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Five tips to improve your backlit portraits on location

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I don’t know about you, but for me, backlighting a subject – especially on location – is one of the things I love to use and experiment with during portrait sessions. Whether it’s the nice bright clear sun producing a glowy halo or you’re faking it with a strobe, it’s a great way to add some interest and drama into a portrait. They can be very easy to mess up and not get the results you were expecting, though.

In this video, Julia Trotti walks us through her top five tips for shooting backlit portraits using the natural light approach. And as well as talking about the ways to shoot with backlight on location, she also points out some of the pitfalls of using the sun as a backlight and how not to shoot it so you can learn to not mess it up.

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Don’t make these mistakes when shooting with natural light

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Natural light is probably what most of us begin with when we are starting to get into portrait photography. It makes sense. The sun is free, it’s dependable (depending on where you live) and it’s just so easy! After a while of shooting with natural (or available) light, we then start to find it a little underwhelming, and that’s when we typically begin our forays into strobes or artificial lighting.

But as we realise with more experience, shooting portraits with natural light isn’t necessarily easy or straightforward, and there are many things we can do to improve our shots. In this video, Omar Gonzalez shows us which pitfalls to avoid when shooting in natural light.

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Six tips for shooting great portraits in natural light

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The phrase “natural light” is usually seen as a dirty word amongst flash photographers, but the light that already exists on a scene can often be just as pleasing as anything you can make with flash – if not more so. I’ve found that it helps to know how to work with both because flash isn’t always available when you want to shoot a photo.

In this video, photographer Emily Teague serves up six tips for shooting portraits outdoors in natural light on the streets of Brooklyn. Like many portrait photographers, Emily started out using just natural light for a few years before picking up a flash for the first time. So, she goes back to her photographic lighting roots for this one.

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How to recreate natural window light with strobes for food photography

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Many photographers love using natural window light, and I must admit I’m one of them. But when the weather just isn’t cooperating, you have to rely on artificial lighting. Still, you can recreate that window light that you like, and in this video, Barry Mountford shows you how.

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How to create a natural light portrait studio in your garage in under 5 minutes

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While I’m a big proponent of using flash in my photography, particularly portraits, there are times when the natural light gives you everything you need without the addition of flash. And sometimes, it’s almost there, but might need a little help from a reflector or two to help wrangle the natural light to fit the look you’re after.

That last bit is the principle used here as Pye Jirsa walks us through building up a home portrait studio in a garage in under 5 minutes. It’s a setup that lets you create some great looking portraits that look like they could have been done in a large studio with a ton of fancy expensive lighting, except, it wasn’t. It was a garage.

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Follow these four tips when mixing natural light with strobes

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Shooting in bright sunlight can be tricky, even though there are ways to make fantastic photos using nothing but natural light. Still, you may need to add some strobes to even out the light, and there are some tricks that will make it look more natural and appealing. In this video, Dan and Sally Watson host Miguel Quiles, who shares four helpful tips for everyone who want to mix strobes with sunlight.

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Four quick and helpful tips for shooting in natural light

Shooting outdoors with natural light only can be demanding and tricky, especially if you’re shooting on a sunny day. But, although it’s challenging, it’s definitely not impossible to take impressive portraits even in the harsh midday sun. In this video, Miguel Quiles teams up with Dan and Sally Watson to bring you four quick and useful tips for shooting when you’ve got nothing but sunlight available.

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What is “good light” and how to find it and use it in portrait photography

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How do you know when you’ve found “good light?” In this video, photographer Sean Tucker will try to answer this question. This is the first video in a series that deals with finding and using good natural light in your work. Since photography literally means “writing with light,” Sean’s goal is to help you learn “how to write with it.”

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Should you underexpose your photos on purpose?

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Sometimes our photos end up being underexposed by accident, or because of poor lighting conditions. But what about doing it on purpose? Photographer Manny Ortiz admits he tends to underexpose his photos for one or two stops. In this video, he talks about why he does it and about the benefits of this approach.

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Is there really bad light: how to take awesome travel photos in all lighting conditions

Natural light is a valuable “tool” of every travel and documentary photographer. Most of us don’t really like shooting in the harsh midday sun, but sometimes there’s no other choice, especially when your time at a location is limited. In this video, photographer Mitchell Kanashkevich shares tips that will help you get the best of any lighting conditions. He will guide you through all weather conditions and parts of the day and teach you how to get the best out of the light they give you.

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