I have been a firm believer that if you have the right lighting conditions and the right vision, you can take portraits almost anyplace.  As I sat in the shade of a tree on the edge of a dirt parking lot waiting for my client who didn't know that her supposed one hour appt at the yearbook studio was going to take at least two hours,  As I muddled around, I noticed this patch of weeds behind where my car was parked.  I took it as a challenge to see if I could do anything with it when the client arrived.

I'm sure the client thought I had lost my mind when I had her stand in a lane between the clumb of weeds in front of her and behind her but the result is posted here.

 

Of course, if you go closer it totally makes the weedy background disappear.

It was bright and sunny, the sun was blazing behind her but there was enough open sky area behind me to illuminate the face well.  Of course I used a 70-200 zoom, a lens shade and what's we called a French Flag (which is a scrim that I attached to the lens to block the sun from hitting the lens).

Know where your light is coming from

When you're looking for areas to place your subjects, I know that some people look for backgrounds first and if they light is not ideal, they try to use devices to "fix" the irregular light.  My mantra is one needs to "find" the light first then decide where to place the subjects so you have a good background.

I've seen many a photo with sun splotches on the body or the face because the photographer selected the background without regard to the location of the light source.  In this case, the light source was behind the camera position making it about 1:00 high in FRONT of the subjects resulting in the splotchy light here.  That does not make a good photo.  So what does one do?

Like some of the photos that I've seen, the photographer tries to use a flash unit to add a "fill flash" on the subjects with the intent of filling in the darker areas of the image.  That can work IF your flash unit is strong enough to be as bright as the sun spots.  That however does not usually work because the strength of the sunlight will be way brighter than most small flash units.

A simpler, easier way?  Reverse your positions so at camera position the light source is in FRONT of you and BEHIND your subjects.  Now the sun is at 1:00 in FRONT of the camera and your subjects are in the backlight.  Granted, the light has changed but there's no major extraneous light on the subject's faces which is the effect that for me, is preferable.




Don't look for the background.  Look for the LIGHT and then select your background.  My favorite term to use when the client suggests the background and I see all kinds of issues with the light.  "Sure, we can try that" while at the same time, I'll do another set of photos where I feel the light is more ideal.  Or, once in a while I'll say "the light sucks."

The purpose of this post is to hopefully make one understand that it's NOT showing you where the light should be but where one should be LOOKING at the light before taking the photo and adjusting your camera position to FIND better light.

High Key Portraits

I do a LOT of high key portraits, especially for the beauty pageants.  The main reason is that it keeps the background clean and as long as the subject is not wearing white, it's easier to cut and paste.

One needs a white background, at least three lights (preferably four) and it helps to have a flash meter to be able to read the power coming out of the flash units.

 This is my basic High Key setup.  I have a main light that is boucing on the white wall behind me and raised almost to the ceiling.

The main light is off to the side closer to the subject.  There are two lights aimed at the wall (background) and a hair light to highlight the hair and also add another accent light.

The background lights are set to read two f-stops brighter than the main light which means I'm overexposing the background.   So if I'm shooting about f8, my background lights measure f16.

This is the shot of the studio.  The fill light is high aimed at the wall and centered, the main light is off to the side and my f-stop reading is f9.5 at ISO 100.  You see two background lights behind the Japanese screens.  They are set up that way to prevent any extraneous spill from those lights on the subject.  The hair light is high and to the left enough to kick some light on the hair.  The subject is at least 5' or more away from the background so there won't be any spill light.

Here's a sample shot taken in that setup.  The floor is darker to add some depth to the image.  I could also make it clean white by lighting the floor or going into Photoshop.

Head shot taken with the same setup.  The negative side of high key is that it accentuates any stray hair so that's another thing that one needs to be aware of.  Having to Photoshop that can be a pain.

Another reason that I shoot high key is that sometimes, things get in the photo (like this light).  With a simple plain background, it's a lot easier to clean that distraction out of the image.

Like this.

 Here's the situation.  I have a photoshoot, it's raining cats and dogs.  What does one do?

