends on Tint, ambient light, and post-processing.

“Fresh/light = relatively soft detail + lower contrast + bright tones + restrained color” can be used to understand the style, but should not be treated as a fixed parameter formula.

Historical Nikon Z5 Picture Control experiment for fresh, light portraits (only a record from that time, not a universal recommendation):

• Quick Sharpening: -2
  • Sharpening: -1
  • Mid-range Sharpening: -2
  • Clarity: -1.5
• Contrast: -2
• Brightness: +1
• Saturation: +2
• Hue: -1

Quick Sharpening: -1
Mid-range Sharpening: -1
Sharpening: 0 or -0.5
Clarity: -0.8
Contrast: -1.8
Brightness: +1
Saturation: +1
Hue: 0 or -1

2.1.1.1. Full-Body Portrait

2.1.1.2. Half-Body Portrait

2.1.1.3. Headshot

2.2. Lighting Situations

2.2.1. Front Light

The model generally faces the main light. Low-angle light after sunrise and before sunset is usually softer, but front light is not limited to a fixed time period.

Characteristics:

1. Fully lit.
2. Flatter appearance.
3. Suitable for a fresh, light style (bright photo, low contrast).

2.2.2. Backlight

The model faces away from the main light. Low-angle backlight more easily creates rim light and glow, but backlight is also not limited to a fixed time period.

Characteristics:

1. Glow.
2. Suitable for a fresh, light style (bright photo, low contrast).

2.2.3. Side Light

The model is 90 degrees or 45 degrees to the left or right of the light.

Characteristics:

1. More three-dimensional.
2. Suitable for emotional/mood-oriented images.

2.2.4. Top Light

The light mainly shines down from above the subject. Midday sun often creates an effect close to top light.

Characteristics:

1. It easily creates heavy shadows in the eye sockets and under the nose. For portraits, it is usually necessary to adjust the camera position, find shade, or add fill light, but it is not absolutely unusable.

2.2.5. Diffused Light

The light does not directly shine on the model, for example on an overcast day or in a large shaded area under trees on a sunny day.

Characteristics: 3. Suitable for a fresh, light style (bright photo, low contrast).

2.3. Use Preset Exposure Modes

2.3.1. Adjust Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO

1. During shooting, aperture, shutter speed, and ISO can be used to control exposure and output brightness. Exposure compensation is a bias applied to the metering result in automatic/semi-automatic exposure modes; it is not the same as M mode, nor is it the same as “high-key/low-key.”
2. Reciprocity:
   1. Aperture, shutter speed, and ISO all change in doubling relationships. 2. Aperture: 1. The smaller the f-number, the larger the aperture. There is no universal rule that a lens reaches its best resolving power after stopping down 2–3 stops from maximum aperture; it depends on the lens and shooting needs. Very small apertures are also affected by diffraction. 2. “Large aperture/small aperture” are relative concepts and do not need to be rigidly divided at f/2.8 or f/8. 3. In practice, you can start from the following ideas: 1. Portrait with background blur: prioritize a relatively large aperture. 2. Documentary/environmental portrait: stop down appropriately to retain environmental information. 3. Landscape or scenes requiring both foreground and background to be clear: choose aperture according to depth of field, diffraction, and focus position rather than always using f/11.
      1. Shutter:

         1. “Slow shutter/high-speed shutter” depends on subject speed, focal length, stabilization method, and the desired motion effect. There is no universal dividing line at 1/60 or 1/250.

         2. Subject not moving: 4. Safe shutter speed: when shooting handheld, “1 / equivalent focal length” can be used as a rough starting point, but pixel density, personal stability, body/lens stabilization, and subject motion all change the shutter speed actually required.

         3. Subject moving:

            1. | Subject | Suggested Shutter | | — | — | | Standing still | 1/60 | | Slight movement | 1/125 | | Walking | 1/200 | | Running | 1/500 |

         4. Practical parameters:

            1. Documentary subjects, news reporting: 1/125.
            2. Pedestrians, running children: 1/500.
            3. Sports, flying birds, etc.: 1/1000.
            4. Airplanes, bullets: 1/2000.
            5. Rain streaks: 1/15–1/60 is enough.
            6. Waterfall/water-flow streaking: 5–10 seconds.
            7. Car light trails, fireworks: 5–10 seconds; the time for the car to move from the top of the frame to the end.
      2. ISO:
         1. 50 100 200 400 800.
         2. Practical parameters:
            1. Sufficient ambient brightness, such as sunny days or bright indoor light: 100.
            2. Average ambient brightness, such as overcast weather, shade, or average indoor light: 200–320.
            3. Weak ambient brightness, such as dawn, dusk, night scenes, or indoors: 640–800.
            4. Occasionally, if the environment is too dark: use fill light, flash, continuous light, etc.

