Portraiture is one of the most popular genres of photography for many reasons and photographs of people are often the ones that are looked at the most and for the longest. One style within portraiture that is a staple is the dramatic look. In this video, watch a start-to-finish edit of a portrait with the dramatic look as the end goal.
My first camera wasn't bought with the intention of taking portraits, though I had always loved the genre. Naturally, it didn't take long for me to turn my lens to point at people I knew, but I was never elated with the results. I don't recall what I thought was wrong with them other than that they were lacking in some way. Now I know that the key reason they were lacking was that they were lacking a direction. They were merely snaps of people. There was no mood, or theme, or vibe; it was as plain as could be.
Then, in a magazine on photography I had a subscription to at the time, there was a half-page tutorial on how to get moody and dramatic portraits. It involved a bit of HDR, a lot of contrast, and heavy-handed use of the High Pass filter. Looking back, it has not aged well, but at the time I was thrilled and it sent me down a road of portraiture that continues to this day. While I don't create anything like I did back then, I still regularly aim for the dramatic look.
