Outdoors - It's all about the light!

Now that we have a basic knowledge of lighting and studio lighting, we can use that knowledge and apply some of it to your outdoor portraits.  In as much as your background is important in location (outdoor) portraits, if you truly want good portraits, it's important that you find a good light source.  This is the location

 All the light areas is your light source.  Granted it's being partially blocked by the trees and overhang but there's a good amount of light coming through.  Once you determine your source of light, then you can look for your background.  As you see in the first image there's a tree and also a brightly lit sky.

If I didn't watch what my background was and my angle of shooting ended up with the light background behind the subject, the face might flare out and the background will compete for attention taking your eyes away from the subject.

If you just moved your angle so the dark tree was your background, then the face would be the center of attention.  Another thing to consider is look where you position the head.  It's still getting light from the sun behind her so that the hair lights up in the portrait.

 Here's a different location.  Sky is your primary light source.

 How does one determine if the hair would be lit?  Look at the shadow on the ground.  If the head is in the sun, you'll see the shadow of your subject's head in the light area and not the shade.

 A major consideration would also be your lens focal length.  You can control how your background looks by your lens focal length.  If you use longer focal lengths, the background gets magnified and results in a better effect.

This shot was taken with the lens at 70mm 1/320 sec f4.0 ISO 200.  Notice the tree is out of focus but then the two bright areas to the sides of the tree compete for attention.  70mm IMHO is the shortest focal length one would use for outdoor head/shoulders portraits. 

 I prefer to use longer focal lengths.  This one is shot at 195mm, same shutter speed, same f stop, same ISO.  Notice the enlargement of the background and how it fills the frame resulting in less distraction in the background.

Because I generally work without assistants for most of my portrait work, I've had to learn to find and use the light without depending on handheld reflectors or other light modifying devices.

End of today's blog post.
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