I have been doing a lot of studio work recently and am feeling the urge to head outdoors more now. Probably in large part because the weather is getting warmer.
I just completed reading “Picture Perfect Lighting” by Roberto Valenzuela. This is an excellent book, even for folks that already know lighting. Roberto’s ability to break down complex tasks like lighting and posing into simple checklists is demonstrated in this text again (see “Picture Perfect Posing” where he does this as well). I now analyze any potential scene with the 10 point checklist and based on that I picked a spot for some natural light photos that I would have walked by.
This exercise was to have been an early morning backlight shoot, but our model is not an early riser. So we headed out later in the morning and improvised. These are all shot without flash, but there was the occasional use of a reflector. The location was chosen because of the naturally light walls around, relatively clean background with flat walls. There were a couple photos of my co-photographer where a flash was used to augment the natural light, but I will have to get his permission to post those.
The “Eyes” Have It.
The next photograph was taken in open shade, but our model was placed close to a flat neutral coloured wall on camera left for some additional fill. No reflectors or additional light sources were used for this.
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