Face to face

Three professional portrait photographers share their wisdom for capturing stunning portraits in a range of environments and lighting

- Gigi Umbrasaite, Darren Boyd, Therese Asplund

Gigi Umbrasaite

Gigi is a Lithuanian fashion and portrait photographer based in Brighton. She grew up in a family of photographers and started shooting from an early age. After finishing school in Lithuania, Gigi moved to study in England where her photography career took off. Now Gigi is working with magazines, fashion and commercial brands, and modelling agencies all over the world. See www.gg-photo.com or @ggphotographyofficial on Instagram

Luke Clark 

London, This shot of Luke Clark was taken in Greenwich, on a sunny day that had intermittent, crazy downpours. We ended up in a pub for shelter until the showers passed over. While we were sitting and waiting, I noticed the light coming through the window right next to our table and just decided to snap some portraits. I was shooting on an 85mm lens, so I needed to be far back from Luke, but just the end of the table was enough distance to frame him for a portrait. With enough light coming in and some shadows from being indoors, I decided to turn this shot black & white to give it a little more of a cinematic feel.

I made minor adjustments to the exposure in Lightroom followed by minimal skin retouching (dodge and burn) to lighten up shadows under Luke's eyes, nose and lips in Photoshop.

Kateryna Zub

This shot of Kateryna Zub was taken in Hyde Park, London. It was a gloomy day, but in this case, it was working well for us as it was adding to the mood. As always, I look for interesting backgrounds that will complement my subject. I spotted reed sweet-grass that was already dry and a golden colour that beautifully matched Kateryna's hair, giving us lovely, earthy tones.