- Settings and Features to Make Great Portraits
- Poring Over the Picture
- Poring Over the Picture
- Using Aperture Priority Mode
- Lighting is Everything
- Focusing: The Eyes Have It
- Composing People and Portraits
- The Portrait Picture Style for Better Skin Tones
- Tips for Shooting Better Portraits
- Chapter 4 Challenges
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
The Portrait Picture Style for Better Skin Tones
In Chapter 1 I discussed the different picture styles the 7D has to offer, and as you have probably guessed, the Portrait style is best for photographing people. The default Portrait settings give your images a softer look, but the neat thing about the styles in general is that you have the ability to change the settings to increase or decrease the amount of sharpness, contrast, saturation, and color tone to your preference.
Setting the Portrait Picture Style
- Wake the camera (if necessary) by lightly pressing the Shutter button.
- Press the Picture Style Selection button on the back of the camera (A).
- Use either the Main dial or the Quick Control dial to scroll through to the Portrait style (B).
- If you would like to make any changes to the style, press the INFO button and use the Multi-Controller or Quick Control dial to select the setting you would like to adjust (C). Then press the Set button and use the same dial to change the setting (D).
- Press the Set button to lock in this change, and then press the Menu button to go back to the Picture Style screen.
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Beautiful Black and White Portraits
Sometimes a portrait just looks better in black and white—we see more of the person and their expression rather than their surroundings or the color of their clothing (Figure 4.15). You can change the picture style to Monochrome in your camera so that you are photographing the image in black and white, but when you do this, you are only giving yourself one option. If you decide you liked it better in color, you have no way to change it back.
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Figure 4.15 A black and white portrait eliminates the distraction of color and puts all the emphasis on the subject.
I prefer to do all of my black and white conversions while editing the photo on my computer, and I encourage you to do the same. You can make black and white conversions, along with many other types of adjustments to your images, by using the Canon Digital Photo Professional software on the disc included with your camera.