How I Created The Stunning Images
for "Dusk to Dawn"
By Chintan Rathore
Amazing portraits are always a result of effective teamwork. When a photographer and a subject team up with a goal and a vision; stunning photographs are born. A nice location, good light and an expressive subject can easily tell a great story.
In my album Dusk to Dawn, I photographed my dear friend Anjana Abraham. My objective was to click photographs in the broad daylight and during dusk, using the majestic colours of the golden hour.
I cannot express how great we felt after seeing the results. I have posted some photographs in this blog and 500px. You can see all the photos on my Facebook page.
In this blog I will show you how I created these photographs, with my Nikon D3200 and a friend's helps.
3 Most Important Factors
- Lighting: I cannot stress enough, but lighting is the foundation of your photographs. You can have a great model, amazing background, but poor lighting will never help you achieve great results. Of course sometimes you might need dingy lighting to create a more dramatic look that may be suiting the whole ambience, but that will not work every time. You need to pay close attention to what lighting you have. In the image above I used natural light and a medium sized reflector. The reflector was placed facing right side of the subject to fill the shadows.
- Interaction: You must engage with the subject in order to capture what you are looking for. Tell your subject if they are doing well or not. Direction is a must. They don't know how they are looking, you do! So ensure you do the most talking.
- Patience: Not all people you shoot are experienced, patience is the key. Many times we want our model to strike a pose which they might not be able to do. Be patient and interact, explain and try doing it again. Never overdo any pose, you might end up loosing the entire emotion. Photographs are a glimpse into one's soul. Try to be patient and go with the flow, trust me it will give you the best results.
Retouching
I use Photoshop CS6 to retouch all my images. I will show an example on how I retouch my photographs.
The settings of the image above were: 1/4000 sec, f1.8, ISO 100, 50mm.
The first thing I do after entering photoshop is airbrush the skin and try to remove any blemishes or uneven skin tones using the spot heal and clone stamping tool.
The first thing I do after entering photoshop is airbrush the skin and try to remove any blemishes or uneven skin tones using the spot heal and clone stamping tool.
I then gently dodge and burn the entire image, making sure enhancing all the shadows and the highlights of the image. You can see there is already a dramatic change in the image above after adding the adjustments.
I then adjust the temperature and hue/saturation according to the mood using the curves adjustment.
I am sometimes okay with stray hair but not always, so I get rid of them, again using the clone stamping tool.
I do this when I want a cleaner look.
I then add a solid colour layer to fill the boring shadows, change the blend modes to soft light or screen and adjust the opacity until I hit the right spot.
Finally add my water mark and voila done! I know it might not look that "stunning" but I think I did an ok job on that one.
Below you can see the final edit compared to the original. 
That's the basics on how I retouch all my images. Its about patience and a lot of dedication. I always try not to overdo any image, I use photoshop only to enhance the details, remove any distractions and create a focus area. Most of the work shall already be done while clicking the image. Never solely rely on post processing.
I hope this article was of some help to you. Subscribe to my blog for more articles and Like my Facebook Page for more.
Please do send me any of your edits @chintan.rathore@outlook.com. I would love to see them.
See all the photos from Dusk to Dawn on my Facebook Page. Also sharing is always appreciated, so share this article with your friends.
Please leave your feedback, suggestions and comments below.
Please feel free to send in your question or queries and I would be delighted to reply.
Here is our Behind the Scenes Video for "Dusk to Dawn"
More Photographs From Dusk to Dawn
