Attempting natural light portraiture...

WingsOfLovePhoto · June 1, 2009

Good monday all! Up until now, I felt very attached to my flash, I was under the impression I couldn't get a good people picture without it, but was I wrong? Here are my first attempts at natural light, no reflectors or anything.... C/C would be greatly appreciated as I will be shooting 40 babies over the next few weeks and would like to know how I am doing with this and if you have any suggestions before I keep it up! Thanks in advance!!

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divamum · June 1, 2009

Sandy, the stuff you post just gets better and better. These are absolutely beautiful (And 40 babies? Holy moly!)

You managed to get great catchlights in most of these, but there are a couple where I think that would have lifted the shot to spectacular - the first three in particular, I think. Don't get me wrong - they're good shots - I just think a more prominent catchlight would really enhance them further.

I'm a huge fan of natural light shots - love 'em, always have. What I'm discovering for myself as I pursue this technically is that I always, ALWAYS am happiest with shots that use some kind of reflected light, be that from a pavement, a building or a good old-fashioned reflector. Or a flash.

Hopefully Jeffreaux will chime in since even when he uses flash he gives the impression of it being 100% natural light - if I have a goal for myself, that's it. I don't really care HOW I achieve it as long as it looks like it's 100% natural

These are wonderful shots!

sweet caroline · June 1, 2009

These are beautiful! I started out with natural light and had to learn to use flash. Now I'm back to wanting to work on using natural light more so I don't become too reliant on flash.

Caroline

Swartzy · June 1, 2009

Well done Sandy. Natural light can be wonderful as demonstrated here. The trick as you have found out is even lighting. Overcast days make for wonderful portraiture lighting. Natural light on sunny days, well.....then you improvise

These are cute!

Nikolai · June 1, 2009

Swartzy wrote:

Well done Sandy. Natural light can be wonderful as demonstrated here. The trick as you have found out is even lighting. Overcast days make for wonderful portraiture lighting. Natural light on sunny days, well.....then you improvise These are cute!

+1

jeffreaux2 · June 1, 2009

What is a "natural light photographer" anyways?

-The choice to agree or disagree with my definition is, of course, up to you, but the way I see it, a natural light photographer uses natural light for the exposure in his or her images. That is....the natural light is the key light. Sometimes though, fill is needed. If so it can come from a variety of sources as mentioned by Divamom....and at least by my loose definition this includes flash.

While browsing these images I made certain to look twice for an instance where flash....as a fill...would have been a benifit. In #1, #6, and possibly in #10 flash may have helped to knock out the shadows around the eyes, but that isnt to say the resulting image would look better....we would have to see it to be able to say that definitavely.

These are all excellent examples , though, that if you do choose to use flash for fill the power requirments will be very small....and might even lead one to believe that starting out backwards at say -3 FEC and add power as needed rather than starting at 0 FEC and subtracting power by taste might be a better approach.

I still consider myself "mostly" a natural light photographer by these loose terms even though I use flash in the large majority of what I shoot. Of late, I have strayed from that some by using a flash and modifyer as a key light outdoors. Does that make me an "available light photographer", since flash is ALWAYS available?

And what about existing light? If I had to define existing light I might want to use the images posted here as examples of that......as they were shot only in the light that existed in that location, at that time, with no help from gadgetry. Ill have to think about that.

-A fundamental thing to remember though......looking through these images....is that we often go to extreme lengths.......using elaborate - and expensive gear to try to "create" beautiful light. Some photographers are exremely good at this....some struggle.....but in reality....if you take the time to look for it.....beautiful light is most often very near to wherever it is that you are......existing there as it were.:D

Though they are all very nice Sandy.......I have to pour all my extra points on #9.......just for the extreme pinchability of those cheeks. Thanks for sharing.

WingsOfLovePhoto · June 2, 2009

divamum wrote:

Sandy, the stuff you post just gets better and better. These are absolutely beautiful (And 40 babies? Holy moly!)

You managed to get great catchlights in most of these, but there are a couple where I think that would have lifted the shot to spectacular - the first three in particular, I think. Don't get me wrong - they're good shots - I just think a more prominent catchlight would really enhance them further.

