Portraits in natural light
onsdag, 10 august 2011
I’ve read a lot of blog posts lately about shooting photos in natural light. I’m not a portrait photograper and have only a few times tried really taking advantage of natural light, so when I was asked to do a portrait of a young family member recently, I instantly accepted.
On a summer evening I took the young girl outside and to make her feel as comfortable as possible, I chit chatted with her about subjects of her choosing. It relaxed her and suddenly she started jibbering about some experience she had had in kindergarten and she got the most amazing expression in her face, so I took advantage of the situation and clicked away.
(Click for larger version)
We like the picture very much. The girl is pretty, theres is good eye contact and she has this special, surpriced expression in her face. Besides that the natural light is very nice in the picture. It’s there and its just bright enough to create some nice, easy shadows.
The photo is edited in Photoshop given a small amount of contrast and sharpen.
Tips for portraits in natural light
- If you shoot outside in natural light in the summer time, try shooting early in the morning or in the evening to get softer shadows.
- If you do not want to go outside, the light from a window pane can easily be used.
- Make sure your motive is not backlit.
- You might want to get eye contact.
You don’t need to follow these tips, but you might find them useful if you’re at rock bottom.
Alternative portrait in natural light
When getting a bit used to shooting in natural light, you can start playing around with it. I did that when I had to photograph Linda some days later. Again this picture was shot on a summer evening but this time I placed Linda inside a wooden cabin and faced her towards me standing outside the cabin. This way she was only lit by natural light and only from the front. Here’e the result – converted to black and white in Photoshop:
(Click for larger version)
I hope you’ve found some inspiration in these photos. Maybe you can get some good portraits in the very last natural light before the winter really enters.