Natural Light

a-baird-photograph

Working on natural light portraits lately. Oldest let me get some practice in. SOOC. Two windows to camera right, foam core board to left. 1/6s @ f3.2, 85mm 1.8 (love this lens).

Specific Questions that I have:
1. With lighting at 90deg to subject, is it flattering, or is it preferred to have light hitting the opposite cheek, even if slightly.
2. The reflector is just barely out of frame. I think it opens up the shadows just enough. Is it too close, not close enough?

Thanks for your clicks and comments!

Cantfeelmyfingers

from my understanding of the "proper" short-loop lighting, you definitely don't want your main light 90 degrees to the subject, more like 45-ish, plus a fill on the opposite side, slightly lower (I believe) than the main. That gives you the flattering short-loop, which in turn adds dimension to your subject, rather thank looking flat. Keep in mind you also want your main and fill ratios to differ.. Something like 2:1. Someone who's more of an expert on lighting would be the one to get the exact details from.

With this particular photograph, I feel like the shadows on her right side are still too dark, even with your foam core.

Depending on what you're trying to go for, per se, having split lighting isn't what you would NORMALLY use for your standard portraiture. But once again, depends on the "artistic intent".

Just my ponderings!
Lovely daughter. Thanks for sharing!

dadwtwins

I definitely think you need more light on face, more of a 45deg angle to allow bleed over and do some minor adjustments to the WB. With what you already have, here is an example of some minor adjustments

Example:

evoryware

You can do 90 degree, 45 degree, or frontal lighting also depending on how YOU want the shot to look.
Reflector should definitely be closer for this type of shot IMO to get the look in dadwtwins redo.

a-baird-photograph

Thanks all! I'll keep at it. I love the redo. Need to spend more time in Photoshop to learn how you go this.