Totally agree with what you've explained here, I was guilty of losing details in highlights early on in my photographic journey by 'exposing to the right" I learned the hard way.
Thanks Christian! :) Ah yeah, ETTR is an easy technique to get wrong by exposing too far to the right by riding that edge. Especially if you’re not shooting in a controlled environment like landscapes or studio.
Aww thanks for all the support Veronika! I missed you guys too!! 🤗 And I'm so happy to be creating again! Lots more videos coming your way! Let me know if you have any special requests. ♡
Great tips Chelsea! I love the way you edit and shoot for the end edit in mind. I'm guilty of overexposing and will be more mindful of the highlights from now on!
if you film negative your correct on the most part: exposing for the shadows. But if your photographing with color slide our chrome you want to expose for the highlights.
I greatly appreciate your work, Chelsea. I love how your videos are short, sweet & to the point. I'm learning a lot. I don't know why you have only 18 thousand subscriptions, but I strongly believe at some point it will skyrocket. Thanks for all your hard work!
Thanks for the sweet comment Izukens! 😊🙏🏻 It’s because of people like you that I love creating for and pouring into this amazing community. Makes me so happy hearing my videos are helping!
Thanks for this tutorial. I totally agree regarding the tendency to blow out images. We hired a photographer to take family portraits. My very fair daughter was so blown out, she looked like a ghost. No detail at all in her face. I had to request the RAW files and correct the images. I've stayed away from "light and airy", for this reason, but I'll give it another look.
Oh wow - how awful!! Yeah, the light and airy style definitely isn't 'slap-a-preset-on' and go like some styles are! To do it right, it definitely takes skill and consideration! Glad you were able to save the images!
These videos have helped me out so much! I love the light and airy look but I’m leaning more towards the Western/Boho feel! Could you possibly do a video on how to get browns in your photos? ☺️
I bet there's a lot detail lost in the wedding dress for the sake of light and airy. And it won't take much for those type of photos to fade completely out over time. I hope they don't lose their original file or upload it to several different storage devices including the cloud so they can make another print.
OMG you are actually an Angel! Brilliant tip and so well presented and explained. Love your videos and clear to see why your photography is so good. Thank you
Hi. Another very pleasing video. The way you speak and your dynamic are excellent. An easy way is to spot measure the light on skin while in the same time under expose. So the value of under exposure is set on the skin tone as reference and then, in editing it.s easy to modify the lid tones by this value... what do you think of this?
but when using fujifilm camera, when you lift the shadow and exposure from under, it looks like a bad image. is it just me or yes the crop sensor is not better than fullframe when it comes to recovery image
@@thejaysehansen Exactly. LCD's are very misleading and cannot be relied on all the time. I refuse to spend money on a mirrorless system when I have it already in my 6D MK2, it is called LIVE VIEW, does all the mirrorless I need.
Thank you. I just gave up on it. BUT you have resurrected my interest and you nailed it. Thank you. Question: can I also use highlight tone priority on every shot? That automatically underexposes by 1 stop? Also, you say to shoot backlit and then some more light and airy photographers say to never shoot that way so I'm so thoroughly confused. I live in WV where we usually don't have the kind of light among our mountain valleys to shoot that way so what are we to do? I went to get your free preset but get a 404 page error that the page cannot be found :(
Thanks Charles! 😊🙏🏻 makes me so happy to hear! For exposure - I recommend shooting manual for more control. Set ISO & Aperture and use your shutter to dial up or down exposure - paying attention to any highlights you want to retain like the dress, flowers, sky detail, etc (note: there may be things such as spectacular highlights that aren’t as important to retain which is why manual is best, to give you more control.)
Backlight - I don’t always shoot backlight, but it’s my favorite - especially in sunny situations because it will put your subject’s face in short, reflected light. When shooting in areas with lots of mountains or trees where the sun sets a bit earlier, I simply plan for that and begin my shoot a bit earlier. That way I can get some backlight - as well as images after the sun has disappeared. That will give you two different looks - both beautiful. :) Also - one the direct light is gone, you can turn your subjects towards where the light has set since it will be a softer diffused quality of light. I’ll do both that and backlight.
@@ChelseaNicole Yep I got it, it was my browser. I use Firefox and apparently your site doesn't work with that so I had to download Google and got it just fine.
A lot of people love that bright look, totally! But, yeah, if you can be bright and yet also ‘rich’ in your tones - you’re a next level master image crafter.
