
This is regardless of whether you use artificial lighting or available light. Indoor sessions are likely to result in darker images than outdoor ones. If you do a lot of indoor or studio photography, look for camera bodies with great low light abilities. With digital, you can shrink an image down and hide many of the issues with it. Any imperfection will show in a print because of its sheer size. This affects the type of camera you’ll want to use. If your client base is print-oriented, then the quality of your photos is important. If so, you might get away with a less expensive camera body. You might find yourself focusing on releasing the images digitally or being a shoot-and-burn photographer. The kind of tattoo photography you do, or want to do, will impact how finicky you are about your camera’s tech. With so many options on the market, it can be a bit difficult to navigate the purchasing waters. You want to make sure your blacks really pack a punch! What Camera and Lens Should You Use for Tattoo Photography Ink linework becomes very important with black and whites. If black and white is more your style, ensure there is plenty of contrast to differentiate the various parts of the tattoo. However, only do this to the extent necessary to restore the tattoos back to the original tone and shape. You will likely need to color-correct manually. When using light, tattoos can appear to be the wrong color due to how the light waves hit the skin.

Similar to product photography, you want the colors to be accurate representations of reality. When playing with color, pay close attention to the tones. Most editing programs have a Sharpening tool- using this on a tattoo is a great way to make sure that the edges of the tattoo are clear and bold. You’ll likely have to be working with layers and masks so apply the smoothing selectively. When you add the filter or process to remove imperfections in the skin, you may cause details in the tattoo to vanish or become distorted. If you want to smooth out the model’s skin, what do you do about the tattoo?

#Beginner tattoo tutorial software
When transferring the images to your photo editing software such as Photoshop or Lightroom, you’ll likely run into a secondary issue. This will give some more depth rather than keeping the image flat. But my honest advice would be to make the light a bit off-centred or angled. You might think that front lighting is the best way to illuminate ink. How you position the tattoo in relation to the light source will make all the difference. Whether it be from a window with curtains or a diffuser on a studio lamp. The best lighting, I find, is any type of filtered light. Position your light so that you avoid reflections. You need diffused light for the best tattoo pictures. When ink finds its way into the skin, the reflective properties become more prominent.
#Beginner tattoo tutorial skin
This is because the skin is a very reflective surface. Upon the first try, you’ll likely find that proper lighting for tattoo photography is quite hard to achieve. Not if you want those beautiful tattoos to stand out.

You might think that photographing a person with tattoos is just like any other portrait photography session. How Is Tattoo Photography Different From Portrait Photography?