2.3.2. Exposure Modes

1. When depth of field needs to be controlled first, A mode can be used; ISO can be fixed or Auto ISO can be used.
2. When motion rendering needs to be controlled first, S mode can be used; ISO is likewise determined by the scene.
3. M mode is suitable when fixed exposure parameters are needed, lighting is stable, flash is used, long exposure is used, or exposure needs to remain consistent during continuous shooting; it is not only for “extremely black/extremely white” scenes.

2.4. Use White Balance According to the Lighting Situation

1. Light color temperature:
   1. High color temperature, cooler.
2. Camera color temperature:
   1. High color temperature, warmer.
3. Rule:
   1. Camera color temperature == light color temperature, the image looks white.
   2. Camera color temperature < light color temperature, the image looks cooler.
   3. Camera color temperature > light color temperature, the image looks warmer.
4. Auto white balance is a good starting point, but it is only estimating neutral colors in the scene and does not “restore every object to white.” With mixed light, stage lighting, or creative warm/cool tones, set it manually or adjust it in post-processing.

2.4.1. Portraits

Historical style record: white-balance fine-tuning toward cooler colors/specific Tint directions was tried. The exact direction and value depend on the camera coordinate system and the actual lighting and are not a universal recipe.

2.5. Use Metering Mode According to the Lighting Situation

1. Evaluative/matrix metering is suitable for most scenes and can be used as the default starting point.
2. Center-weighted metering is suitable when you really want to give more weight to the central area.
3. Spot metering is suitable when you know exactly what brightness a small area should be placed at; backlight does not mean spot metering must be used.
4. Judge together with exposure compensation, the histogram, and highlight warnings.

2.6. Lens Focal-Length Selection

• Wide angle more easily includes the environment; telephoto more easily narrows the field of view and requires a farther camera position while keeping the subject the same size.
• There is no fixed focal length for full-body, half-body, or close-up portraits; decide according to shooting distance, perspective, and environment.
• There is no reliable rule such as “50mm suits round faces, 85mm suits pointed faces”; facial perspective is determined first by shooting distance.

2.7. Composition

• High-angle, eye-level, and low-angle shooting can all be used; the key is how you want to express body proportions and the relationship with the background.
• First use camera position to determine perspective, then use focal length to determine framing range; moving your position and zooming serve different purposes.
• Burst shooting can be used to increase the chance of capturing brief actions.
• Portrait negative space and subject position should serve the action, gaze, and visual balance; do not mechanically apply “feet against the edge, empty space above the head.”

2.8. Focusing

Automatic tracking focus: touch AF.

2. Why focus may fail:
   • Every lens has its own minimum focusing distance.
   • Focus is placed on an area with no contrast, such as pure black.
   • The focusing system is not strong enough.
   • The target moves too quickly.
3. Focus mode: generally use autofocus.
   • MF: manual.
     • Macro or scenes requiring a precisely fixed focus point.
     • Low-contrast/extremely low-light scenes that autofocus cannot recognize.
     • High-speed irregular motion is usually better handled by sufficiently capable AF-C/subject detection rather than defaulting to MF.
   • Autofocus.
     • For static subjects, start with AF-S + single-point/wide-area combinations.
     • For moving subjects, AF-C is generally used, together with dynamic area, wide area, auto area, or subject detection depending on the camera. The exact combination depends on the camera and should not be fixed as a single universal recipe.
4. Focus area.

2.9. Adjust Exposure Compensation

1. Use it in extremely white/extremely black scenes.
2. Histogram: from left to right is the change from black to white; from bottom to top is the pixel count.
3. “Expose to the right (ETTR)” is meaningful only when you clearly control highlights so they do not clip and understand your post-processing needs; for daily shooting, prioritize keeping important highlights and the subject exposure consistent with the intended result.

2.10. Blur Effect

1. Depth of field:
   1. Background far away: sometimes the relationship between subject and background cannot be controlled.
   2. Camera close: sometimes it becomes a headshot.
   3. Large aperture.
   4. Long focal length: the focal length is long, but communication becomes inconvenient and the face tends to look flatter.
2. Shutter:
   1. A high-speed shutter more easily freezes motion.
      1. Flash sync speed is mainly affected by how focal-plane shutter curtains move. Above the sync speed, the sensor often cannot be fully exposed at the same time, so an ordinary flash may illuminate only part of the frame; high-speed sync (HSS) works differently.
   2. The period recorded by a slow shutter:
      1. Front-curtain flash sync: front curtain opens (exposure starts), flash first and exposure afterward, rear curtain closes (exposure ends).
      2. Rear-curtain flash sync: front curtain opens (exposure starts), exposure first and flash afterward, rear curtain closes (exposure ends).

