Lighting

Living on the island of Maui in Hawaii, commercial and portrait photographer Eric Rolph (rolphphoto.com) has the rare luxury of choosing sea-swept sunrises or sunsets to use as backdrops. As you might imagine, he’s perfected the somewhat tricky art of balancing fore- and background lighting, where, without the aid of a little artificial fill light, his subjects would typically be much darker than the bright sun beyond.His suggestions for how you can best strike this balance:

Many decisions go into shooting a single portrait. Often, as we chat with our subjects, we’re not even aware that we’re making choices about framing, subject distance and position, color palette, focal length, lighting, and other elements. But rather than rely on instinct alone, here are some ways to ensure you make the right decision.1. Frame Them Up

Your digital SLR (even if it’s a budget “entry-level” model) is a picture-making powerhouse. And sure, you know all about the still and video capture, burst shooting, tracking autofocus, and smart metering.But your camera likely has additional capabilities you may not know about—features that can improve your photos and make for a more enjoyable shooting experience. You may be surprised at the clever elves lurking in your camera body.