How to Read an Image

Okay, so you have your fashion magazine and now you have a photo that you like, but how do you read the image so you can go and make it your own?

First, look at the lighting. Is it natural light, or did they do it with studio light, or a mixture of both? If it’s natural light, then see if you can find where the sun was placed, where any reflectors were replaced and if the model is in shade. If it’s in the studio, try to find out all the light sources so you’ll know how to place your lights.

One of the best tips someone told me is to look at the eyes of the model and a lot of times that will tell you how the image was photographed.



For instance, in this image the actress is probably lit from a rectangular soft box placed to the left of the camera and another light source (maybe another soft box?) from directly above her to the right. She’s got her back to a window and some light is coming in through the window and lighting her shoulder.

So if I wanted an image like this for my portfolio, I’d find a bank of windows and using a light meter take a reading of the ambient light out the window and then set my two flashes up with soft boxes and balance them with the ambient light. I might even try to make them a stop or so above ambient so she would pop out from the image. Also, the temperature of the light looks warm to me, so I might try using a warming gel over the flash.

Or, if I wanted to try to keep things simple and was trying to do this all using just my digital camera and no additional lighting, I’d try to find a bank of windows facing the sun, pose her in this manner and then using a large white poster board or foam core board, reflect light onto her face. If I was on a budget and didn’t want to buy a gold reflector, maybe some gold fabric to put over the foam core might be all the warming I needed for her.

If I was trying for this look for one of my clients, say a bride on her wedding day, I’d place her back to the church windows, using a reflector bounce light back up onto her face and get her to lean on her left arm so that shoulder would raised and then ask her to turn her head a little to the right and then cut her eyes back at me. A lot of times I wind up getting clients into places where the light is great and then just let them be themselves and have fun with them so I can get a chance to make a great shot.

Sometimes I’ll start out trying for a shot like this and then I might tell her to look out the window and find that there’s a totally different shot there. I might shoot directly into the sun and make her a silhouette. There’s so many things to explore while you’re shooting.

I’ll post some more specific articles on how I make certain shots, but I wanted to give you an idea of the thought process I have when I approach a shot.

One thing I want to note is that I’m not advocating copying verbatim another photographer’s work. What I’m suggesting is that by looking at amazing photography you can find techniques that you can use to tell your own story.