3. Field Practice

3.1. How to Photograph Flowers Against a Black Background

1. Use a sufficiently dark background with a brightness difference from the subject (for example, a black umbrella).
2. Give the subject significantly more light than the background, such as sunlight or flash.
3. Control exposure according to the brightness relationship between subject and background; spot metering and negative exposure compensation are optional methods, not fixed steps.

There must be contrast.

3.2. How to Photograph Rain Streaks

1. Backlight or side-backlight usually makes rain streaks easier to highlight, but it is not the only possible direction.
2. Use fill light to illuminate the subject.
3. If the image looks too yellow or too white, adjust white balance.
4. Use a slower shutter speed to turn rain into streaks, with ISO 100 and a small aperture such as f/10; use a faster shutter to turn rain into droplets.

Slow shutter, fast shutter.

3.3. Fun Ways to Photograph Water Droplets

1. Macro shooting has very shallow depth of field and often requires stopping down appropriately, adjusting the focus plane, or using focus stacking. It cannot simply be prescribed that a large aperture must never be used; diffraction and background rendering also need to be considered.
2. When shooting macro, use manual focus and screen live view so you can magnify the image.

Use a small aperture and manual focus for macro.

Indoor Backlight

Spot metering + manually turn the focus ring.

3.4. Outdoor Front-Lit Portrait

1. Lighting situation:
   1. Main light: front sunlight.
   2. Fill light: side light.
2. Exposure mode:
   1. A mode.
   2. Aperture: F1.8.
   3. Shutter: 1/4000.
   4. ISO: 100.
   5. EV: +1.
3. White balance:
   1. Auto.
4. Metering:
   1. Evaluative metering.
5. Composition:
   1. Side sitting.
6. Focusing:
   1. Autofocus.

3.4.1. Notes

3.4.1.1. Shooting Outside the Best Time Period

1. Method 1: turn front light into diffused light.
   1. Move the model to the boundary between light and shadow, such as under a tree.
2. Method 2: use a translucent object to block the light. 2. For example, a transparent umbrella.
3. Method 3: use perforated clothing or a hat.

3.5. Indoor Front-Lit Portrait

1. Lighting situation:
   1. Main light: front light from sunlight through a window.
   2. Fill light: side light.
2. Exposure mode:
   1. A mode.
   2. Aperture: F1.8.
   3. Shutter: 1/4000.
   4. ISO: 100.
   5. EV: +1.
3. White balance:
   1. Auto.
4. Metering:
   1. Evaluative metering.
5. Composition:
   1. Side sitting.
6. Focusing:
   1. Autofocus.

3.5.1. Notes

3.5.1.1. There Is No Best Time

You can shoot throughout the day.

3.5.1.2. Use a Camera With Good High-ISO Performance

3.5.1.3. Choose a Room With a Light-Colored Interior

3.5.1.4. Overcast Days Can Also Be Used

Window light on overcast days is often softer, but the overall illumination is lower, so adjust shutter speed, ISO, or fill light accordingly.

3.5.1.5. Choose a South-Facing Window

3.5.1.6. Use Curtains to Soften the Light

3.5.1.7. Shoot Close to the Window With the Face Toward the Window

3.6. Outdoor Backlit Portrait

1. Lighting situation:
   1. Main light: backlight from sunlight.
   2. Fill light: side light.
2. Exposure mode:
   1. A mode.
   2. Aperture: F1.8.
   3. Shutter: 1/2000.
   4. ISO: 100.
   5. EV: +1.
3. White balance:
   1. Auto.
4. Metering:
   1. Spot metering.
5. Composition:
   1. Side sitting.
6. Focusing:
   1. Prioritize putting the critical focus point on the eyes/eyelashes or another area that needs to be sharp; autofocus or manual focus can both be used depending on the lighting and camera capability.

3.6.1. Notes

3.6.1.1. The Face Is Dark When Shooting Backlit

1. Method 1: use camera settings.
   • Add exposure compensation.
   • Use spot metering; in high-contrast scenes (for example, seaside backlight), use HDR together with it. Generally this was not used because it required a static tripod and produced two RAW files plus one JPG.
   • Nikon highlight-weighted metering + D-Lighting.
2. Method 2: use props to fill light on the model’s face.
   • Reflector.
   • White pages of a book.
   • White wall.