The light and airy look is definitely one of the most popular styles portraits and weddings. But as with any art-form, it's those subtle nuances that make all the difference in elevating our work and really setting you apart!
Thanks Paul!! Happy you enjoyed it & appreciate the sub 🙏🏻 looking forward to staying connected! Lmk if you have any special requests. I have a bunch of new content rolling out in a couple weeks! :)
I am not a portrait photographer . Nevertheless, why wouldn’t you just use the histogram during exposure. It shows right then where the hilights reside? That takes the guesswork out of the equation. Your retouching is right on the money. I don’t know of any genre of photography where blown hilights are a desirable outcome.
Hey Ed! 💯 agree - histogram is one of the main ways I ensure I’m not losing highlight detail when shooting. But this video was less about exactly how to expose and more about addressing one of the biggest mistakes I see with the light and airy style that’s so popular among portrait and wedding photographers. Many photographers in this genre are afraid of under underexposing (thinking it will hurt skin tones, which isn’t true if done right) so lean on the side of overexposure and blowing out highlights. Glad you liked the editing tip! :)
@@ChelseaNicole Great Chelsea, what I hear in all of this is that all photographers need to understand the basics of exposure. I am an old guy from the film days. To me, digital is a lot easier than shooting film. Once I found the histogram, I was in "hog heaven" because I knew exactly what to expect. All the best to you in your photographic endeavors and teaching.
@@esanford Thanks Ed! Ah yeah, I originally come from film photography too (still love it) and histogram is my best friend, both in camera and out! I think you might actually enjoy my video on RGB Curves - it goes deeper into the topic of tonal range when editing: ua-cam.com/video/jsnKOuDyyzI/v-deo.html&t=
@@ChelseaNicole Thanks.... I enjoyed that video. I will incorporate that into my arsenal for landscapes... I use the curves, but it is rare for me to separate out the colors. Nice job!
For my style I pay too much money on glass to go and over expose the photos. I like rich colors with with beautiful details. I can not bring myself to try the airy style.
They promise what they tell you will help you BUT they won't tell you the camera settings or any of the "meat" that will help you create the images that will attract clients UNLESS you pay an unheard of amount for their class. Maybe one day there will be a photographer that will really care about others and care about helping and give us the meat of what we need in the info realm to help us further their craft. I have never charged to help someone and never will because I care and want to help others succeed.
Yes why pay for high End glass and camera and overexposed so you Lose detail and sharpness and contrast and dynamic range. These clients have no clue as well as these trend photographers
These tips are fine for light skinned folk but recovering even slight underexposure of someone as dark as my wife would exaggerate noise and would only be usable with the assistance of AI noise reduction. I generally ETTR but leave a 1.5 stop gap below white clipping, and then bracket -1, 0, +1 from there.
Hey GB! I've actually used this techniques on all skin tones and colors, including very dark skin, and it still turns out just as beautifully. The trick is to use the lowest ISO possible and only underexpose slightly / as much as needed to retain any highlight detail. Also, for highly pigmented skin proper white balance will be more important so that you don't blow out the red channel. Hope this helps!
I’m not criticizing your technique, you do what works best for your style. However, the only people that pay attention to blown backgrounds are photographers, normal people only care if the principal subject looks good. Be it the bride, her dress, the couple, family or friends, as long as the photo clearly conveys a subject, if they are in focus and well exposed the rest doesn't matter. I personally do preserve the highlights in the camera because I like having as much info as possible for editing.
I used to think this too! I thought most clients likely couldn’t tell the difference (though I wanted to give them the best images anyway.) But I found the more I raised rates, many of the higher end clients DO actually notice and care. When I get new inquiries I always ask: 1) What drew them to my work, and 2) To describe the look and feeling they’re going for for their photography. And over the years I’ve been surprised how many people not only notice the difference, but go as far as pointing it out as a selling point of hiring me. Since they’re not photographers they say it in various different ways, but in essence it’s always the same. They state their love for the light and airy style but dislike of blown out highlights and how rare it is to find a photographer that has control over their images while shooting in this style. So you might be surprised how modern clients have become more sophisticated in their taste. And taking that extra care can not only elevate our work but also be a major differentiator. :)
@@ChelseaNicole Maybe smartphones have changed what people like now, smartphones especially the expensive ones these last few have a strong “HDR” or flat log like effect where every detail is exposed. Thank you for your response, I was not critiquing you, just pointing out what my experience with non-photographers has been. I do hope you post more often.
