Using Portrait Techniques for Auction Pictures
by A.B. Russell
eBay Staff Member

I'm going to get back to larger items next time, but this time I have something that I feel is quite special to share with you. It comes from the world of portrait photography, and will only work with certain items.

Remember how we placed tracing paper in front of the lights to soften the image and used reflectors to fill in shadows? This is the same principle, but in this case we're using the reflector to provide the light on the main portion of the subject. It is a really good technique for photographing things like dolls, or any items that have something that resembles hair.

First, set up your light so that it's above and behind your subject. Then unroll your tracing paper in front of the light. This will provide more light on the top of your subject than on the front. Then bring in your reflector in front of and below the subject. This will actually be the main light on the subject, even though the light shining from above is stronger.

Metering this situation is tricky. You don't want to include the light on the background, for instance, or you'll wind up with the subject way too dark. Try to meter just the subject. Once you've established a baseline exposure, give the setup one and then two stops more exposure. You can also give it one and two stops less than the baseline just to be safe. That makes five exposures total.

Once you've either developed your film or saved your images, take a careful look. The differences in the photos are worth noting. Notice how any overexposed images look in contrast with the underexposed ones. You'll find it very interesting.

The main thing we're looking for here is a "glow" on the upper parts of the subject. If you notice the photos of people in different magazines, you'll see that glow quite a bit. It's called hair lighting, and it produces a much more pleasing image than photos without the hair lighting.

There's one more thing I want you to notice here. I've placed my nutcracker at an angle to the camera, rather than squarely parallel with the film. This is another carryover from my portrait days, and it's something you may want to use when photographing people as well. In many cases, photographing someone head on, with their body parallel to the film plane, you'll exaggerate the person's width. That's a quality that most people would prefer not to have exaggerated!

As I said, next time I'll get back with doing larger items. See you then.