3.6.1.2. Cannot Focus When Shooting Backlit

1. Method 1: use your hand to shade the lens and reduce incoming light.
2. Method 2: switch to manual focus.

3.6.1.3. Shooting Outside the Best Time Period

1. Method 1: turn backlight into side light.
   1. Change the shooting angle; the photographer moves left or right.
2. Method 2: shoot downward.
   1. Tilt the lens downward to exclude a large amount of light.
3. Method 3: use surrounding objects to block the light. 2. Use a book to block the light. 3. Use tree shade to block the light. 4. Use your hand to shade the light.
4. Method 4: find a dark background.

3.7. Indoor Backlit Portrait

1. Lighting situation:
   1. Main light: window backlight.
2. Exposure mode:
   1. A mode.
   2. Aperture: F1.8.
   3. Shutter: 1/250.
   4. ISO: 100.
   5. EV: +1.
3. White balance:
   1. Auto.
4. Metering:
   1. Evaluative metering.
5. Composition:
   1. Side sitting.
6. Focusing:
   1. Prioritize putting the critical focus point on the eyes/eyelashes or another area that needs to be sharp; autofocus or manual focus can both be used depending on the lighting and camera capability.

3.7.1. Notes

3.7.1.1. Choose a Light-Colored Room

3.7.1.2. Overcast Days Can Also Be Used

Window light on overcast days is usually softer. The key is to control the brightness relationship between subject and background.

3.7.1.3. Choose a South-Facing Window

3.7.1.4. Use Curtains to Soften the Light

3.7.1.5. Shoot Close to the Window With the Face Toward the Window

3.7.1.6. The Face Is Dark When Shooting Backlit

3.7.1.7. Cannot Focus When Shooting Backlit

3.8. Outdoor Diffused-Light Portrait

1. Lighting situation:
   1. Main light: sunlight.
   2. Fill light: side light.
2. Exposure mode:
   1. A mode.
   2. Aperture: F1.8.
   3. Shutter: 1/2000.
   4. ISO: 100.
   5. EV: +0.3 to +1.
3. White balance:
   1. Auto.
4. Metering:
   1. Spot metering.
5. Composition:
   1. Side sitting.
6. Focusing:
   1. Autofocus.

3.9. Low-Key Portrait

1. Lighting situation:
   1. Main light: side light.
   2. Fill light: backlight.
2. Exposure mode:
   1. A mode.
3. White balance:
   1. Auto.
4. Metering:
   1. Spot metering.
5. Composition:
   1. Black background, black clothing.
6. Focusing:
   1. Prioritize putting the critical focus point on the eyes/eyelashes or another area that needs to be sharp; autofocus or manual focus can both be used depending on the lighting and camera capability.
   2. Negative exposure compensation.

3.10. High-Key Portrait

1. Lighting situation:
   1. Main light: front light.
   2. Fill light: side light.
2. Exposure mode:
   1. A mode.
3. White balance:
   1. Auto.
4. Metering:
   1. Evaluative metering.
5. Composition:
   1. White background, white clothing.
6. Focusing:
   1. Prioritize focusing on the eyes and other critical areas; metering and exposure compensation control the overall high-key effect. Do not treat “focus on a dark area” as a way to brighten the image.

3.11. Soft-Focus Portrait

1. Similar to a high-key portrait.
2. Do not use excessively high sharpness; reduce clarity a little.
3. Use a blur filter, such as plastic wrap.

3.12. Night Portrait

1. Lighting situation:
   1. Main light: backlight, multiple point light sources.
   2. Fill light: side light.
2. Exposure mode:
   1. A mode.
3. White balance:
   1. Auto.
4. Metering.
5. Composition.
6. Focusing.

Historical night-scene starting point: try a relatively flat Picture Control, disable or use Active D-Lighting as needed, and use a tripod with an appropriate long exposure. Whether these functions should be disabled depends on the RAW/JPEG workflow and the scene contrast.

if there is motion:
lock a safe shutter speed
else:
if there is a tripod:
lowest ISO
aperture according to need
else:
lock a safe shutter speed

aperture = maximum (common for night scenes)

if exposure is insufficient:
raise ISO

3.13. Multiple-Exposure Portrait

3.14. Make the Legs Look Longer

1. Low angle:
   1. The camera can be placed anywhere between the model’s waist and knees; there is no need to lie down to shoot, and squatting is usually enough.
2. Put the feet near the bottom and leave space above the head:
   1. Leave about 1/3 empty space.

These Photo Techniques Make Your Legs Look Longer and Make You “10 cm Taller”! - Zhihu

4. References

Photography Tutorial: What Does Aperture Actually Affect? Understand Aperture Visually in One Video! Beginner Photography Course - Bilibili