We were in upper Hilo and it started to rain.  This particular property had a huge shed used to store construction equipment and a really big door.  I used the light (overcast) coming in from the door as my main source of light.  It's nice and soft but as you can see, if the model wasn't blonde, the hair would have disappeared into the background.  What to do?

I set up a off camera flash (OCF) on a light stand triggered by a remote triggering device to add some depth into the photo.  As you can see, there's a forklift to camera left and a smashed ATV to camera right.  They added to the quirkiness of the photo.  There was some light coming in from the windows but not enough to do anything.  Flash unit was a Canon 550 EX set to manual and 1/128 power.  It added enough of a kick to add depth into the photo.  The image is framed to show the immenseness of the shed.

This is a closer shot of the same image.  Now with the hair light adding a kicker to the hair, the image has more depth.

1/80 sec f4.0, ISO 400

Using the off camera flash as a hair light

How does one position it?  Ideally high on a light stand and pointed at the top of the subject's head. 

How strong is the flash?  Not too strong as the angle will make it brighter than it actually is.  Also, hair color has an effect.  It's brighter on blonds vs. brunettes.

How high?  With my stands, I can go to about 8' or 9' above the subject. 

What happens if it's too low?  The flash will go into your lens and cause flare.

 This is what happens when the hair light is too low.  You get lens flare.  Some people like flare.  I don't.

Here's a setup of a recent portrait shoot.  It was sunny outdoors but the wind was howling.  I had to do about 20+ portraits of a group of pageant contestants.  The only place that looked decent was this corner with the rock wall.  The hair light was put on a stand and raised to the highest point of the light stand.  Flash was a Canon 550EX at 1/128 power.

The light source for the portrait was the outdoors coming in through the windows.  Because there was a roof overhead, the light direction was at the proper angle from the front and back of the subject.

By using a long telephoto, it compressed the background so no extraneous items appeared on the side.  Care had to be taken so the angle was correct.  Subject was also placed away from the background so the rock wall would kind of go out of focus.  Exposure was 1/200, f2.8 ISO 200

The final result.  You can also see that the flash for the hair light also illuminated the rock wall and there was a kicker light coming in from the window behind the subject.

What's a kicker light?  Come back later and see in a future post.

Tweaking the image by adding a hair light.

 This is the effect on the hair that I like to have.  If the sun is out, and you can get the head in the right position it's an easy thing to do.  When you're in the shade or if it's a cloudy day, it can be difficult or it needs to be created somehow.

 This image was created in the shadow of a building entrance.  The open sky was the main light source but since the subject was in the shade, there's no separation between the hair and the background.

By adding a small flash unit on a light stand and triggered by a radio slave, a hair light can be created to add more separation between the subject and the background.

 What do I use for the hair light?  It's a simple Vivitar 285HV mounted on a Cheetah light stand.

It's triggered by a Radio Slave.  The brand doesn't matter but it does need to be dependable. The ones I currently use are Pocket Wizards but I also have a set of Cactus triggers and receivers which I have found to be pretty dependable.  I also have a Youngbu set which I haven't tested on my normal flash units. 












This is my current setup.  It's normally raised a lot higher as I need to avoid any of the flash hitting the camera lens.  If it hits the lens one will have the tendency to have flare.  I normally don't like flare as it muddies the image.

 This is what it looks like when the camera triggers the flash.

 At one time I was a fan of cloudy days as it allowed me to have a soft light.  I kind of prefer bright sunny days now as the light level is higher and I have more options as to what I want my images to look like

This was taken on a cloudy day out in the open.  Because the light comes from all over (primarily on top), one gets the raccoon eye look.  The light is soft though.

I wanted a more distinct hair light so I set up my flash unit high and behind the subject.  Now there is a glow off the top of the head leading to more separation of the head from the background.  Since the light is still coming from above, we still have the raccoon eyes.

How to fix?  Get a reflector and place it below the subject's face.  That will add light into the shadow area brightening up the face.