I'm a huge fan of natural light shots - love 'em, always have. What I'm discovering for myself as I pursue this technically is that I always, ALWAYS am happiest with shots that use some kind of reflected light, be that from a pavement, a building or a good old-fashioned reflector. Or a flash.

Hopefully Jeffreaux will chime in since even when he uses flash he gives the impression of it being 100% natural light - if I have a goal for myself, that's it. I don't really care HOW I achieve it as long as it looks like it's 100% natural

These are wonderful shots!

Thanks Diva, I am always trying to improve! Practice practice.... and trying out new stuff. I agree with the catchlights in those few, there wasn't much reflective in those areas. I need to get me an assistant! and yes 40 babies and they keep coming!! Yikes.... I need to come up with some more posing and ideas! Good luck with your 1 year old shoot, they are actually alot of fun. For ideas check out the children gallery on my site...lots of 1 year olds! Do the cake thing, that is alot of fun!

WingsOfLovePhoto · June 2, 2009

sweet caroline wrote:

These are beautiful! I started out with natural light and had to learn to use flash. Now I'm back to wanting to work on using natural light more so I don't become too reliant on flash.

Caroline

Thanks for the compliment Caroline. I have always relied on flash but I am LOVING the freedom from it! It was scary at first but it's great now without!

WingsOfLovePhoto · June 2, 2009

Swartzy wrote:

Well done Sandy. Natural light can be wonderful as demonstrated here. The trick as you have found out is even lighting. Overcast days make for wonderful portraiture lighting. Natural light on sunny days, well.....then you improvise These are cute!

Thanks Swartzy! Actually it was a sunny day but I am very fortunate that I set up my backyard with a waterfall and other area's that are very shady.... but still have a light colored house that seems to be good for reflecting back some..... I never believed you could get good catchlights without a flash! Was I wrong!!!

WingsOfLovePhoto · June 2, 2009

Nikolai wrote:

+1

Nikolai likes my pictures!!! Yay!!!!

Nikolai · June 2, 2009

WingsOfLovePhoto wrote:

Nikolai likes my pictures!!! Yay!!!!

Well, I do.. very nice usage of ambient light...

WingsOfLovePhoto · June 2, 2009

-A fundamental thing to remember though......looking through these images....is that we often go to extreme lengths.......using elaborate - and expensive gear to try to "create" beautiful light. Some photographers are exremely good at this....some struggle.....but in reality....if you take the time to look for it.....beautiful light is most often very near to wherever it is that you are......existing there as it were.:D

Thanks as always Jeff for your insight. I like this quote the best.... I am always looking for the beautiful light. People must think I'm out there sometimes because I walk around just looking at how light is striking things, how light is reflecting in the eyes of anybody I talk to and where it is coming from. It's easy to get lost in this hobby/profession but the best thing about digital photography you can practice some then practice some more at no cost, this I believe has brought photography to a supreme level. I have learned so much over the past year when I joined this forum and just by seeing what works for me and what doesn't. I so appreciate all of you here and your willingness to share. I hope that someday Dgrin has a meetup somewhere we can all party in person!

Tim Kamppinen · June 4, 2009

These are all great! I'm also a flash-junkie who's trying to get better at natural/available/existing light photography. Before I got started using flash, all my people photographs were basically snapshots with no regard to lighting... and it showed. None of them were worth a second look as anything more than a record of who was in a certain location at a certain time. I didn't know anything about light, or how to use it.

Once I started using flash, I learned what good light was and how to create it. I learned about apparent size of light sources, direction of the light, hard light, soft light, key light, fill light, rim light, catchlights, highlights, beauty light, Dave Hill Light... umm... where was I...

Oh yeah, light. Anyway, I'm basically going in reverse, learning how to do natural light after learning flash... but now that I know how to create my own light that suits my subject, I also can look for and find existing light that does what I want it to do. Without learning flash photography first I'd still be clueless in this regard. I still love using flash when I have the time to do it, but I want to be able to work fast and in a variety of locations which is why I want to improve my natural/existing light photography as well. (ssshhh! don't tell the people over at the strobist forum!)

D'Buggs · June 4, 2009

Now I'm really not one for baby pictures,,, but these ones are over the top! You seem to be dialed in.

Ed911 · June 4, 2009

Very nice...love 2, 8, 10, 11, 12. For me, these just have that something special.

Thanks for sharing.

Attempting natural light portraiture...

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