Professional Portrait Workshop

The 2025-2026 Digital Scholarship Fellows concluded a year of hands-on workshops with two sessions focused on professional portraiture.

In the first studio-based workshop, DSF fellows learned the basics of successful portraiture—camera settings, lighting technique, and other best practices—and had the opportunity to take each other’s portraits while putting their new knowledge to the test. They also learned how to take environmental portraits outside a studio environment, which can help tell more of a story about the person and their interests.

In a follow-up session, DSF fellows learned how to edit their portraits in Adobe Lightroom Classic. This session emphasized making small edits to help make a portrait “pop,” such as making targeted exposure adjustments, changing the background color, or adding a subtle vignette.