Editorial Portraiture: Light and Creativity

Conceptualization and art direction are two fundamental steps in fashion and portrait photographer Natalia Gw's creative process. However, her work really comes to life when she starts playing with light to achieve unexpected results. She refers to it as "painting with light". Would you like to learn how she does it?

In this course, Natalia teaches you how to produce editorial portraits from the idea phase to the final shoot using both a professional studio and your home. Discover how far you can take your photography without the need for big resources—just natural light, some flashes, and a whole lot of imagination.

Start by getting to know Natalia, her beginnings, the path that led her to specialize in portrait and fashion photography, her influences, and her way of understanding the profession. In addition, she talks to you about how important each creative process is and how they influence her work.

Create an image database, to develop your own style and use for future personal or commercial projects. Then, organize your ideas by creating a mood board by choosing your color palette and reviewing each aspect of your equipment.

Discover how to create professional-looking home studio sets by playing with fabrics, veils, and paper. From there, Natalia teaches you how to take professional portraits with both natural light and studio lighting. See how to experiment with color filters to add textures and effects to your images.

Finally, learn everything about the post-production of your photographs with Photoshop, including the selection of images, how to fix and correct photos, how to edit them, retouch them, and create a narrative series that can be published in your portfolio.

Make a series of editorial portraits with different lighting and art direction using natural light, flashes, and other experimental elements.

Photographers who would like to learn new lighting techniques and other tricks for playing with art direction and color.

To take this course, previous photography knowledge is required.

As for the materials, you will need a digital camera and a computer with Adobe Photoshop. You will also need a space with natural light and, if you would like to work with artificial light, a basic flash kit. Some basic home materials like fabric, paper, and filters are also needed for experimenting.