When I photographed weddings all they cared about were the noise in the images, are there any, etc..UNTIL I did my first edit of light and airy and then word got around and that now is what people in my area are looking for and I'm working as hard as I can to get it right.
This light and airy is BS. Really bad trend. I hope one day someone like a bride or groom ask for a photo that’s normal after these light and airy photos were shot and we see how many of these bad photographers there are.
Totally agree with what you've explained here, I was guilty of losing details in highlights early on in my photographic journey by 'exposing to the right" I learned the hard way.
Thanks Christian! :) Ah yeah, ETTR is an easy technique to get wrong by exposing too far to the right by riding that edge. Especially if you’re not shooting in a controlled environment like landscapes or studio.
Thank you so much Chelsea for getting back to makings videos for UA-cam. 🤗 We missed you! 😊❤ I love your content 😍
Aww thanks for all the support Veronika! I missed you guys too!! 🤗 And I'm so happy to be creating again! Lots more videos coming your way! Let me know if you have any special requests. ♡
Brilliant! Thank you for sharing your knowledge so unselfishly. Xxx
Thanks for watching and supporting Moira! ♡ I'm so happy you liked it. :)
I love how you’re so real and right to the point!
Great tips Chelsea! I love the way you edit and shoot for the end edit in mind. I'm guilty of overexposing and will be more mindful of the highlights from now on!
Thanks Liz!! ♡
if you film negative your correct on the most part: exposing for the shadows. But if your photographing with color slide our chrome you want to expose for the highlights.
This was great. I hate blown out looks lol. Thanks for the preset!
Thanks Jayne 🤗And hope you like the preset! Happy editing!
It seems like digital is like shooting color slides. We used to underexposed a little to get saturation.
I totally used to do this :-/ Your editing tip is GOLD! Thank you!
Thanks xeler8r! Glad you liked the editing tip. 🤗
I greatly appreciate your work, Chelsea. I love how your videos are short, sweet & to the point. I'm learning a lot. I don't know why you have only 18 thousand subscriptions, but I strongly believe at some point it will skyrocket. Thanks for all your hard work!
Thanks for the sweet comment Izukens! 😊🙏🏻 It’s because of people like you that I love creating for and pouring into this amazing community. Makes me so happy hearing my videos are helping!
Cute sleeping pup in the background!!!
Bella loves hanging out with me while I create videos 🐶
New to photography, very glad I came across this. Thank you!
Thanks for this tutorial. I totally agree regarding the tendency to blow out images. We hired a photographer to take family portraits. My very fair daughter was so blown out, she looked like a ghost. No detail at all in her face. I had to request the RAW files and correct the images. I've stayed away from "light and airy", for this reason, but I'll give it another look.
Oh wow - how awful!! Yeah, the light and airy style definitely isn't 'slap-a-preset-on' and go like some styles are! To do it right, it definitely takes skill and consideration! Glad you were able to save the images!
Sorry you have hired an IDIOT😂
These videos have helped me out so much! I love the light and airy look but I’m leaning more towards the Western/Boho feel! Could you possibly do a video on how to get browns in your photos? ☺️
I ave found your channel yesterday, can't stop watching your videos. LOVE....and thank YOU so much, you are amazing
Ahhh that orange luminance tip 👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼
I love u chelsea!❤️
❤️❤️❤️
I bet there's a lot detail lost in the wedding dress for the sake of light and airy. And it won't take much for those type of photos to fade completely out over time. I hope they don't lose their original file or upload it to several different storage devices including the cloud so they can make another print.
Thank you
OMG you are actually an Angel!
Brilliant tip and so well presented and explained. Love your videos and clear to see why your photography is so good. Thank you
Thank you so much!!
Okay! Okay! Im subbing. Stop barraging me with these useful information that I was looking for.
Hi. Another very pleasing video. The way you speak and your dynamic are excellent. An easy way is to spot measure the light on skin while in the same time under expose. So the value of under exposure is set on the skin tone as reference and then, in editing it.s easy to modify the lid tones by this value... what do you think of this?
Great video and channel subscribed. Thank you ❤️
Love this video thank you! Your free preset isnt working, I would love it so much
magical info sis
but when using fujifilm camera, when you lift the shadow and exposure from under, it looks like a bad image. is it just me or yes the crop sensor is not better than fullframe when it comes to recovery image
Particularly appreciate the edit tip at the end there 👍
You are amazing in every thing! you should have millions subscribers!!
Aww Thanks for all the support Enas! 🤗❤️
on point AS USUAL
Thanks girl!
