Blux Holiday Tip #6: Whiteboard Portraits
If you have a child, it’s nearly certain that you’re going to be taking hundreds of portraits of them this holiday season. Whether it’s a photo of your son opening his presents or dressed as a shepherd for the Christmas pageant, the holiday season provides you plenty of opportunities to take your portrait photography to the next level. Whiteboard Mode allows you to seize that opportunity by creating dramatic, high-contrast black and white photos.
Don’t let Whiteboard Mode’s name fool you. Although Blux Camera’s Whiteboard Mode was designed so you can snap a quick photo of class or meeting notes, that’s not all it can be used for. In fact, Whiteboard is one of the more versatile modes, and has the ability to convert even the dullest photos into works of art.
To set your camera to Whiteboard, choose the whiteboard icon on the Effects Bar in the lower right-hand corner of the home screen.
Tap on the scene mode icon on the left half of the Effects Bar until the whiteboard icon appears.
While Whiteboard is a black and white scene mode, it is slightly different from the Gotham filter. Simply put, Gotham is a traditional black and white. It will white, black, and every grey tone in between. Whiteboard, on the other hand, will appear as a much more dramatic black and white- you’ll see more whites and blacks, with fewer greys.
When used for portraits, Whiteboard creates stylish, modern images similar to photos in magazines. While your first urge may be to dress the model in a suit to get a GQ image, Whiteboard can often be used even in casual and semi-candid circumstances just to spice up the portrait. While many choose soft and subtle effects for portraits of children, we used Whiteboard to snap a portrait of our 3 year-old shepherd, Toby, to demonstrate the versatility of this mode.
Due to Whiteboard’s stark contrast, you will need to be sure that you use the lighting to your advantage. One way to do this is to make sure that the light is coming from the front, uniform across the face. Make sure that the light is bright enough to reduce shadows, but not bright enough to get rid of them entirely. The other, more dramatic lighting technique is to bring the light to the side of your model. This will light up half their face while casting a shadow over the other half.
Also, remember that Whiteboard will show textures more clearly than color photos do. Textures on clothing, walls (including chipping paint), etc. will all stand out. So look through the lens to see which elements are popping out, and be ready to adjust accordingly.
Consider combining Whiteboard Mode with any of Blux Camera’s 13 filters for vintage, sepia and split-tone effects.