Last Updated on 02/07/2018 by Chris Gampat
Screenshot image from the light and airy look video tutorial by Chelsea Nicole Photography
Wondering how you can get those clean, and sometimes dreamy portraits with a light and airy look? We’ve found some easy tips from Chelsea Nicole Photography so you can give it a try on your next portrait project. If you’re just starting out with portrait and wedding photography, this tutorial is perfect for you.
The light and airy look is popular with photographers who like shooting portraits in natural light because it looks clean, crisp, and even romantic — which is why it’s a favorite for engagement shoots and wedding photography. So, if you like shooting outdoors and in natural light, you’re halfway there. She recommends watching her video on shooting tips first if you haven’t nailed that one yet. In this other video tutorial, Chelsea Nicole demonstrates part two of the work flow by showing how she edits her photos with the popular look in Lightroom. Let’s watch below:
The first tip from Chelsea Nicole is to “shoot on the darker side” and not for the skin tones. This is so you can retain the fine details like those of the veil and dress, as well as some of the background details. Shooting in RAW lets you correct the underexposure and tones in post-process later, as she showed in the tutorial. The key here is to keep as much of the shadows so you can work with them later. Chelsea Nicole suggests shooting with a low ISO to achieve this.
Next is an important step if you notice any need to correct any vignetting caused by your lens. Chelsea Nicole has integrated a lens correction profile in a preset that she uses on all her photos. You can try out the preset here.
The rest of the tutorial shows how you can manually adjust the other elements like exposure, shadows, tint, luminance, and contrast. Use the tonal curve to drag up the midtones to get that nice, luminescent look, bring down the shadows, and back up the blacks.
Check out and subscribe to Chelsea Nicole Photography on YouTube to watch more of her photography tutorials.
Screenshot taken from the video