Behind the scene would be so great.
Great tutorial!
Hi Chelsea, great video! the preset has disappeared from your web site, would you mind adding that back please?
Hey there! We’re you able to get the preset? Should be all fixed. But let me know if you still have trouble!
"I eat all the cake". That's just great life advice in general, lol. Great video and tips.
VERY TRUE!!! Haha
😜🍰 haha, thanks David!!
With mirrorless you no longer have this problem because what you see is what you get
If only that were true! Never trust your LCD or viewfinder! What you see is, actually, never what you get.
@@thejaysehansen Exactly. LCD's are very misleading and cannot be relied on all the time. I refuse to spend money on a mirrorless system when I have it already in my 6D MK2, it is called LIVE VIEW, does all the mirrorless I need.
@@crollinsphoto ah yeah you're set!
Thank you. I just gave up on it. BUT you have resurrected my interest and you nailed it. Thank you. Question: can I also use highlight tone priority on every shot? That automatically underexposes by 1 stop? Also, you say to shoot backlit and then some more light and airy photographers say to never shoot that way so I'm so thoroughly confused. I live in WV where we usually don't have the kind of light among our mountain valleys to shoot that way so what are we to do? I went to get your free preset but get a 404 page error that the page cannot be found :(
Thanks Charles! 😊🙏🏻 makes me so happy to hear!
For exposure - I recommend shooting manual for more control. Set ISO & Aperture and use your shutter to dial up or down exposure - paying attention to any highlights you want to retain like the dress, flowers, sky detail, etc (note: there may be things such as spectacular highlights that aren’t as important to retain which is why manual is best, to give you more control.)
Backlight - I don’t always shoot backlight, but it’s my favorite - especially in sunny situations because it will put your subject’s face in short, reflected light. When shooting in areas with lots of mountains or trees where the sun sets a bit earlier, I simply plan for that and begin my shoot a bit earlier. That way I can get some backlight - as well as images after the sun has disappeared. That will give you two different looks - both beautiful. :) Also - one the direct light is gone, you can turn your subjects towards where the light has set since it will be a softer diffused quality of light. I’ll do both that and backlight.
Btw, Were you able to get the preset? I’m not sure why the download works for most people - but not a few. I’m looking into it though!
@@ChelseaNicole Yep I got it, it was my browser. I use Firefox and apparently your site doesn't work with that so I had to download Google and got it just fine.
My clients love some blown highlights, I love some HDR-ish edits. I try to meet them in the middle.
A lot of people love that bright look, totally! But, yeah, if you can be bright and yet also ‘rich’ in your tones - you’re a next level master image crafter.
The light and airy look is definitely one of the most popular styles portraits and weddings. But as with any art-form, it's those subtle nuances that make all the difference in elevating our work and really setting you apart!
Ok, I subscribed
The after and before you showed is really similar to "exposed for skin" picture, so I don't get the poin
well done, right to the point. btw i subscribed, which i almost never do :)
Thanks Paul!! Happy you enjoyed it & appreciate the sub 🙏🏻 looking forward to staying connected! Lmk if you have any special requests. I have a bunch of new content rolling out in a couple weeks! :)
@@ChelseaNicole yea starting following you on IG :😁 looking forward to more binge watching - especially on LR editing.
Preset link is broken
I am not a portrait photographer . Nevertheless, why wouldn’t you just use the histogram during exposure. It shows right then where the hilights reside? That takes the guesswork out of the equation. Your retouching is right on the money. I don’t know of any genre of photography where blown hilights are a desirable outcome.
Hey Ed! 💯 agree - histogram is one of the main ways I ensure I’m not losing highlight detail when shooting. But this video was less about exactly how to expose and more about addressing one of the biggest mistakes I see with the light and airy style that’s so popular among portrait and wedding photographers. Many photographers in this genre are afraid of under underexposing (thinking it will hurt skin tones, which isn’t true if done right) so lean on the side of overexposure and blowing out highlights. Glad you liked the editing tip! :)
@@ChelseaNicole Great Chelsea, what I hear in all of this is that all photographers need to understand the basics of exposure. I am an old guy from the film days. To me, digital is a lot easier than shooting film. Once I found the histogram, I was in "hog heaven" because I knew exactly what to expect. All the best to you in your photographic endeavors and teaching.
