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Portrait shooters, stop being so afraid of midday sun – It’s easy to overcome with a little bit of flash

Shooting outdoors in the bright midday sun scares the pants off a lot of portrait photographers. And for good reason. The harsh midday light when the sun’s high in the sky isn’t particularly flattering. Unless you go into open shade (and even that’s not always a guarantee), there’s really no way you can position yourself and your subject that the sun is presenting flattering light on your subject.

But it doesn’t need to be so bad and you don’t need to actively avoid it, as Jiggle Alejandrino points out in this video. He loves shooting outdoor portraits in the midday sun (and, so do I!) and explains why he loves it and how he overcomes the challenges of shooting at this time of day using flash.

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How to take classical musician portraits that rock

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If you shoot portraits at all I can almost guarantee that you’ll get asked at some point by a musician to have some images taken. Whether you’re a professional or an amateur it doesn’t seem to matter. Musicians are generally hungry for photographs and need a constant carousel of images for their publicity and social media.

However, it’s not always that straightforward to take a great shot of a musician. And generally, they don’t just need action shots of them playing, they need a mixture of headshots, shots with the instrument, full-body shots, atmospheric shots, and often shots that would work on an album cover, even in today’s age of digital music downloads.

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How to shoot outdoor portraits using the sun as a back light

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When you’re outside shooting on location you don’t always want to heft a lot of gear around with you, particularly if you don’t have an assistant. So how can you shoot dramatic portraits with just one light? Simple! Use the sun as your second light source. It’s relatively simple to do, requires no battery packs and creates a beautiful slightly cinematic look. In this video, Ashley from Westcott shows you how to do it.

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Here’s when, why and how to use flash for outdoor portraits in bright daylight

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Have you been wondering why anybody would use flash outdoors during the daytime? After all, it’s daytime. It’s pretty bright already, isn’t it? So, you’re not ramping your ISO up high, so why would anybody use flash outside? Well, yes, it’s bright-ish, but the natural light isn’t always giving you what you want. Sometimes it needs a little help.

In this video from Andrew Boey at Beyond Photography, we learn how, when and why you might want to use flash outdoors in the daytime – even on a bright sunny day.

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How to use scrims and strobes outdoors in bright sunlight for amazing portraits

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So before my regulars start to suspect that I’ve been kidnapped and forced to write this against my will, yes this is indeed a lighting setup article that involves natural light! But don’t worry, we’ll quickly skip over the easy, beginner daylight setup and move on to the adult version that combines gels and strobes later on. So, if you’re suspiciously U.V. averse to the point where you could star in an Anne Rice novel, don’t worry, stick around to the end and I’ll have something a little more visually engaging for you there.

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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 add flash to your shot to create portraits at night

The night time can produce some wonderful colours, especially when shooting against a city skyline, or even within the city at ground level. The colours from the sky and clouds along with lights on buildings, in windows, signs and displays can make for some very compelling and colourful imagery. But what if you want to shoot portraits against that background?

In this video, photographer David Bergman talks about how we can add flash to our night time shots and mix them in with the ambient exposure to produce some great night portraits.

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Here’s a detailed guide to prepare you for your actor headshots

Your actor headshots, combined with your actor showreel, are the foundations of your actor profile. They are without shadow of a doubt a key marketing tool for your acting career. It’s important to prepare yourself in order to get the most out of your session.

If you are reading this it is because you have booked or you are thinking on booking a headshots session. In this article I’ll try to answer most of the common questions that we usually receive on how to prepare for your actor headshots session.

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Quick tips for choosing the perfect background for outdoor portraits

When shooting portraits, the background is one of the things you need to be mindful about. And if you shoot outdoors, you don’t have so much control over it as you do in the studio. In this video, photographer David Bergman will give you a few quick tips for choosing the perfect background and improve your outdoor portraits in an instant.

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Fill flash explained – take stunning outdoor portrait photography with a flash

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Taking portraits in bright sunlight has been a bit of a no-no for a long time but the truth is that you can actually get stunning results if you use a fill flash. The results look awesome and give a high-end feel to any outdoor portrait and the best thing is that it’s really not too difficult. You just need to understand how to use a fill flash.

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