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Luminar
December 17
8 min. to read
Japanese renowned portrait photographer Akiomi Kuroda shares his tips and unique vision for shooting beautiful female portraits.
I havenāt realized that Iām distinctive yet, but I do feel Iām the minority (laugh). Iād say I shoot classical portraits, but Iām always aware of a more artistic way of expression. I know that human imagination can see much more in a subject or a scene than a camera can. Just imagining what the subject of the photo shoot is thinking while looking straight at the camera or at the photographer gives me a sense of amazement.
I know that various post-processing techniques are considered to be a way to express originality. However, I believe that the roots of my uniqueness donāt lie only in this realm.
In many cases, Iām not particular about models, even though it may sound a bit rude in relation to the model. However, Iād choose anyone with whom I have a kind of chemistry: when I feel that I want to tell the story of this person. But of course, a model doesnāt always want to play a part in the story Iāve created for her, and people donāt always get the story from my photos at the first glance.
When Iām sure I feel this chemistry between us, during shooting I tend to force the model to play out the story Iāve created for her. At this point, I think the model should just accept the role and play her part.
In other words, you can say that it is a trust relationship (laugh).
Itās all about the chemistry. Thereās a model, thereās me, there are hair and makeup stylists, outfits, the location, the weather, lighting, etc. When these elements come together correctly, they can make this unique moment happen.
Rather than pushing the shutter button and capturing just what my eyes see, Iām excited to observe how a moment that I couldnāt even imagine comes to be.
I donāt know if itās an answer, but you should create an atmosphere in which the model feels at ease to express that something isnāt right, to joke, or to ask for advice. I think that itās impossible to take a photo at the right moment if thereās too much tension between the model and the photographer. I do my best to make sure all the participants of a shoot, myself included, are able to get the maximum out of this kind of atmosphere.
In many cases, my shooting site is quite different from the final picture. Itās like an amusement park where laughter and screams fill the air.
I love mirrorless cameras such as the Leica M and Sony α series. I use Profoto lighting equipment. However, I donāt have really strong preferences because at some point the correct resolution, lens, level of response, and design are what makes the professionality of any equipment.
The equipment that I recommend really depends on the circumstances, so I canāt say anything without any basic knowledge of the photo shoot. But if youāre shooting a person, I think that itās better to have a camera with a single focus 50mm lens. The price of the camera shouldnāt be your concern here. For me, itās a Leica M and Summilux 50mm F1.4 ASPH.
Ninety-nine percent of shots I take as RAW. For me, doing a RAW conversion and color correction in Photoshop has become a basic part of my workflow. However, most of the color correction process is done during RAW development. Luminar is software with functionality that boosts a photographerās own unique style, and I like that. Iām using Photoshop things such as local skin correction. But in many cases, you can achieve color correction by applying only the RAW develop filter in Luminar, depending on the lighting conditions. You donāt need to use Photoshop in these cases and can simply do batch processing to get the same effect. Itās simply wonderful!
Thanks to the fast post-processing, you can easily achieve the desired colors, add tone to your photos, and spend more time shooting with your team.
I could talk about this for hours. First, I discard the photos I donāt like: shake, blur, closed eyes, and other failed shots. I choose shots that I can delete entirely. Only after that do I choose ideal photographs which I think can be improved by retouching. From there, I try to choose about one photo that should be retouched from each scene.
After repeating the steps in this workflow countless times, Iāve trained myself to see how my photos will look on a monitor. With time, I started to successfully correct myself during the photo shoot.
I recommend you try it out as well! (laugh)
A self-taught programmer, Akiomi started his career as a freelance software engineer/web director.
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