@@esanford Thanks Ed! Ah yeah, I originally come from film photography too (still love it) and histogram is my best friend, both in camera and out! I think you might actually enjoy my video on RGB Curves - it goes deeper into the topic of tonal range when editing: ua-cam.com/video/jsnKOuDyyzI/v-deo.html&t=
@@ChelseaNicole Thanks.... I enjoyed that video. I will incorporate that into my arsenal for landscapes... I use the curves, but it is rare for me to separate out the colors. Nice job!
@@esanford That's awesome!! So glad it was helpful! :)
kisses and thank you from Brazil
For my style I pay too much money on glass to go and over expose the photos. I like rich colors with with beautiful details. I can not bring myself to try the airy style.
Like she says in this vid, maybe you can have best of both! Although it is definitely a harder look to pull off right!
They promise what they tell you will help you BUT they won't tell you the camera settings or any of the "meat" that will help you create the images that will attract clients UNLESS you pay an unheard of amount for their class. Maybe one day there will be a photographer that will really care about others and care about helping and give us the meat of what we need in the info realm to help us further their craft. I have never charged to help someone and never will because I care and want to help others succeed.
Yes why pay for high End glass and camera and overexposed so you Lose detail and sharpness and contrast and dynamic range. These clients have no clue as well as these trend photographers
QOTD: Do you ever use this photography technique? 🙂
I'm always worried about underexposing. But seeing your before and after photos makes me feel more confident and excited to try this out! ☺️
Send me your presets❤
Good advise! Also, pls shape your eyebrows well too
I see people posting those airy photos all the time. The pics look over exposed.
These tips are fine for light skinned folk but recovering even slight underexposure of someone as dark as my wife would exaggerate noise and would only be usable with the assistance of AI noise reduction. I generally ETTR but leave a 1.5 stop gap below white clipping, and then bracket -1, 0, +1 from there.
Hey GB! I've actually used this techniques on all skin tones and colors, including very dark skin, and it still turns out just as beautifully. The trick is to use the lowest ISO possible and only underexpose slightly / as much as needed to retain any highlight detail. Also, for highly pigmented skin proper white balance will be more important so that you don't blow out the red channel. Hope this helps!
@@ChelseaNicole Did I ask for help? We've been married for 25 years! 🙂
I’m not criticizing your technique, you do what works best for your style. However, the only people that pay attention to blown backgrounds are photographers, normal people only care if the principal subject looks good. Be it the bride, her dress, the couple, family or friends, as long as the photo clearly conveys a subject, if they are in focus and well exposed the rest doesn't matter. I personally do preserve the highlights in the camera because I like having as much info as possible for editing.
I used to think this too! I thought most clients likely couldn’t tell the difference (though I wanted to give them the best images anyway.) But I found the more I raised rates, many of the higher end clients DO actually notice and care.
When I get new inquiries I always ask: 1) What drew them to my work, and 2) To describe the look and feeling they’re going for for their photography. And over the years I’ve been surprised how many people not only notice the difference, but go as far as pointing it out as a selling point of hiring me. Since they’re not photographers they say it in various different ways, but in essence it’s always the same. They state their love for the light and airy style but dislike of blown out highlights and how rare it is to find a photographer that has control over their images while shooting in this style. So you might be surprised how modern clients have become more sophisticated in their taste. And taking that extra care can not only elevate our work but also be a major differentiator. :)
@@ChelseaNicole Maybe smartphones have changed what people like now, smartphones especially the expensive ones these last few have a strong “HDR” or flat log like effect where every detail is exposed. Thank you for your response, I was not critiquing you, just pointing out what my experience with non-photographers has been. I do hope you post more often.
ShutterManAce Agree, I think clients are more savvy now because people are more sensitive to it.
When I photographed weddings all they cared about were the noise in the images, are there any, etc..UNTIL I did my first edit of light and airy and then word got around and that now is what people in my area are looking for and I'm working as hard as I can to get it right.
Don’t tell me what to do
This light and airy is BS. Really bad trend. I hope one day someone like a bride or groom ask for a photo that’s normal after these light and airy photos were shot and we see how many of these bad photographers there are.
With divorce and second marriage rates, don't worry, you'll get a second shot!
No - I have never made that mistake with exposure blow out, however - I did once dye my hair pink in parts.... What a total disaster !!
😂 photo or didn't happen!
@@ChelseaNicole I just can't... way too embarrassing !!
Skip ahead 7 minutes... Another blogger trying to extend view by talking about what they great grand kids best friends mom uncle had for dinner
Waqas Aftab pretty sure she doesn’t have grandkids. LoL.
@@xeler8r "GREAT grand kids" LoL