Portrait Lighting

I wanted to talk a bit about Portrait Lighting today. I would like to illustrate this with a few images from a senior photo session I did last week. When shooting outside, I like to look for open shade which is very complimentary for portraits. What’s open shade?

Indirect light. It usually can be found, just like it’s name says, in shaded areas where the sun isn’t directly hitting. Behind a building, under a tree, you get the idea. Just look with your photo eyes and not your natural eyes and you will start to recognize tons of areas to make great portraits.

Back to our first example.

I placed my subject in next to an old brick church in downtown Fullerton. The direction of the light is from camera left. See the shaded area on the subject’s face? I also composed the image with the subject’s eyes in the upper right area of convergence. Let’s look at another image….

Here my subject is leaning against a white wall with the light coming again from camera left. I was teasing him about his hairstyle and how it resembled pop star, “Justin Bieber.” It seems that most high school age boys hate that comparison, but would love the attention that he gets from girls of all ages!

I like the relaxed look on his face and his body language. BTW, I was told by my subjects father, that he hates having his photo taken. Well, that’s always a great challenge for me. We talked about college, music, Justin Bieber and in hardly anytime, my subject was relaxed and very at ease with having his photo taken.

Patience and feeling confident about your photography goes a long way in comforting a hesitant subject.

Finally, I wanted to leave our little post today with an image that is composed with careful planning. I love the relaxed look and the smile that reveals who my subject is. His guard is down and he is just looking very natural. The black and white strips away any distractions and allows the viewer to just see the personality of the subject in this image.

In review, look for open shade, that indirect light that is so flattering for your portraits and you will find your images getting stronger. Portrait lighting doesn’t have to be sophisticated, you just have to “see” it before you shoot it.

Enjoy!