How can I reverse-engineer the lighting and camera choices in a portrait photo?
Asked 4/25/2012
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When studying portrait images, I want to learn how to infer how the shot was made by looking at the final result. Beyond basic light direction, what clues can help identify things like whether flash was used, whether it was on- or off-camera, and the approximate depth of field or exposure choices? Can you also tell from a photo whether a reflector was used, and if so whether it might have been silver or gold?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
14y ago
2 Answers
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Reverse "engineering" (shouldn't it be 'reverse artist-ing'?) light, whether from a portrait or otherwise is generally not rocket science, for determining whether flash was used and whether it was off- or on-camera, at least. Aperture and shutter speed are tougher to know without knowing additional variables, but those two items are actually not that critical, anyway. They are important when you shoot, of course, but it's not important to know them when you're trying to figure out what another photographer did...the main thing is depth-of-field, and especially with a portrait, you can get a pretty good guess on that by just looking at the subject.
David Hobby (Strobist) has a couple of really good blog posts on "reverse engineering":
You may want to look over his whole Lighting 101 series for a great tutorial on lighting.
Originally by user8297. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user8297
14y ago
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You can often make educated guesses, but not every detail can be known from the final image alone.
For portraits, start with the light: look at shadow direction, shadow hardness/softness, catchlights in the eyes, and how evenly the face is lit. Those clues often help you tell whether added light was used and whether it was likely on-camera or off-camera. On-camera light tends to look flatter and more frontal; off-camera light usually creates more obvious modeling and directional shadows.
Aperture and shutter speed are much harder to determine precisely unless you know other variables. What matters more is the visible depth of field and any motion blur. In portraits, depth of field is usually the most useful clue for estimating aperture range.
Reflectors can sometimes be inferred from gentle fill on the shadow side of the face or additional catchlights, but it is often difficult to be certain. Distinguishing silver from gold is especially uncertain unless the fill has a clearly cool/neutral or warm color cast.
In short: reverse-engineering is mostly about reading light quality, direction, and depth of field, then making approximate rather than exact conclusions.
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