{ Ashlee H. } | portraits | Natural Light Photography Basics

I am crazy behind on my blog, so to make up for it here is a super long post with tons of beautiful portrait inspiration as well as some tips behind the shots for the "camera savvy" to carry you throughout your day!  If you love what you see here and would like information on booking your own session, please check out my website and contact me there!: www.amydillinghamphotography.com

First, I have to say that I LOVE working with Individuals!  It doesn't matter if its Senior Portraits, Modeling Portfolios, Head shots, or just regular Portraits for no reason other than to make you feel great about yourself!  I just love them in all forms!  They are my passion and often become an outlet for my creativity.   I won't go so far as to call them "glamour shots" because I personally feel that these are much more sophisticated, more real, more YOU, and much more fun!

Ashlee is an aspiring model, and such a beautiful young lady!  She is sweet spirited, a touch shy and self conscious like any young lady, but she has a spark that will just blow you away!  She rocked her portfolio session and really started off my 2013 with a bang!  After this shoot, I decided that this is what I really want to focus on this year!  This and Couples/Weddings, but that's a post for another day...  Ashlee, I really loved meeting and working with you!  I know that you have incredible things in your future and wish you all the best the world has to offer!

 

For the Photographer:

I'm going to be working on a series of informational posts full of tips just for photographers and photo enthusiasts, and I would LOVE for you to follow my blog!  If you enjoy what you see and read, please show me some love in the comments section and share it with your friends!  You'll find that most of these tips are geared more towards beginning photographers, but you will need to have a general understanding of the exposure triangle and how to operate you camera because I won't be going into great detail in this post.  If you are just starting out or have just gotten your first DSLR, please take the time to at least look through you manual!  There is so much information in that little book and it will truly help start you out on the right path!  If you are not a reader, and you are miraculously still with me, you can find thousands of great tutorials on YouTube.  I don't have any pullback shots for this session, but I'll plan to grab a few along with my next tutorial session. 

 

About this Session:

This session took place mid-morning, around 9-10am.  All of these shots were natural light only-no flash.  We were searching out "open shade" locations and utilizing natural reflectors.  I did use a white reflector to bounce light back into her face for a few of the shots when we were in a particularly dark area.  I used my Nikon D300s with my older 50mm 1.8D lens. ( I have since upgraded to  the 50mm 1.4G and I love it!)  All of these shots were "Spot Metered" on her face to properly expose her skin.  To me, I don't particulary care where the background goes or if it blows out.  I'm worried about the skin.  If a person is properly exposed, their skin will seem to glow, and imperfections and blemishes will naturally seem to disappear.  I used AF-S mode and selected my own focal point (always placed on one of her eyes) to make sure that my images are sharp. It's important to use a fast enough shutter speed to prevent camera shake, and unintended subject motion.  For my 50mm lens, I needed to keep my shutter at least 1/100th second or 2x my focal length.  I prefer to be a little faster than that whenever possible, I'm not always the steadiest person... 

You can click on any photo to view it larger.

The above shot was taken at 1/400th second at f/2.5, ISO 100

I do ocassionally use my prime lenses wide open at 1.4 or 1.8-whatever the case may be, to achieve a specific "look" in a portrait,  but you must be cautious when doing so.  The focal area is so tiny at that aperture that it is easy to accidentally have soft focus on an area you wanted to be sharp! 

For this series of shots, Ashlee was sitting in open shade and facing the greatest natural reflector we have at our disposal: the sky!  Simply by having her look up at me and into the open sky, I was able to fill her eyes with beautiful catchlights!  You'll likely find that you'll really have to pay attention to get great catchlights in darker colored eyes. 

Keep in mind that you don't want your model to squint their eyes.  If Ashlee were looking into the midday sun, she would have barely been able to keep her eyes open.  I find it suits my style best to use indirect light, such as open shade, or by placing the light to the side and slightly behind the subject.  I also love to use backlight (placing the sun or light source completely behind your subject).

To camera right, the brick wall ends and it opens into bright sky.  This soft hazy look was achieved by allowing some of that light to fall into my photo.  Move yourself around until you have the look you want to achieve.

Look for textures in your surroundings.  They add depth to your image!

I love all of the textures in this image!  The brick, the moss, the grass... everything!

Incorporating your model's hands are a great way to add a little more life to you portrait!  Be sure that they keep their fingers relaxed, and instruct them not to press their hands into their face, it will create an unflattering effect.

Use leading lines and angles from the surroundings to "draw your eye" to your subject, and hold it there.

See how the line appears from the bottom right corner and directs your eye to Ashlee?  The top/middle line does the same thing and helps achieve the look I was wanting here.

Again for this set up, Ashlee is facing open sky and is sitting in open shade.  There was still a fair amout of light hitting her from this direction.

1/500th second, f/2.8 ISO 100

1/200th second, f/2.8 ISO 100

Just by moving my location from the side to above, the light changed dramatically!  Shutter speed slowed considerably for this shot.  Had the light caused my in camera meter to read herskin as underexposed, or where my shutter speed would be slower than I wanted to allow, I would have bumped up my ISO to allow more light into the sensor. That would also allow me to use a faster shutter speed speed.

I used her arms here to frame this image, and add some more interest to the final shot.

Note: Shooting from above is flattering for any body type.

1/250th second, f/2 ISO 100

I have Ashlee sitting on a step here, just a few feet off of the ground.  Notice how the background just melts away with the shallow depth of field.  Again I'm using leading lines to direct the viewer's eye.

Here is an example of a backlit portrait.  Remember, I'm metering on her skin, and with the mid morning sun I knew that my background was going to "blow out" in places.  I simply used a color overlay in post production to soften the effect.

I love having "tack sharp" eyes!  Its especially important to the overall look of an upclose portrait where the focus is on the subjects eyes!

1/400th second f/2 ISO 100

We're still looking into open light, but there was also a white house across the street from this location which helped naturally direct light back into Ashlee's eyes.

There was a white reflector camera left for this shot, as my position blocked too much light from Ashlee's face.

1/5ooth second f/2.2 ISO 100

Still facing open light, noticing a trend yet?

Notice the leading lines here, can you spot them?

At the end of our session here, the sun was really beginning to move directly overhead.  This meant that our available open shade areas were getting smaller and smaller.  There was only maybe a 3 foot shaded area off of this building and I wanted her standing slightly away from it to soften the background.  For a more artistic approach I stepped back far enough from the shade and Ashlee to allow some sun flare/haze into my image.  I also open up my aperture for this shot.  I was using my hand to shade the direct light partially from my lens to prevent light halos in this shot.

1/8000th second at f/1.8 ISO 100

For this shot I removed my hand and allowed the sun to create some interesting flare. 

I hope you enjoyed this look into a portrait session with Amy Dillingham Photography!  Thanks for reading!  XOXO Amy